Brother HL-2060

The print quality is good, but not good enough to make it worth waiting for 1,200dpi. As with most lasers, text is sharp enough at 600dpi but you'll be hard pushed to spot the differences at 1,200dpi. The higher resolution is primarily aimed at graphics printing but, unlike HP's LaserJet 2100TN (reviewed p170), the improvements aren't that great. Even so, photographic images show high levels of detail and smooth greyscales with only minor banding to spoil the overall effect.

Surprisingly, the HL-2060 has little competition; the majority of printers offering similar speeds and higher resolutions such as HP's LaserJet 5000GN (reviewed issue 44, p165) can also handle A3-sized paper. If you don't need the latter feature you'll find the HL-2060 offers a good specification for the price, but bear in mind that the claimed print speed at 1,200dpi will be virtually unachievable with the standard 8Mb of RAM.

Author: Dave Mitchell