Brother HL-2700

by John - allprinterreview.com Expert Reviewer

Brother HL-2700 is a desktop color laser printer that comes in a boxlike design spanning about 18.9 inches wide, stands at 15.2 inches high, and has a depth of 16.5 inches deep, which is quite regular among network color laser printers. It comes rather heavy at about 69.3 pounds and its beige color all the more makes it look ordinary.

Brother 2700 Printer Review

The price range is below $1,000 which some consider as too pricey,considering that others in its class cost less with basically more features to boast of other than its monochrome color laser printing ability.

Segregating the advantages of using this Brother HL-2700CN, from its disadvantages can help the buyers decide whether they can benefit from what it has to offer at its price.

Advantages of the Brother HL-2700 Printer

1. The network user guide and the regular user guide provides a step-by-step installation instructions and is ably supported by a printed guide (Quick Setup Guide) with an outline of the setting up procedure and installation process for the driver. Even a first time user will not lose his way, because the instructions and outline are quite clear.

Hence, installing and setting up the printer gives the user a good start as a user-friendly machine.

2. In fact, the starter toner cartridges are already pre-installed and ready for use.

3. Its design and set up provides easy to access utilities and control panels, which you can find on the front-left corner of the printer right next to 250-sheet output tray.

The output tray itself is well thought of as it includes a paper stopper for regulating legal-size paper, albeit a little flimsy.

4. This printer is compatible with Windows 95 up to XP, Mac OS 8.6 up to 10.3 or Debian. Drivers for the HL-27000CN and Linux Red Hat,Mandrake,SuSE

5. The printer driver of this Brother HL-2700CN provides its user with varied options such as manual duplex, multiple page printing on a single page, poster sizes, and watermark print indexing.

6. It can add delight to small office operations with its useful office features. In case it is necessary, the memory of the machine can be expanded to 576MB, clearly an advantage for office use. In fact, this feature surpassed Lexmark C510n's 320MB maximum memory expansion capacity.

7. If you need to store and reprint large documents, or save special fonts, or frequently used templates, there is a CompactFlash card slot waiting and ready to be used.

The user can buy a CompactFlash card for the HL-2700CN, in computer supply outlets which costs about $30 for a 32MB card while a 256MB card can cost around $50.

8. Now saving the best for last is Brother HL-2700CN tested reputation for producing consistently impressive quality prints at a reliable fast speed. The printer has a very consistent output of 6.9ppm for text and 6.5ppm for graphics which was a little ahead of Lexmark at 6.7ppm and 6.4ppm and way over Samsung at 4.6ppm and 4.5ppm.

9. The monochrome text and graphics outputs were superb considering they were produced at great speed. Although the color text was not perfect, it was not bad either.

10. Brother provides 24/7 technical support for one year to coincide with the life of the HL-2700CN warranty, to cover parts and labor, everyday except during holidays.

Now you can go to its disadvantages so you can match point by point how the advantages can win you over:

HL 2700 from Brother Printers : Disadvantages

1. The machine has only one paper storage at 250 pages, which is in fact a bit small. Even for multipurpose or nonstandard media, there is no separate tray for feed slot.

You will have to make do with 250-sheet paper tray even for envelopes. You can expand it to a 780-sheet capacity by purchasing another tray, but then, that is another setback.

2. Add-ons are quite expensive. Additional paper trays cost $549.99 for a 530-sheet paper tray and $149.99 if you are going to add just another tray that holds 250 sheets.

3. The printer does not have an automatic duplexer, hence, printing on both sides is done manually. Again, an add-on will cost quite a hefty price because the DX-2700 duplex unit for double-sided printing will cost you $999.

4. Brother HL-2700CN is slower with its processor chip, not nearly meeting as much as Lexmark with its similar C510.

5. The monochrome graphics printing speed is a disappointment falling behind at 11.3ppm against Lexmark at 17.4ppm and against Samsung at 14.3ppm.


If you have a small business and you want a fast and reliable workgroup color laser printer, the Brother HL-2700 printer, could work very well.

Workload can be manageable with its additional office features. However, there are some things you might find inconvenient especially if working multimedia. Paper tray cannot meet much of the simultaneous demand for multimedia tasks and getting add-ons will make the machine cost more than it already is. Even the automatic duplexer is something you have to think twice about.

You can get other color laser printers fully equipped with the missing add-on at a price which can also deliver prints and excel both in text and graphics.