Brother HL-5170 Toner Cartridges

Brother HL-5170 Printer Review

The Brother HL-5170 is a monochrome laser printer designed for the home or small office user. It has generous paper handling, solid speeds, and a 1200 dpi printing engine. It also has built-in networking in some configurations.

Many small office or home environments are space-challenged, and a bulky printer just won't do, but users don't want to sacrifice quality or print speed for compact size. This is where the HL-5170 comes in. It is not only an extremely compact printer, but its print quality and speed is impressive as well. The printer measures 9.9 inches by 15 inches by 15.8 inches, and weighs around 26 pounds. This allows it to fit into tight spaces, and also to be moved easily by one person, a requirement for many home users who work alone.

The printer has a 133 MHz processor and 32 MB of RAM, which can be upgraded to a maximum of 160 MB if needed. This allows the printer to do nearly all of its own processing, not relying on a host computer. USB and parallel connections are available, and "N" versions of the HL-5170 have an ethernet port included for connecting directly to a network. While the HL-5170 is adequate for a small number of network users, it may not have the power to support a larger office, and even for a small number of users, the memory may need to be upgraded if networking.

Print speed is quite good, at around 21 pages per minute, and is faster than many competing printers. Print quality is excellent, mostly due to the printer's 1200 dpi printing engine, which provides very sharp and detailed images and text.

The Brother HL-5170 toner cartridges have a standard capacity of 3,300 pages. The high-yield Brother HL-5170 toner cartridge is the more economical of the two, containing twice as much toner as the standard at 6,700 pages.

Overall, the Brother HL-5170 is a solid choice for a home or small office user. Its fast speeds and excellent print quality are very impressive given its compact size and affordable price, and built-in networking in some models offers the flexibility for sharing it among network users.