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Ten... sub-£100 mono laser printers

Read the fine print

Product Round-up Mono laser printers still produce better black text than any inkjet. If you want clean, pin-sharp characters on the page and don’t print colour, buy a laser. If you have a limited budget, look for one at under £100. Here are 10 you should consider, which can print fast, don’t take up much room on the desk and are very easy to use and maintain. They produce waterproof, black print, as good as anything you can produce at home or in a small office.

The sub-£100 part of this review is based on typical Internet prices – many of the printers on test are available at heavy discounts from their SRPs that are quoted below.

Brother HL-2130

RH Numbers

This is a squat, little pale grey printer, simply styled and with both a 250-sheet paper tray and a single-sheet feed for special media, like letterheads. A basic control panel is supplemented by a utilitarian driver and the only connection is USB, but it still manages to deal with all the mainstream printing tasks, apart from duplex. It gets close to its claimed speed of 20ppm, with a maximum of 17.4ppm under test. Print is fine for text but a little banded on graphics and with running costs of 3.5p per ISO page is high, compared with most of the lasers in this group. Fair value for an entry-level printer.

Brother HL-2130 mono laser printer

Reg Rating 75%
Price £96
More info Brother

Brother HL-2250DN

RH Numbers
RH Recommended Medal

You can be forgiven for confusing this machine with the HL-2130. Apart from this one’s black case colour, it’s cosmetically very similar. The feature set, though, includes extras, such as duplex print, improved speed and both USB and Ethernet ports. Controls and driver are very similar to the HL-2130’s, but with a claimed speed of 26ppm and an actual speed of 22.2ppm, it's noticeably quicker than its stable-mate. Duplex print is moderately quick at 12.6 sides the minute. Print quality is comparable, too, but running costs are noticeably lower, at 2.7p, thanks to an optional, high-yield toner cartridge.

Brother HL-2250DN mono laser printer

Reg Rating 85%
Price £164
More info Brother

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