Monochrome Office Printers

Best monochrome laser printers for small and medium-sized offices

For small businesses that need text printing of about 20,000 pages per month or more, mid-range monochrome laser printers are inexpensive to buy and less expensive per page than either an inkjet printer or a color laser printer. Many printers in this range come with higher-capacity input and output trays or offer them as an option. Built-in Ethernet networking and automatic duplexing (for two-sided printing) are common features. Most small-office printers will fit on a countertop, but would be a tight squeeze on a desk. For businesses that do a lot of in-house printing, some small-office printers can be upgraded with larger input trays and duplexing units, which can in turn compete with larger "workhorse" laser printers.

Monochrome laser printers from Brother earn the most favorable reviews. PC World gives the Brother HL-5250DN (*Est. $105) a Best Buy rating, citing its speed, top-quality text output and built-in Ethernet connector for networking. In PC World's speed tests, the Brother laser printer spit out text pages at 21.6 pages per minute (ppm) and graphics pages at 9.6 ppm. PC Magazine says that it is "significantly faster than anything in its price class," and editors give it excellent ratings for print quality. It also earns high ratings from PC Pro.

The Brother HL-5250DN monochrome laser printer has 1,200-dpi resolution. An automatic duplexer facilitates double-sided printing. A 250-sheet input tray is standard, supplemented by an auxiliary 50-sheet tray. You can add up to two additional 250-sheet paper trays (*est. $125 each). Unlike some cheaper monochrome laser printers, the Brother printer ships with a full-size toner cartridge. PC World calculates running costs at 2.2 cents per text page. The Brother HL-5250DN is somewhat large, at 14.5 inches by 15 inches by 10 inches and 21.5 pounds.

One downside is that Brother printers lack a straight paper path, which means envelopes and thicker paper may end up with bent corners. About 120 owners posting reviews to Amazon.com give this Brother laser printer high marks. More than 70 percent of customers who rate it for NewEgg.com award this model a five-star rating.

Brother's HL-5280DW (*Est. $335) is basically the same printer as the HL-5250DN, with the same key specifications. However, this monochrome laser printer adds wireless Wi-Fi networking and an LCD display. The display may seem trivial, but we note that reviewers complain about the lack of a display (or even LED indicators) on other laser printers. The LCD displays printing and status information. The HL-5280DW, at 15.5 inches by 15 inches by 10 inches, is about an inch bigger all around than the HL-5250DN, and a touch heavier at 22.5 pounds, making it a tighter squeeze on a desk, and not so easy to move around.

Personal Computer World and IT Reviews give top ratings to the Brother HL-5280DW. Personal Computer World says, "Quality is excellent on this fast, fully featured, yet affordable small-business laser." The periodical also notes, "Another big benefit with this printer is a general lack of noise." Noise is a common complaint in professional reviews of laser printers, and consumers echo that complaint.

Both Brother monochrome laser printers are compatible with all major operating systems, including Windows, Mac and Linux. Reviewers recommend Brother's high-capacity toner cartridge (up to 7,000 pages) for both models (*est. $70).

The Samsung ML-2851ND (*Est. $245) receives a number of favorable reviews as a value choice for a small office. PC Magazine's M. David Stone is very impressed with this unit, calling it a "bargain." Stone confirms that the ML-2851ND, rated by Samsung at 30 pages per minute, is significantly faster in PC Magazine's tests than competing laser printers such as the HP LaserJet P1505 or the Brother HL-2170W (see below). He also praises its paper handling; a built-in duplexer is standard. Beyond that, the Samsung ML-2851ND lacks advanced features like Wi-Fi connectivity -- it must be hooked up to a router for wireless networking. The ML-2851ND is smaller than both Brother models referenced above, with a footprint of 14 inches by 14.5 inches; it's heavier than both models, though, at 26 pounds.

Reviewers also extol the Samsung ML-2851ND's print quality and economy. Although it can be set to 1,200-dpi resolution, Peter Piazza finds results from the default setting of 600 dpi are indistinguishable from prints at 1,200 dpi, and that this model's toner-saver setting also produces good-looking results. He estimates running cost at around 1.8 cents per page, while M. David Stone and CNet.com's Justin Yu both calculate the cost at around 2 cents per text page.

The consensus is that while it may be slightly more expensive than competitors in its class, the Samsung ML-2851ND's performance makes up for that. It is about the same price as the Brother HL-5250DN, formerly a ConsumerSearch pick. But because it beats the older Brother model in terms of speed, economy and duty cycle (50,000 pages per month compared to the HL-5250's 20,000), the Samsung ML-2851ND is our new pick for the best monochrome laser printer for small offices.

Oki makes a number of mono lasers geared toward the small office, including the Oki B6250 (*Est. $450) and the Oki B410dn (*Est. $250). TrustedReviews.com, one the most prolific reviewers of monochrome laser printers, recommends the B6250, citing that it is very similar in appearance and specifications to printers by Konica Minolta and Epson, but that the Oki printer costs significantly less. Reviewer Simon Williams is impressed that the B6250 has an LCD display, a rarity on monochrome laser models, but he wishes that it was backlit. This 533 MHz-processor printer only comes with 128 MB of RAM (office printers need internal RAM in order to line up and prioritize multiple print jobs), but that can be upgraded up to 640 MB with a 512 MB memory module. The Oki B6250 boasts a duty cycle of 150,000 pages per month, impressive for a unit in its price class.

The Oki B410dn is unusual among monochrome printers in that it uses an array of LEDs on its printhead instead of a laser. Simon Williams finds that the Oki B410dn has quick print speeds for its class, and with a built-in duplexer, it becomes a very good value -- though this is countered by above-average consumables costs. Other downsides include the fact that the Oki B410dn's LCD display, like that of its brand-mate, is hard to read, and some say its software setup is confusing. The less expensive Oki printer has a smaller duty cycle of 50,000 pages per month. It comes with just 32 MB of internal memory, so it's not a great choice as a printer that must be shared between lots of users.

The Kyocera Mita FS-1300D (*Est. $350) earns praise from Trusted Reviews as well. Simon Williams says the Kyocera printer costs less to use than many in this class, but the savings are not as dramatic as with some of Kyocera Mita's earlier models. He notes that the FS-1300D is very fast, approaching 28 pages per minute in long print runs, and the toner is very easy to replace. Editors reviewing this monochrome laser printer for IT Reviews concur, giving the Kyocera Mita FS-1300D a Recommended rating.

However, network capability is limited on the FS-1300D. The printer comes with a USB port, but Ethernet connectivity requires an add-on. The more expensive network-ready version of the FS-1300D is the Kyocera Mita FS-1350DN (*Est. $500). In size, the FS-1300D is comparable to models from Brother and Samsung; it has a footprint of 15 inches by 15.5 inches and weighs 22 pounds.

The more expensive Lexmark T650n (*Est. $700) seems to outstrip the Kyocera Mita FS-1300D. M. David Stone at PC Magazine observes that the T650n, with its 45 page-per-minute engine, performs in real-time tests nearly twice as fast as the FS-1300D, although it is not as fast as the manufacturer's rating suggests. Also, Stone notes that the output quality of this Lexmark model, while still acceptable for regular business applications, falls short of other monochrome laser printers.

The Lexmark T650n is network-ready, and can be upgraded with a variety of paper-handling options. These include an optional duplexer, along with drawers and output trays of different capacities. Some of these options are standard on other models in Lexmark's T650 series, such as the T650dn (*Est. $850), which has the duplexer, and the T650dtn (*Est. $1100), which also adds a 900-sheet input capacity.

Ricoh's Aficio SP 5100N (*Est. $900) is another current competitor in the office workhorse category. Printer Showcase notes that the Ricoh 5100N creates sharp text as small as 2 point, and is fast even when printing complex documents, thanks to its 500 MHz processor. Warm-up times are reported as a few seconds less than the manufacturer's stated 45 seconds. Initial user reviews confirm the 5100N's speed, but note that the machine runs unusually hot. The 5100N is under-reviewed, however, and other current Ricoh printer models receive middling scores overall. Resolution is only 600 dpi.

The Dell 5330dn (*Est. $1,100) may be a good option for some larger offices. The 5330dn can print a whopping 250,000 pages per month, and comes with 256 MB of RAM standard, with room for an optional upgrade of 512 MB (for a total of 640 MB). It has a manufacturer's rating of 48 ppm. However, the Dell 5330dn has a resolution of only 600 dpi (which may not make much difference to you if you don't often need to print photos or illustrations). IT Reviews finds the printer rather slow to warm up (about a minute), and a bit noisy, but concludes that it is a good value if speed and volume of printing are an office's main concerns.