When the Brother HL-5040 first came out, it won PC Magazine’s Editor’s Choice Award, and the PC World’s World Class Award. Both awards were for the combination of speed and print quality and after using one for a while, it’s easy to see why.
The HL-5040 is a sturdy, no-nonsense box that will print anything you can throw at it, and keep asking for more. It has a rated duty cycle of 20000 pages per month, which is immense for a small office printer. The power demands are the only thing that stop this being suitable for home use. It has been known to dim lights and reset UPS devices when used at home, so isn’t ideal.
As an office printer though is where the HL-5040 excels. Printing at 13 pages per minute from a 250 sheet paper drawer makes this a hot contender. The print quality is good, text is crisp and clear with no visible jaggies on edges. Grayscale is accurate and evenly spread and very little graining. Detail was reasonable too when printing images or pictures, which aren’t a laser’s forte, but the HL-5040 performed admirably anyway.
Setup is simple. The driver CD has instructions and walks you through the install and configuration process. It even has videos showing you how to connect it up, configure it and install the drivers. Once connected, there are also videos explaining how to care for and maintain the printer during its life. This is a neat feature for those if us who are allergic to reading instruction manuals.
Connection is made through USB or parallel port, no network support here, the HL-5040’s bigger brother, the HL-5140 is what you need if you want to network it.
Running costs are reasonable. The starter toner is good for around 3000 pages, and replacement high yield cartridges are good for 6500. They are easy to acquire too, with many online retailers like Quikshiptoner.com having them in stock.
There is a slightly overused term when it comes to computer peripherals, ‘workhorse’. It means something that will keep going until it runs out of fuel, paper, toner or energy. The HL-5040 is definitely a workhorse printer. It will keep going and going until it actually does run out of toner, paper or power. It is an excellent buy and we would have no problem recommending it to those needing a sturdy, reliable mono printer.
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