Cheap Brother HL-5250DNT Network Ready Laser Printer with 2nd Paper Tray (Electronics) Price

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Customer Reviews of Brother HL-5250DNT Network Ready Laser Printer with 2nd Paper Tray

Doesn't get any better
I performed an exhaustive search for the right mono laser printer. I landed the Brother HL-5250DNT, and I couldn't be happier. <
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>Here's what I was looking for during my search. <
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>1) Speed (first page and pages per minute) <
>2) Image quality <
>3) Economic consumables <
>4) Connectivity (USB and parallel minimum, networkable a plus) <
>5) Expandability <
>6) Duplex printing a big plus <
>7) Size - nothing too huge <
>8) Quiet <
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>Here's what I got. <
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>1) I am amazed at how fast this printer is. It prints the first page almost immediately. Wakes up from sleep mode instantly and prints quickly. Great PPM speed. <
>2) Excellent quality text and graphics. Photos print out very well with no banding. <
>3) Toner cartridge has good page rating (3,500 @ 5%) and replacements are relatively inexpensive. High yield cart is about $50 for 7,000 pages @ 5%. <
>4) Comes with USB, parallel, and Ethernet - the triple play <
>5) Expandability - it already comes with a second paper tray (about $50 more than the model without the tray. Separately, the tray is about $120) Holds an amazing 550 pages. Also accepts up to 512MB additional memory in easy access slot. <
>6) I fell in love with duplex printing. I keep duplex on all the time. Cuts paper use almost in half (some printouts have odd number of pages to print). <
>7) Nice footprint. Fits nicely on desktop. Solid, but not very heavy. <
>8) Zero noise in sleep mode. Much quieter than my Minolta when printing. Love it. <
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>I was impressed at how easy it was to set up. Load the Vista drivers (yes, a Vista CD is included), plug in the printer, and you're golden. Printed flawlessly the first time. Setup program let me designate the second paper tray. Just make sure you load the CD before you hook up the printer. Lots of flexibility with setup options. Driver/utilities do not take up a large amount of disk space. Much better than HP software clogging up the system. <
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>Regarding page curl, I am using a basic 20lb paper (Boise) and the page curl is marginal. Definitely not annoying. In fact, lie the paper flat after printing, and it flattens out quickly. Very slight curl on premium 24lb paper (Hammermill). <
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>If you need to print large docs, this printer is definitely a workhorse. Over several years, the price difference between this and a "personal" laser printer will be insignificant. Go with the solid workhorse and don't look back.

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Superb
Over several decades, have purchased printers from Brother company. Each has been trouble-free, and all remain in operatonal condition. Other brands have good products, but none better than Brother. <
>Only slight negative for this latest purchase is that instructions seem rather limited relevant to initial installation. However, installation and operational features worked perfectly from initial installation.

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Addressing the second tray
Typical Brother reliability, well built. First page speed is about 20 seconds. Networking is flawless, setup is easy, and the darn thing even has its own web page with multiple admin pages. <
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>But the coolest feature of this printer is woefully undocumented. How can you use the printer with two different kinds of paper? <
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>Under Windows, the driver for this product wrongly assumes that you purchased the 5250DN, which only has one tray. The second tray is not known to the print driver until you select: "Start" "Printers and Faxes". Right click on the printer, then select the "Accessories" tab. "Add" the LT-5300 (the second tray). Before you leave this screen... <
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>Let's assume that you want to put letterhead in tray 2, but you normally print on plain paper (tray 1). Select the "General" tab, then "Print Preferences". Now change the "paper source" from "auto select" to "Tray 1". This will ensure that you won't print on letterhead when the plain paper runs out! <
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