Brother HL-7050N review

Taking care of Mother Earth is increasingly important, and one way of being kinder is by making a conscious effort to be more environmentally friendly. Brother is trying to achieve this with its HL-7050N laser printer - the first to conform to the TCO 99 standard.

The TCO 99 label is more commonly seen on computer monitors, although it actually applies to all office equipment, including PCs and keyboards. Specifically, TCO 99 is the environmental certification label of the Swedish Labour Union, which requires that a product conforms to regulations relating to public health, recyclability and user-friendliness. The HL-7050N was designed from the ground up to conform to the TCO 99 specification and Brother should be commended for being the first to take this step.

So we've established that the HL-7050N is kinder to the environment, but is it a capable printer too? It certainly looks up to the task of general office printing - the basic specification includes a 1,200 x 1,200dpi print engine capable of up to 30ppm, 32MB of RAM (expandable to 288MB using 100-pin DIMMs) and a 500-sheet A4 input tray supplemented by a 100-sheet multipurpose feeder. Connectivity is good too, with LAN USB, parallel and serial inputs.

As a basic office printer, this covers everything you need, but Brother also offers a range of options, including up to three extra 500-sheet trays, a 10-bin sorter, duplex unit and hard disk. The hard disk adds capabilities such as secure printing using a password, although the HL-7050N includes a CompactFlash memory slot that can be used to similar effect.

We installed the printer using TCP/IP and, after configuring the settings using the simple control panel and display, the driver installed easily. Other networking standards, including NetBEUI and IPX/SPX, are supported too.

An integrated web server or Brother's BRAdmin tool provides access to more detailed configuration options, including viewing usage statistics and configuring email alerts using a POP/SMTP server. Internet printing is supported.

Our standard 50-page plain text document was printed at the default 600dpi setting in one minute, 45 seconds at a speed of 28ppm. Text quality was exemplary and even sharper than HP's LaserJet 4300dtn (see issue 100, p122), although the HP is much faster at 45ppm.

The shaded backgrounds in our 12-page Excel test also posed no problem, and selecting the 'improve gray printing' option in the driver smoothed it out further, albeit at the expense of some contrast. Performance was fine at 27.3ppm.

The final test was our 20-page PDF document - completed at 21ppm in the 1,200dpi mode and 28ppm in the 600dpi mode. The higher resolution brought out more detail, and the results were on a par with the 4300dtn.

With just two consumables, running costs are competitive at only 0.76p per mono page at 5 per cent coverage. The 4300dtn is more expensive at 1.1p, and costs more to buy at around £1,350 from WStore.

As a general office laser, the HL-7050 performs well and has plenty of flexibility. It's not as fast as the LaserJet 4300dtn, but for medium workgroups it's a fine choice.

Author: Gareth Ogden