Brother HL-5150 Toner Cartridges

Brother HL-5150 Printer Review

The Brother HL-5150 is a monochrome laser printer designed for the home or small office user. It has great print quality, and solid paper handling. Lack of networking may be a drawback for some users.

Many printers are putting more and more features into even smaller designs, and the HL-5150 is no different. It measures 9.9 inches by 15 inches by 15.8 inches, and weighs only 26 pounds. This is quite impressive considering its many features, and allows it to fit into fairly tight spaces if needed. Paper handling is better than many competing products. The HL-5150 features a typical 250 sheet standard drawer, but also features a 50-sheet multipurpose tray for alternate media. This allows users to use a second type of media without having to clear out the main drawer, a very convenient option.

The printer can connect via USB or parallel port. The base model does not include networking, but its "N" models do. A networking upgrade can also be purchased and installed, but it is more expensive than opting for an "N" model in the first place. "D" models of the printer also include duplexing, or two-sided printing, which not only opens up more options for output, but can also save on paper costs when enabled as the default printing option.

The HL-5150 supports a wide variety of media types, including transparencies, labels, recycled paper, and envelopes. It also supports sizes up to legal size documents. Print quality is excellent, utilizing the 1200 dpi printing engine to produce very sharp and detailed prints. Text quality is particularly impressive, but graphics come out clean, with very little banding or blotchiness.

Brother HL-5150 toner cartridges have a capacity of 3,300 pages and the high-yield version has twice the capacity with up to 6,700 page yield. The high-yield cartridge is the more economical of the two, and buying third-party compatible cartridges rather than the more expensive brand Brother HL-5150 toner cartridge can reduce costs even more.

Overall, the Brother HL-5150 is a solid monochrome laser printer that will provide high quality and fast printing in the home or small office. Users who need network support will want to choose an HL-5150N model, but home users can save money with the base model.