Rating: 8/10
In the past, as an IT manger, I've spent countless thousands of pounds on laser printers. It therefore came as something of a shock to discover that this one cost under £300, yet has many of the features I've paid so much for in the past.
For those of you that are thinking £300 sounds expensive, then just consider what Brother has packed into the HL-6050.
Designed for a small workgroup, the HL-6050 provides 24 pages per minute of printing, and can print at a resolution of 1200 * 1200dpi. The onboard 200MHz processor can rasterise the pages onto 32MB of inbuilt memory - ideal for caching pages ahead of print - and this can also be expanded through DIMMs to 160MB. Compatibility is well covered, with both PCL6 (HP) and postscript emulation BR-Script 3 drivers. For both print technologies, that allows for Windows 95 through to XP, including NT 4.
The only discrepancy to this is that the USB doesn't work on anything less than Windows 98SE, but the HL-6050 has an old style parallel printer port which will work in those circumstances.
Having used both modes, I'd recommend the postscript printing, which produced much better results printing graphics. Strangely, this isn't the default mode for the drivers, so you need to configure this to get the best out of the printer.
Under testing, the HL-6050 performed admirably, producing an average 18 pages a minute printing text and graphics. Some may think that Brother's claim of 24 pages is something of a stretch; true, but other makes I've tested don't come close to this, especially on graphics. Taking just 11 seconds to generate its first page (as predicted by Brother), this isn't a slouch by any means.
And what of the cost of printing? Well, the HL-6050 provides some very cheap per page costs: a £49 toner replacement required every 7,500 pages. Even when you factor in a £59 replacement drum, which is required after every 30,000 pages, the cost per page is a very frugal 0.85p - laser printing can easily cost more than three times this amount, and inkjet printing can be ten times as much!
If you are looking for more paper handling, there is an extra 500-sheet tray, and for easier workgroup functionality, a network card. These cost £100 and £135 respectively. Also, networking comes as standard on the slightly pricier (£390) HL-6050DN , and you get Duplex into the bargain.
My only real criticism of this printer is of the box it came in. The ravages of courier delivery took its toll and it took me a good hour to reassemble the rear feed tray, which, while not broken, had become disassembled in transit. Weighing in at a hefty 45.76lb (20.7Kg) it needs more protection, or some will arrive less than functional...
For more information, visit Micromart.co.uk