Brother 4570CDW review

The Brother 4570CDW is a large printer. The size, however, is justified by the fact that it offers not only colour laser printing, but also duplexing and wireless printing support. lt isn't the most aesthetically pleasing of printers, and the display looks particularly cheap, being only a two-line LCD screen. However, it's how the printer performs that's important.

In terms of speed, the 4570CDW does an excellent job. In our tests it delivered more than 20 pages per minute (ppm), all pretty quietly done as well. lt has a large 250-page paper capacity, as well as an additional 50-page drawer for different types of paper. lt offers a duplexing unit, so double-sided printing is simple; useful for keeping your paper costs down. Printing costs work out at around 2p per mono page and 12p for colour. Both are at the cheaper end of the scale.

We had no problems making and maintaining a wireless connection in the classroom, with the printer doing a good job of picking up the wireless network

wherever it was placed. Installing the software onto PCs was easy, and could also be done over the network.

Sadly, print quality is middle-of-the-road. While plain text was crisp and well-defined, and any clip-art or charts looked good, photographic output was poor, with inaccurate colours and dark, underexposed-looking prints. Pupils weren't happy with their printed photographs.

We also have doubts about some of the pull-out trays used to collect printed documents. They felt like they'd be fine for light use, but in a classroom environment with lots of children bustling round to collect their work from the printer, they felt worryingly flimsy.

If you want a printer that's fast, feature packed, wireless and good value for money then the Brother 4570CDW is a good choice. If, however, you want a good all-rounder, equally capable with text, graphics and photographs, then there are better options out there.

Author: Ian Marks