Brother® HL-1650

Reference Info
In January 2001 Brother International Corp. released their second series of desktop laser printers with a "commercial look", the HL-1650 and HL-1670N. Like their predecessors, the HL1200 series, the HL-1650 and 1670N have an auto e-mail print feature and ship with both parallel and USB ports. Improvements include advanced paper handling, standard automatic duplex printing, a beefed up control panel and a higher monthly duty cycle. At an estimated street price of $599, the HL1650 is comparable with traditional personal lasers plus the bonus of commercial features. Targeted at consumers, small businesses and workgroups, the 16 page-per-minute printers have three resolution print modes: draft (300x300 dpi), standard (600x600 dpi) and HQ1200. This latter mode is actually 2,400 x 600 dpi, but is said to be equivalent to 1,200 dpi class. Both machines are based on the new Brother HL-1600 engine and are essentially identical, except the HL-1670N ships with twice the memory (16MB vs 8MB) and an Ethernet network card installed.

There are two consumables - a toner cartridge and a drum unit. Replacing the toner cartridge may be a bit tricky for some users, since it nests inside a tray in the drum unit that must be completely removed to replace the toner cartridge.