Brother HL-2170W
Manufacturer: Brother International Part number: HL-2170W-US
- More product information:
- Editors' review
- User reviews
- Specifications
- Accessories
- Manufacturer info
- Bottom Line:
- The Brother HL-2170W laser printer can be the perfect money saving sidekick to your existing inkjet, but don't expect it to handle even the most minor graphic jobs.
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CNET editors' review
Brother HL-2170W price range: $119.95 - $149.99
- Reviewed by: Justin Yu
- Edited by: Rich Brown
- Reviewed on: 03/19/2008
- Released on: 12/19/2007
The good: Speedy text document printing; modest price tag; compact form factor; wireless option is convenient after initial setup, short initial lag time.
The bad: Wireless installation has some difficulty; poor graphics quality; lacks autoduplexing.
The bottom line: The Brother HL-2170W laser printer can be the perfect money saving sidekick to your existing inkjet, but don't expect it to handle even the most minor graphic jobs.
The Brother HL-2170W laser monochrome printer provides a viable alternative to the bottomless money pit that has become today's inkjet printer. Modern photo, tricolor, and high capacity ink cartridges can cost anywhere between $20 to $100 per refill, so multiply that by your volume of prints and try not to balk at the true cost of owning an inkjet. As an alternative, supplementing a printer set up with an inexpensive black and white laser printer can cut costs in home offices that tend to cycle through black cartridges with text-only documents. Although it's not without its shortcomings, such as cripplingly poor quality graphics prints, the Brother HL-2170W balances out with speedy text printing and 802.11b/g wireless functionality for just $150. We'd certainly recommend it as a secondary text-only printer if you already have a photo inkjet and have a little extra change to throw around.
Design
The HL-2170W has the same overall size and design as the HL-2140 ($129.99) but adds 32MB of onboard memory and an 802.11b/g wireless interface for an additional $20, boosting the total price to $150. As far as laser printers go, this little guy is more David than a Goliath at 6.7 inches tall and 14.5 inches wide and weighs just fifteen pounds. Designwise, it's unassuming and finished in the same matte grey found on most cubicle walls and the original Nintendo Gameboy.
The front lip folds down to reveal the toner port and like most laser printers, the paper tray is located on the face of the unit and can be fully removed from the body for refills. If you're the average home user, you probably won't need to refill too often considering the printer can hold 250 sheets of standard 8.5 inch by 11 inch paper. Also, there is a manual feed paper slot handles an assortment of different paper sizes including Letter, Legal, Executive, A4, A5, A6, B5, B6, and envelopes. We printed more than 150 sheets of paper during our lab testing and never experienced a paper jam or even the slightest delay.
The control panel is just as simple as the body of the HL-2170W itself, including one large all-inclusive "Go" button (error recovery, wake-up, job cancel, wireless on/off, manual feed) and three small LEDs for toner, drum, and error status. Other than that, this printer has few other features to brag about. The Brother HL-2170W isn't the prettiest pup in the show, designed with utility, not fashion, in mind. Design nerds will probably be more satisfied with the glossy finish and atypical footprint of the Samsung ML-1630.
Features
As we mentioned, the HL-2170W includes 32MB of internal memory, which allow you to queue more documents at one time and generally speed up the whole printing process. The Brother HL-2170W also comes with three options for connecting to your computer: USB 2.0, 10/100 Base-TX Ethernet, and wireless 802.11 b/g. Most monochrome laser printers don't come with same breadth of connection options. The printer is also Mac, Windows, and even Linux compatible.
Connecting the printer to our wireless network gave us a significant amount of trouble, but we were eventually able to connect it to our wireless router, an older D-Link DI-624. Brother's software walk-through gives you two options for installing the driver using either a wired or wireless setup--we went straight for the wireless option. Unfortunately, it turns out that if you choose this option, the device will attempt to set up an ad-hoc network with your router to initiate the pairing. Because of that, we decided to deal with wires--at least for the duration of the installation--so that we wouldn't have to change the settings on our network preferences. We plugged in a network cable to the router and the printer and were surprised at how easy it was establish a wired connection and remotely configure the printer for wireless connectivity from there. The printer also supports SecureEasySetup, Wi-Fi Protected Setup, and AOSS, which automates the process even further if you have a compatible access point.
We're slightly disappointed that the HL-2170W cannot autoduplex, meaning it can't print automatically on both sides of a piece of paper. While we wouldn't normally expect this feature in a modestly priced device, we find it slightly ironic that a printer flaunting Energy Star compliance is lacking the potential to literally cut paper consumption in half. At the same time, autoduplexers add bulk to the back of the device and are typically an added bonus on $250+ printers, such as the Samsung ML-3051ND, so it makes sense that this one wouldn't include it.
Performance
In our lab tests, the Brother HL-2170W emerged as one of the front-runners in terms of speed, shooting out an impressive 17.48 pages of black text per minute. Compare this with other similarly priced lasers below and you'll find that the Brother is fastest on most counts. In addition, printers usually need an average of four seconds to process a job before the actual printing begins, but the HL-2170W began to spool paper and print with only 2 seconds of lag time.
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
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Graphics | |
Presentation | |
Text |
Of course, speed isn't everything and quality should never be sacrificed to quantity. The HL-2170w performed well in our text quality tests; the samples we printed on standard 20-pound paper with the quality set to "best" were evenly dark with clear fonts all the way down to two-point Times New Roman. The individual letters were also free from line breaks and fuzzy edges. The graphics sample, however, didn't produce equally positive results. The gradient steps were so abrupt that a severe checkered pattern appeared where the printer obviously couldn't handle the transitions. The small photos we printed appeared fuzzy in the shadow regions in addition to the overall digitized effects. Finally, the HL-2170W also failed our 12-step shading test. Harsh banding quickly appeared at the 40 percent shading mark and continued to get worse as the percentage increased.
Overall, this printer would make the most sense as a secondary, text-only printer to save money on paper and ink in the end, but PowerPoint presentations, photos, and graphics-heavy newsletters should be saved for a robust inkjet printer with multiple color cartridges and a nozzle that can handle precise detail. All-in-one printers are another practical alternative if space saving is a factor.
According to Brother, each standard toner cartridge will yield approximately 1,500 pages. Three cents per page is relatively high for a laser jet printer, but still significantly less than it would cost to replace an inkjet cartridge with the same frequency. Brother also offers a "high yield" toner cartridge that yields 2,600 pages at a slightly cheaper two cents per page. The combination toner and drum unit included in the box is a "starter" package that only yields a reported 1,000 pages.
Service and Support
Brother stands by all of their monochrome laser printers with a one year Express Exchange limited warranty in addition to offering a toll-free customer service number for trouble-shooting information. Customers can also visit the Web site for driver downloads, FAQs, and comprehensive support center.
User reviews
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First laser printer in our hose
by sympaticoca on August 20, 2009
Pros: hl2170w works great, we us a wifi and having a option to move printer to any place in a house is great. so far we printed a 900 pages toner is at 30%, and drum life is at 90% wow ...
Cons: It was confusing to enable wifi on a unit itself but 5 min with customer support did a magic, we have tis unit for more than a year and half, two paper jams...
Summary: its great thing for any house, i do like colour but for a 100$ you get black an white...
Summary: its great thing for any house, i do like colour but for a 100$ you get black an white...
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Adjust Intensity For Better Graphics
by mt_99 on August 19, 2009
Pros: Great print quality, easy set up for wireless (follow the directions), low cost
Cons: None, considering the price point
Summary: I wonder if your reviewer knew about setting the printer to 'graphics' and adjusting the 'intensity' from within the print driver.
It's a bit hard to find this, but ...Summary: I wonder if your reviewer knew about setting the printer to 'graphics' and adjusting the 'intensity' from within the print driver.
It's a bit hard to find this, but it makes all the difference in the world in the quality of printed graphics. By default, this setting seems to be set much too dark, making graphics appear extremely muddy. But by lightening the setting 3-4 increments, the graphics are actually quite good.
I've had this printer only a few days but am extremely impressed with print quality, ease of set up (read the directions), and value.1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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No problems, works as good as I need it
by Fourbluz on February 18, 2009
Pros: Very easy set up
Not to big.
Only a power cord attached to it.
Good print speed
Great priceCons: No duplex printing
Summary: I don't know why anyone can have problems with the set up. I have minimal computer skills and I hate to work on them, but I was able to ...
Summary: I don't know why anyone can have problems with the set up. I have minimal computer skills and I hate to work on them, but I was able to have my desktop Windows Vista computer and my daughters Apple laptop connected to the wireless printing with in 15 minutes. I just followed the instructions and pictures. I attached the printer to the router, let the computer find it,removed it from the router then I typed in my network key and that was it. So very simple.
I only paid $90.00 for it and I saw it for $149.00 at some stores but today I see it is for sale again so do not pay more than $100.00. I was also able to find the TN-360 high yield toner cartridges for $45.00.1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Excellent Home Office Printer. Works like a charm.
by cwebb86 on January 26, 2009
Pros: Easy on the pocketbook. Very easy to set up wirelessly(If you follow the directions). Cost of replacement toner is cheaper than the replacement of inkjet cartridges.
Cons: Haven't found any yet, but will update if I find any.
Summary: If you're looking for a cost effective, fast printer for your home or home office, you won't go wrong with this printer. The wireless set up is a ...
Summary: If you're looking for a cost effective, fast printer for your home or home office, you won't go wrong with this printer. The wireless set up is a snap, as long as you follow the detailed instructions(took me less than 5 min). The printing speed is awesome and the cost of replacement toner cartridges is cheaper than buying inkjet cartridges for an inkjet color printer. I purchased 3 toner cartridges for less than $30 ea. If you're looking for a printer to handle your text only, monochrome document needs, then this is your guy! If you need photo, color or high quality graphics printing done, then look elsewhere!
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Awesome when it works...
by aaron7 on October 6, 2009
Pros: Great quality prints, fast, wireless, small footprint
Cons: Ever since day ONE I've had constant "Print Overrun" errors. It doesn't matter if I'm printing 3 lines from Notepad or web pages heavy w/ images; it does it every few print jobs. I've talked with Brother only to be told there's nothing wrong with it.
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GREAT HOME PRINTER
by juligirl21 on August 28, 2009
Pros: Just the right size, fits about a half of rim of paper, prints quickly. Perfect for basic black & white printing. Compatible to my iMAC
Cons: Wireless connection does suck. I wasn't able to print while using the internet. Since I had a mac i would convert the print out to PDF and print while I was offline. Works ok if you have
Summary: Great quality printouts, perfect for basic home use. Wireless works ok if you have a laptop, but you just have to be able to save the printout and print later.
Summary: Great quality printouts, perfect for basic home use. Wireless works ok if you have a laptop, but you just have to be able to save the printout and print later.
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Wireless install blues for "legacy" (3+ yrs) routers
by petelyons on June 15, 2009
Pros: Print quality & speed
Cons: Wireless installation gotchas, no auto two-sided printing
Summary: For those with newer (1.5 yrs and newer) wireless routers, yes I'm sure installation was failrly straightforward. For those of us still using routers of 3+ years in ...
Summary: For those with newer (1.5 yrs and newer) wireless routers, yes I'm sure installation was failrly straightforward. For those of us still using routers of 3+ years in age, BEWARE. Even if you follow the manual's instructions to the letter, you will run into problems. In my case, it required a second attempt and pouring over the online troubleshooting docs. Turns out I needed to do an "Advanced" setting during the wireless install b/c my router is WPA-PSK with TKIP passphrase (NOT "key"). Further, after the install, I had to DISable my WinXP firewall in order to print! Hmm. In the online help docs, they tell you how to configure your firewall to allow your pc to talk with the Brother printer. This took all evening (3 hrs) to get up and running.
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I like it and the noise does not bother me
by orangeprincess on March 26, 2009
Pros: Easy set up but have not tried to use the wifi yet. Nice compact size fits right on top of my file cabinet
Cons: None at this time.
Summary: The price was right. The size was right. Gets the jod done for a small home business.
Summary: The price was right. The size was right. Gets the jod done for a small home business.
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Buy This Printer!
by unclehayden on March 15, 2009
Pros: Unlike the the other reviews, I had no problems setting the wireless features for this printer. It took less than 15mins (that included setting up the wireless defaults, the printer driver, and registering the warranty)
Cons: That I did not buy this printer sooner. It is a great addition to my wireless ink-jet. The graphics aren't what you would get on a much more expensive machine, but they are ok to good.
Summary: This is the perfect printer to go along with an inkjet. The wireless is awesone! I am a grad student that needs to print tons of articles, I don't ...
Summary: This is the perfect printer to go along with an inkjet. The wireless is awesone! I am a grad student that needs to print tons of articles, I don't need perfect graphics...this is the machine to do this and on a grad student's budget.
The wireless setup WAS NOT AS DIFFICULT as the other reviews indicated. Perhaps Brother has improved their instructions. Do use the ethernet cable connection to wireless access point for the easiest set up. This took about 15 manybe 20 minutes. This included setting up the wireless defaults, loading the drivers, and registering the warranty.
I am not one to write reviews, but this product deserves the attention. -
Excellent small office Printer.
by Transporter99 on March 11, 2009
Pros: Built-in network capability. I also like how using the BR Admin program included on the disk you are able to monitor the paper useage and toner level from your desk.
Cons: None that I can think of
Summary: We have a small office and this printer is shared by 5 different PCs on our network. For 6 years, we'd been using a Brother HL 1230. That was ...
Summary: We have a small office and this printer is shared by 5 different PCs on our network. For 6 years, we'd been using a Brother HL 1230. That was a fine printer, but after the workout we gave it, it was time for something new. After some research, I determined that the 2170 is the current model most similar to what we were used to. As it's rare to find printers with parallel ports these days, I had to make sure I'd be able to use the printer in our network, so I went with the 2170. The fact that the print server is built in to the printer simply means that I can dispense with the $500 print server that our IT (outsource) guy sold us 6 years ago.
We usually have our outsource IT guy come in and deal with all things network related, but I figured I'd give hooking up the printer myself a shot. I disconnected the old 1230 and print server, then plugged the network ethernet cable directly into the 2170. I followed the instructions provided on the disk and was able to get the printer up and running without much trouble. To be fair, the trouble I had was a result of not paying attention to the network path the 1230 printer had used. Once I figured this out, I had the printer working in no time. Set up on all subsequant PCs in the office was a snap.
Bottom line, if you want a black and white printer for your general office needs that won't give you any grief, look no further
Specifications
- Manufacturer: Brother International
- Part number: HL-2170W-US
- Description: The HL-2170W is a budget-friendly monochrome laser printer that is ideal for home or home office printer sharing. Featuring the same print speed, footprint and paper handling as the HL-2140, the HL-2170W offers wireless 802.11b/g and wired (Ethernet) network interfaces for connecting to your wired or wireless router. In addition, it includes 32MB of memory standard for faster processing and PCL 6 emulation for greater compatibility.
General
- Width 14.5 in
- Depth 14.2 in
- Height 6.7 in
- Weight 15 lbs
- Localization United States
Printing
- First Print Out Time B/W 10 sec
Miscellaneous
- Consumables Included 1 ( Black ), 1
- Microsoft Certifications Compatible with Windows 7
Environmental Standards
- EPA Energy Star Compliant Yes
Manufacturer Warranty
- Service & Support 1 year warranty
- Service & Support Details Limited warranty - 1 year
Environmental Parameters
- Sound Emission 30 dB (idle) / 51 dB (operating)
- Min Operating Temperature 50 °F
- Max Operating Temperature 90.5 °F
- Humidity Range Operating 20 - 80%
Accessories
Manufacturer info
- Brother International
- Manufacturer profile
- Browse Brother International products on Shopper.com
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- Website: http://www.brother.com/
- Address:
100 Somerset Corporate Blvd.
Bridgewater, NJ 08807 - Phone: 908/704-1700
