In the world of photocopiers, the term “mono” means that the image produced by the machine is monochrome or just black and white. The word “monochrome” technically refers to various shades of one color but for machines like photocopiers, this means it is only capable of producing black and white. However, this term also applies to machines that can produce an image in different shades of blue.
Over the last decade, the market had witnessed how the prices of monochrome photocopiers dipped considerably. It is mainly due to the introduction of the sophisticated models which can produce in different colors. Laser copiers pushed the prices of the monochrome downward. At one time when you had to pay a huge amount of money to get a monochrome photocopier but today you can pay less for a more modern machine in the office.
How to choose a mono photocopier?
Unlike buying a new television set or a radio, choosing a photocopier involves more factors to consider as well as related supplies to keep it running. Purchasing any machine, especially a mono photocopier has to be done with reliable and authorized local dealers. It does not matter which model from Sharp, Ricoh, Kyocera, Canon, Konica Minolta or Panasonic, you need to deal with licensed shops. These machines will become a part of your business asset, and as such you need to protect your investment. Dealing with authorized dealers ensures that your photocopier will get a team of professional technicians with proper training and experience from the manufacturers.
With unauthorized dealers, since they get no direct access to any of the manufacturers, you are not going to receive the same support of experts for your machine should you need maintenance and repair. There is also the possibility of insufficient or substandard quality parts if there is a need for replacements. Authorized dealers, on the other hand, will safeguard their business by taking care of every customer to avoid them from sending complaints to the manufacturers.
Brother DCP-L2550DW
Brother comfortably refers to DCP-L2550DW as one of their multifunction copiers. It can perform three of the major tasks in the office: print, scan, and copy. Brother DCP-L2550DW does not have the fax functionality but is still a good catch for $159.99. It can a three-function machine. Regardless of its limitations, it is considered a good addition to your micro office setup to take care of your printing needs. It delivers in a very competitive speed, a wide set of options for connectivity, produces great text quality and most of all, it comes with a friendly price tag.
Based on tests, Brother DCP-L2550DW cannot come close to an average performance. For a monochrome laser copier, its text quality is only at an average, graphics are acceptable but photo printability is below average. Although most businesses do not require much for text documents, other laser printers can do better especially for small fonts.
Graphics may be suitable for printing handouts in the office, for internal memos and reports. But this quality is not one you can send to an important client. During the test, there were areas where the background looked faintly faded with a bit of banding and graininess.
It did not perform well in photo prints. There were areas where important details went indistinguishable. The output presented a tendency of shades to shift abruptly instead of a gradual process. There were also points where some of the lines appeared jagged. The images are recognizable, nothing exceptional.
The estimated running cost per page for this mono copier from Brother is at about 3.5 cents. This is the same figure you can expect from Canon MF249dw and Brother Hl-L2395DW.
Brother DCP-L2550DW, after tests and checking its abilities, seems to be best suited as an in-house copier. It prints fairly fast, has typical options for paper and connectivity, and with average output quality. It is definitely cheaper than the other four-function copiers without the fax functionality but it can serve as a workaday printer. Although Brother DCP-L2550DW comes with ADF (which is lacking from Brother HL-L2395DW), output quality is below par. From among other models from copier Dallas experts for mono laser printers suitable for home-office use, Canon MF249dw is the top option.
