Expert Verdict
The Brother HL2130 is a discrete small printer, in a light grey casing. Normally it is a cuboid having large radius vertical corners front and rear, which give it a contemporary and slightly busy look. The top of the printer has a weighted indented output tray, with a fold-out paper stop at the front and a secondary flip-over tab at the back, the only work of which is to lift the output paper stack for easier handling.
At the left of the output tray, there is a simple control panel that has four LEDs for toner, drum and other errors, a Ready light and a button named Go, the main function of which seems to be printing a demo page. The main paper tray comes with a capacity to handle up to 250 sheets, which is a healthy upgrade in a small machine like this, however, there’s also a single-sheet feed slot for special media just above, where you can feed envelopes and odd paper sizes. At the back is a single USB socket, which is the only means of data connection on the printer.
There’s not much software offered with the HL-2130, however, Graphics Device Interface drivers are offered for Windows and OS X. There are still no Linux drivers on the offered CD, though, there is an option that you will like in the setup menu which takes you straight to Brother’s support pages, where you can download the appropriate driver for your device.
Brother rates the HL-2130 to printing up to 20ppm and that’s quite impressive. Much of this good performance is because of the comparatively short time taken by the printer to start printing. It comes with a little pre-processing, probably because of an efficient GDI driver, so overall print times, even on shorter documents, are quite quickly produced. While testing with our 5-page text document, the pages were delivered just in 23s with a speed of 13ppm, but this increased to 17.4ppm on the 20-page test, which is not far off the claimed speed. The five-page black text and graphics output was a little slower than the straight text one, which came at 11.5ppm. Also, a 15 x 10cm photo printed on A4 using the printer’s highest quality 600 x 2,400dpi print took 16s.
The prints that come out of the device are well-formed and densely black. Its standard resolution of 600dpi is okay to produce smoothly rounded characters, which is quite good for business as well as home or student documents. Toner save mode doesn’t reduce the print quality much, so for day-to-day printing, you can save money by using it as the default as the cartridges run longer using save mode. We were not happy with greyscale, though, it delivered blotchy and banded areas of fill and it was hard to differentiate between lighter and darker mid-tones. Even when increasing the resolution up to the printer’s top 2,400 x 600dpi for the photo print, these issues are still apparent in areas of steady tones.
This Brother printer boasts a two-part drum and toner cartridge, where the drum is for up to 12,000 pages, and the toner cartridge needs replacing after every 1,000 pages. Using the cheapest sources we could find for each of these cartridges gives a cost of 4.2 cents.
In all, this is a well mannered, entry-level mono laser printer for use in a small or home office. It’s fast and quiet and produces good quality output, though it’s not the cheapest in its class. As much at home connected to a Windows, OS X or Linux machine, it pretty much does what it says on the box and that too at a very decent price.
Review
There is a big demand for dedicated laser printers as for many people the extra capabilities of a scanner and copier don't make the cut. Brother HL2130 is one such device.
Brother HL2130 has a maximum print resolution of 600 x 600 dpi, with speed going up to 20 ppm. The print quality of black is very good though grayscale prints are below average. The first copy out time is also impressive for a printer of this caliber. The toner life is of 1000 pages and costs can be on the higher side. These costs can be reduced by the use of compatible Brother HL2130 Toner Cartridges. The printer in itself is a compact unit, stylishly designed in a cuboid shape. The feeder tray is a substantial 250 pages which is one of the best in its class. The output tray can also handle up to 100 pages before spilling out. Connectivity options are limited to USB 2.0.
The best feature about Brother HL2130 is its simplicity itself. It does a specialized job and does it well. There are no multiple connectivity options, no big LCD displays, just good quality and fast prints. It is easy to use and get used to.
Advantages:- Fast first page out
- Good speed for its class
- Multi purpose slot and large paper storage tray
- Quiet operations
- Running costs are high (Which can be remedied by using compatible Brother HL2130 Toner Cartridges)
- Grayscale printing subpar
Brother HL2130 is a dedicated laser printer which does know its job. While it cannot give color prints, it still has a good amount of functionality in terms of speed and print quality. It is good for those one man offices or small office setups where the major print requirements is of printing documents.
Compatible cartridge:The compatible Brother HL2130 Toner Cartridge is:
- Brother TN2010 toner cartridge
Correcting the problem of Faded Prints in Brother HL2130 Printer
The Brother HL2130 printer is a trusted printer amongst those who want a quick print. The printer has a smart design and comes packed with useful features. You get a set of Brother HL2130 Toner Cartridges when you purchase it.
Printing problems often occur with the use of printers. Problems like faded prints, vertical banding etc are directly or indirectly related to the Brother HL2130 Toner Cartridges that are being used by the printer. Usually, when the toner lives are low, the print quality begins to drop. Here are instructions to help you correct the problem of faded prints:
- Open the printer by lifting up the scanner unit. Carefully take out the toner cartridge and drum unit assembly. Hold it parallel to the ground using both the hands and shake it from side to side. Do this many times. It will spread the toner within the cartridge evenly and the print will be much better.
- Check the temperature and humidity of the printer. If the temperature rises too much, it may cause printing quality issues. It directly affects the print quality. You need to cool the temperature of the printer fast. Once it happens you will be able to print properly.
- Check the indications of the LED screen of the printer. If the printer displays a Replace Toner message then you need to replace the consumed Brother HL2130 Toner Cartridge with a new one before you use the machine.
- If you notice that the entire page is faded then you need to check the Print Settings for your device. The Toner Saver Mode may be turned on. To turn it off, go to the Advanced tab in Print Setting dialogue box and turn off the Toner Save Mode.
- You can also change the drum unit and place a new one in the printer. This will improve the print quality.