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Entered CNET Catalog: 04/10/2002
SKU: 0012502602392
Manufacturer: Brother International
Manufacturer description
The HL-1850 is a fast 19-ppm monochrome laser printer ideal for desktop office printing. Featuring high-quality text and graphics output, PC and Mac compatibility, a built-in duplex capability, innovative user support and expansion options, the HL-1850 will exceed your expectations for performance and value. Paper is handled via a 350-sheet standard paper capacity with a 250-sheet capacity and 100-sheet multi-purpose tray - ideal for letterhead or envelopes. An advanced user control panel with a menu-driven 3-color backlit LCD display makes it easy to modify the printer's default settings or to monitor its operating status.Product summary
The good: Fast print speeds; outstanding text quality; integrated duplexer.
The bad: Mediocre graphics output; disappointing paper capacity.
The bottom line: Despite its paltry paper capacity, the reasonably priced HL-1850 will keep your small office humming with its fast print speeds and duplex-printing capability.
CNET editors' review
- Editors' Choice: No
- Reviewed on: 04/09/2002
Ready to roll
An illustrated Quick Setup guide made for easy installation of the $550 HL-1850. The printer works with Microsoft Windows 95, 98, Me, NT 4.0, 2000, and XP, as well as Mac OS 8.5.1 or higher. It can connect via parallel or USB ports, though it ships sans cables. The printer's front panel includes a three-color LCD readout and four buttons that let you change paper, interface, setup, or quality settings. Other buttons let you make reprints, cancel jobs, or pause printing. An electronic user guide explains the printer's many features and includes troubleshooting and maintenance tips. If you want to network your printer, the $699 HL-1870N has all the features of the HL-1850 but also boasts built-in Ethernet and an extra 16MB of memory for a total of 32MB. Additionally, both models can support up to 144MB of RAM.
Take the bad with the good
The HL-1850's paper handling has its pluses and minuses. One major disappointment was the printer's minimal paper capacity. The printer holds just 350 sheets: one 250-sheet tray and a 100-sheet multipurpose tray. For $200, you can buy another 250-sheet tray, upping your capacity to 600 sheets. However, this still falls short of the 1,200-sheet capacity (with the optional $189 550-sheet tray) offered by the $649 Xerox Phaser 3400.
The HL-1850's coolest paper-handling feature is its integrated duplexer, which is superfast and requires no user intervention. The software driver lets you choose between flipping the paper on the left, right, top, or bottom edge. The four well-organized tabs let you adjust the usual settings such as paper type, paper size, and print quality. Each tab includes a Default button to reset any of your changes, but the driver lacks a button to restore global defaults.
Speed sells
With a rated engine speed of 19ppm (pages per minute), we expected peppy performance from the HL-1850, and we weren't disappointed. The printer cranked out 13.3ppm of text in CNET Labs' tests, which was just a tad slower than the 13.5ppm turned in by the Phaser 3400. The Brother's combined text and graphics speeds, at 11.2ppm, pulled way ahead of the Xerox's 7.8ppm.
The HL-1850's text output looked stunning. The letters were crisp, clear, and defined, with no loss of detail even at minuscule point sizes. Graphics output, however, wasn't quite as strong. Solid black areas appeared a bit splotchy, and overly rough photographic images lacked detail. When we selected the 1,200dpi-class option, photos improved significantly, but solid blacks were still problematic.
Pricing it out
The HL-1850's cost per page is in line with that of its competition. According to Brother, a 6,500-page toner cartridge will cost you $90, or less than 1.5 cents per page at 5 percent coverage.
Brother provides a one-year warranty on parts and labor and a year of the company's express exchange policy. Live, toll-free technical support is available Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. ET. The Brother Solutions Center Web site provides updated printer drivers in addition to more support information.
With its ease of use and fast print speeds, the Brother HL-1850 should do just fine in most small offices. While we wish it offered a larger standard paper capacity, we liked the integrated duplexer for reducing consumption. Still, if you have a small budget and can sacrifice some expandability, consider the $299 Lexmark E320.
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In speed tests, the Brother HL-1850 fell just short of the Xerox Phaser 3400 when printing text. However, when it came to mixed text and graphics, the HL-1850 outpaced the Phaser 3400 by a significant margin, giving it overall faster print speeds.
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User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 User Rating: 
8/10
If everything else were only as reliable...
Pros: Uses very little toner and keeps on going like a champ.
Cons: There are a couple of quirky setup issues, but nothing worth griping about. This was a great purchase 3 years ago.
User Rating: 
9/10
Never Misses a Beat
Pros: Inexpensive and Reliable
Cons: Control software
All in all I think this is a great printer. I would have given it a 10 if the default worked properly.
User Rating: 8/10
My first printer, it works fine..
Pros: I use this printer to print shipping labels for things I sell at online auction. I have also used it to print out documents from the internet, including duplexing. I have not had any problems and I have had the printer for about 6 months now. I also
Cons:
User Rating: 8/10
Reliable printer going on 2 years
Pros: Duplexing works flawlessly and really cuts down on paper usage. Very quick warm up compared to similar printers.
Cons: Warm up can be noisy. Not the greatest envelope printer.
User Rating: 8/10
Solid printer for home office
Pros: Replaced our old HP 4+ with this; has been quite reliable over the past year and a half. Printing duties are generally light: approx. 2-3 reams run through the Brother in the heaviest months, which hasn't been very often. So far it's been dead-on reliabl
Cons: Somewhat weak print quality, where text and graphics tend to be too light in intensity, even on the highest quality setting. At first I thought it might have been the initial toner cartridge, but playing with demo models also yielded similiar print result
User Rating: 
1/10
printer works OK except duplexing
Pros: relatively inexpensive
Cons: As another reviewer noted, duplexing has to be constantly re-set and often fails to work anyhow. Brother doesn't acknowledge the problem. Spend a few extra dollars for a reliable HP
User Rating: 
4/10
Duplexer jams often
Pros: Fast print speed Reprint button
Cons: Duplexer jams all the time Cannot leave to print unattended Constantly have to clear jams
