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The HL-L250CDN measures 40x30x48cm, however that is with no paper in the unit, open the drop down second input tray and insert some A4 in it and that figure increases to73cm. Yes not a misprint you need 73cm from a wall to be able to print with this unit using the second manual tray. Now you understand why I said it was problem to fit in my office.

If this unit had Wi-Fi built in then most would be able to place it in a deep cupboard or at least behind a sofa. Of course in an office environment it may not be so important. However the sticker on the front of the unit says you can purchase a 500 sheet optional paper tray which for office use would be helpful. However the 250 sheet main tray would keep it going for close to ten minutes.

The top of the unit is flat with the eight buttons and two LEDs in front of the 5x2.5cm two line black on yellow display.

USB, Ethernet and mains lead connect back left while the front has a USB stick socket top left to allow you to print direct for those security documents.

See also: Laser printers

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Lasers have always printed at the stated speed something that did not always apply to inkjet printers. So you get 28PPM as long as there is paper to print. The output is on top of the unit and a long print run will require someone to remove pages after around ten as after that they start to get mixed up. I also found that around twenty was the most I could put in the manual second input tray. However during my tests I had only one paper jam despite all my print runs having a mix of types and weights of paper.

Of course single pages are not fast mainly because of the thinking/transfer time from the PC. However this is around 10seconds for a text page and up to around double that for a full colour graphic. While you of course lose the sheen that printing from an inkjet gives you on photo paper I printed perfectly respectable A4 images in less than 30seconds from pressing print on the PC.

The print speed is the same 28PPM for mono or colour so no four pass printing here, one of the main reasons for the larger size.

Warm Up time from off is around 25seconds.

The rubberised on/off button needs to be pressed for a couple of seconds to activate or deactivate.

A nice feature useful for those one off prints is that if you press print and then remember you have no paper in the manual tray you can still place a sheet in the tray before it comes back to say ‘no paper’ something other units do not often do.

Stated power consumption figures are less than 520w working, ready less than 65w, sleep less than 7.5w and deep sleep less than 1w.

Stated recommended usage is 500-3000 pages, it comes with a 2500page black and three 1500page colour cartridges. Larger sizes are available for those who need them.

This is a reliable easy to use unit with only its size against it.

The Brother HL-L250CDN is available from the first link below for £239.99

http://www.leoofficesupplies.co.uk/brother-hl-l8250cdn-colour-laser-printer-ref-hll8250cdnzu1.html

http://www.brother.co.uk/g3.cfm/s_page/215760/s_level/36190/s_product/HLL8250CDNZU1/