Brother HL-2170W Toner Cartridges

The Brother HL-2170W laser printer, also referred to as the HL-2170, is designed for the home or small office user. It offers great print quality and speed, and a low operating cost in a compact design. Graphics quality is below average. For higher quality graphics, try something like the HP CM1312 that features HP CB542A toner.

Home and small office users are generally frugal. For most home users, any money saved goes into their pocket, so they are motivated to save costs wherever possible. Affordable laser printers like the Brother HL-2170W represent a significant savings in ink costs over inkjet printers, and offer better print quality, at least when it comes to text. Not only is the HL-2170W very affordable, but toner costs are very low, resulting in per-page costs that are much lower than similar products, like HP CB436A toner.

The HL-2170W's design is very compact, measuring 14.5 inches wide and only 6.7 inches tall. It weighs around 15 pounds, so it can easily be moved around by one person when necessary. Input paper capacity is 250 sheets, which is impressive for a personal laser printer, and means you won't have to reload paper often. The front panel has no LCD screen, but instead has one "Go" button and a series of three indicator lights to display information to the user. The HL-2170W includes a built-in ethernet port for sharing it across a network, and a wireless upgrade is available for around $20. Setting up the ethernet connection is easy, but wireless is a bit more complex.

Print quality is excellent. Text is sharp and dark, and even small fonts are very defined and readable. Graphics quality is somewhat below average, however. Laser printers always have some trouble with graphics, but the HL-2170 struggles more than most. Still, for the occasional graphics print, it is adequate. The Brother HL-2170 toner has a generally good capacity. Both a standard cartridge with 1,500 pages a more economical high-yield cartridge of 2,600 pages is available for the printer. Unfortunately, the starter Brother HL-2170 toner cartridge that is shipped with the printer has a capacity of only 1,000. These toner cartridges have a much lower cost per page than a lot of the competition, like HP CE505A toner.

Overall, the Brother HL-2170 is an impressive laser printer in a compact and affordable package. Users will appreciate the costs savings over their inkjet printer, as long as graphics prints are not a priority.