Brother HL-2460N 80Mb

In our personal laser group test last month (see Labs, issue 83, p110) we praised the Brother HL-1030 for its superb print quality, but were disappointed with its speed. It's the opposite way around this month, as the HL-2460N excels in printing documents quickly, but isn't as adept in the quality department. This isn't too surprising as the Brother is one of only three printers to feature a lowly 600 « 600dpi engine. Where the HL-2460N trounces the competition is with memory; a cavernous 80Mb complements the 10/100 BaseTX network adaptor.

In our 50-page speed test we were pleased to see that the HL-2460N managed an average of 22.2ppm (pages per minute). This is a good result from the 24ppm engine and makes the HL-2460N worthy of its fourth place in the overall speed stakes. All 14 printers struggled to reach engine speed in the tough PDF and Excel tests, and the HL-2460N managed a credible 15.4ppm and 16.8ppm respectively. Another noteworthy point is the HL-2460N's time to first page from sleep mode of just 15.6 seconds, which placed it second.

Capable of holding 600 sheets as standard, including the 100-sheet multipurpose tray, the HL-2460N's paper handling is similar to that of many other products on test. Being modular in design, it allows a further three 500-sheet trays to be added for a total of 2,100 sheets. Other options include a duplex unit and two 500-sheet output mailboxes.

A built-in Web server is a common feature this month, and the HL-2460N comes with BRAdmin Professional for remote administration. It also means you can check the toner level and adjust the printer's settings from the virtual front panel. The control panel itself is one of the most intuitive on test: the LCD has three backlight colours for easy identification of error, information and ready states, while the job cancel and reprint buttons make life even easier.

We mentioned that print quality wasn't amazing, but fortunately it wasn't text quality that dragged the overall score down. It was more due to the lack of detail in images and the poor spreadsheet quality. The dithered background rendered even large-point text unreadable, although business graphics were fine. If speed and printing text is your priority, the HL-2460N is worth shortlisting, but the Lexmark is faster, delivers higher quality prints and costs just £21 more.