Brother HL-4000CN

Printing is an expensive task, especially if you're using colour, so the inclusion of a duplex unit is always welcome. Usefully, Brother hasn't just installed it as a token gesture either, adding a booklet-printing feature that allows you to make simple brochures. Performance was spot on again, printing a 22-page document at just shy of ten faces per minute (4.8ppm).

The small number of consumables used in the HL-4000CN helps keep running costs at a sensible level. A replacement black toner costs £32 for 8,500 pages, while each colour cartridge costs £90 for 6,000 pages. The only other consumables are a print head unit and transfer roller, which last for 30,000 pages and 25,000 pages respectively.

Overall running costs are 1.3p per page in mono (5 per cent coverage) and 6.7p per page in colour (20 per cent coverage). This is reasonable, although if economy is your main priority Kyocera's FS-8000C (see Reviews, issue 88, p149) is still the best choice with page costs of 0.56p in mono and 3.1p in colour.

The HL-4000CN is a great addition to Brother's arsenal of laser printers. It's not the fastest laser engine available, but the output quality is superb, while genuine Adobe PostScript 3 support will be a great benefit to some. The price of £2,042 is excellent too, costing around £100 less than the magicolor 3100 on the high street, making it the obvious choice for our A List.

Author: Gareth Ogden