Brother; Buying Tips - Kyocera 2160 Printer Manual

Vendor & Product Profiles
This section provides an overview on each vendor (complete with contact details) followed by
analysis on each model offered for sale in the color laser printer market. General information about
the market, including discussions of technology as well as advice on how to buy a color laser print-
er, follows this section.

Buying Tips

Color Laser Printers

Resolution is not an issue for the majority of offices; it
should not determine your choice.

Take monthly duty cycles with a grain of salt. Use them
for comparison purposes only, but don't expect to get
the full page count month in and month out.

The street price of a printer is usually in inverse pro-
portion to the price of toner. The cheaper the machine,
the more expensive per page.

Cost per page is based on an industry standard cov-
erage of 5%. If you use lots of graphics, shaded boxes,
and/or small type, your costs will be higher.

List prices are what the dealer starts negotiating with;
you should be able to settle for one-third off that price.

PostScript is a must if you use Illustration or page lay-
out programs. For other office uses, PCL or host-
based printing is fine.

Extra memory is a big plus if you use PostScript; good
if you run multipage and multicopy jobs (electronic col-
lation); it adds nothing to host-based printing.

Most users don't need hard disks on their printers. An
exception is for high-security printing, often-used
forms, or truly enormous electronically collated jobs.

It's great to have thousands of pages of input, but not
if you have only a 250-sheet exit tray.

Toner saver and automatic duplexing can be money
savers — but only if you get people to use them.
Entire Contents © 2006 Progressive Business Publications. Copying of Pages Prohibited. To Order: 800 247 2185 or www.betterbuys.com
The Color Laser Printer Guide: Vendor & Product Profiles
B
ROTHER
Bridgewater, NJ
908 704 1700
www.brother.com
Vendor Profile
Brother International — the US subsidiary of Brother
Industries, Ltd., of Nagoya, Japan — has created a repu-
tation for value by selling low-cost small- and home-
office-oriented equipment. A solid presence in the mono-
chrome laser printer market, the company has been try-
ing to make its way into the color market.
The company's color models are respectable, but break-
through offerings from other vendors mean that Brother
has to play catch-up to stay viable in this market.
Brother sells its color laser printers through the tradi-
tional two-tiered computer equipment channel: national
distributors and value-added resellers (VARs). While
Brother makes its own engines for most of the laser prod-
ucts it sells — including monochrome printers, faxes, and
multifunctional machines — it uses other companies'
engines in its two current color laser products.
Product Profiles
Brother HL-2700CN
8ppm full color
31ppm black & white
Sum-up: A good bargain with strong standard features.
The HL-2700CN can print up to 8ppm in color and
31ppm in black-and-white. That's acceptable for a print-
er that costs $500. It is notable that the HL-2700CN is
Ethernet-ready (the CN suffix stands for "Color,
Networked") and offers PostScript 3 (as well as PCL 6)
3