Brother HL-5250DN Laser Printer (30 PPM, 1200x1200 DPI, B/W, 32MB, PC/Mac)

Brother HL-5250DN

HL-5250DN Laser Printer (30 PPM, 1200x1200 DPI, B/W, 32MB, PC/Mac) Review, by Paul Jasper February 10, 2006

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• Latest User Reviews 7 reviews
• Reviewed by: JonWagner

  Duration of ownership: 9 Months

  Strengths: Fast, sharp images, duplexing and book printing. Cheap operating costs.

  Weaknesses: I've found no weaknesses.

  Overall: I use duplexing lots. I got the DT (double tray) model and while seldon using legal, it's a nice addition. I've had many laser machines in my store, but this is the greatest. You can also refill the cartridges cheaply.

• Reviewed by: skyking7

  Duration of ownership: 9 Months

  Strengths: Fast. Duplex. Toner

  Weaknesses: None so far I can't live with

  Overall: So far mine has worked great.I wanted a laser because I wanted to print alot of pages. I wanted duplex capability because sending out a fifty page packet of single sided pages I thought was unprofessional. Selecting thin paper and using 24 LB paper seems to greatly reduce page curl. I am having trouble setting duplex and toner save as the default seting though. The noise doesn't bother me. The case may be thin plastic but mine just sits on a shelf so I don't expect it to just break on it's own.

• Reviewed by: felixplu

  Duration of ownership: 10 Months

  Strengths: Cheap, fast, print quality seemed good, USB and network capable at the same time, extra paper tray,

  Weaknesses: none until just now (10 months after purchasing), duplex printing does not work for network users, random loud clicking when printing (did not happen before), trying to reset printer by cycling power, pushing "Go" and stop buttons and combinations does not seem to do anything.

  Overall: The printer seemed to be a great buy from Costco. Comparable network printers were at least twice the cost. The printer is moderately loud but not annoyingly so. It worked almost flawlessly until just now, 10 months after I first installed it, when the duplex printing (double sided) stopped working and the status light (usually green or yellow), turned red. Pressing the "Go" button, allowed printing to proceed but it only printed on one side, despite repeated confirmation that duplex printing was set. As far as I know, no changes (significant or insignificant) were made and it is in a locked office (mine, shared with an officemate). Previously, the annoyance was that every so often, the IP number of the printer would change (presumably due to network changes?) and we'd have to printout the new IP address and reset it in Windows. A quick search on Google provided similar problems with users saying something about the "fuser" being bad in some way.

• Reviewed by: nopcbs

  Duration of ownership: 1 Month

  Strengths: duplex and network-ready for cheap, good print quality

  Weaknesses: Noisy (clacks -worisome), huge power drain when it fires up...dims room lights (almost), sets offUPS the PC is on, computer keeps losing it on the network - this NEVER happened with my HP 4L on a Netgear network adapter on same PC. Cheesy set up for enveloped (drop front tray, feed envelopes, reset print properties, finally print) and it wrinkles envelopes.

  Overall: Very good, but it has annoying (worrisome) issues. But no one else wants to offer similar feature set for near the same price (except for an obolete Panasonic model that is thinly available). Not for a second do I think it will hold up for the decade that my HP 4L has held up for.

• Reviewed by: ralphenz32

  Duration of ownership: 3 Months

  Strengths: fast printing, easy feed, low cost

  Weaknesses: noisy, uses toner quickly

  Overall: A great printer, despite the noise it makes. I use it to print daily reports and it sure is a workhorse! I can print labels with ease, envelopes, and shipping labels with no jam-ups or errors. Uses USB so its fast, very fast! Found a the toner for around 60.00, and great customer support and warranty! A great toner supplier is www.brothertoners.com This is a highly recommended printer for anyone with a low budget and a home office. J. Cruz

• Reviewed by: hydra

  Duration of ownership: 7 Months

  Strengths: features look awesome on paper for the price

  Weaknesses: broke down after litlle use somewhat flimsy warranty not international mac driver support weak

  Overall: Have used printer for less than 100 pages - almost new condition. After 7 months, the printer constantly jams on every page, regardless of size, weight, or feed path (tray or manual). Brother Australia will not honor the U.S. warranty where I purchased it. This printer hardly qualifies as a workgroup printer as it is advertised. I'm tired of purchasing computer peripherals for hundreds of dollars which are all show and no go.

• Reviewed by: rvgraham789

  Duration of ownership: 6 Months

  Strengths: Nice text quality, speed

  Weaknesses: Noise, noise noise, and poor graphics

  Overall: I'm on my third unit, the problem is noise. If you're in a noisy office environment it may not matter, but at home this unit makes a symphony of extraneous noise. Clacking while cooling down, grinding and gear tooth noise while warming up and feeding paper. The duplex feature is all but useless as it curls thin paper terribly and thick paper quite a bit. Completely mangles envelopes, even of high quality. Graphics qulaity is ok for small web graphics, but forget about getting any nice grayscale photos.

• Reviewed by: newrock

  Strengths: Dependable, reliable, fast, quiet, great text and graphics, handles 28# paper.

  Weaknesses: None, really.

  Overall: Such a great printer I bought one for my son. With its performance at 1200x1200 quality, I wonder if it will ever die. I'm not sure I will ever need to buy another laser printer.

• Reviewed by: sdt410

  Strengths: speed of printing, quality of printing

  Weaknesses: front-line support personnel and documentation, especially how to print envelopes from the multi-purpose tray

  Overall: I had a previous Brother printer which I used for seven years, so I looked at Brother when it came time to replace it. This model had good reviews, and I expected it to be good to go out of the box. Envelopes loaded in the multi-purpose tray came out wrinkled and curled. After checking the online help, we contacted support, who proceeded to READ us the online help screens!!! Fortunately, a more intelligent support person finally gave us the secret -- you have to adjust some plastic arms behind the cover in the back. After that, envelopes came out beautifully. Why don't they put that secret info in the documentation?

• Reviewed by:

  Strengths: Quick prints and a duplex function for a budget installation.

  Weaknesses: Cheaply built, bordering on flimsy. Not something that you want an entire office messing with.

  Overall: It's a budget unit not well suited to anything but the smallest of offices. The cheap build quality would not survive a workgroup scenario. That said, it has been great in our installation, serving 3 users with very light printing requirements. I do get nervous when anyone but me goes to unjam it or to use the manual feed. It simply isn't rugged and some errant extra force here and there would have plastic snapping.

• Reviewed by: JeffreyDesign Jewelry

  Strengths: Network connectivity, Duplexing, Blazing Speed

  Weaknesses: Small paper tray (250 sheets max)

  Overall: I had a big print job to do (6500 pages) and my inkjet just wasn't up for the job and I only had a few days to do it. I bought the Brother 5250DN hoping it would be as fast as advertised (most lasers aren't) and it would handle odd sized paper. It did everything it was supposed to do and it did the job perfectly - not one paper jam, everything aligned perfectly on every page and all was done with the cartridge that came with the printer.Network setup was easy. I just plugged it into my wireless router, put the CD into my laptop and started the install. My laptop runs Vista Business edition and it worked PERFECTLY. I have set up several LPR printers on the network before and this was the absolute easiest install I have ever done - effortless.

• Reviewed by: algibbz

  Strengths: Network-ready, duplex, and fast printing

  Weaknesses: None

  Overall: I have been using this printer for 1 year now. I printed 100 to 200 pages in duplex mode several times already with no hickups, all kinds of labels and CD labels. It is an excellent printer. It prints fast and the output is crisp. Networking is easy to manage via a browser. Toner lifetime is excellent.