Review: Dell 1815dn mono laser printer

Dell's been busy releasing printers of late, one of the most recent being its 1815dn - a mono laser multifunction printer that offers fast print speeds and a host of features at a reasonable price.

Feature-wise there's not much the 1815dn doesn't offer; 600x600dpi resolution, 25ppm (pages per minute) print speeds, fax, scan and copier. It also comes with a built-in duplexer, 25,000 page a month duty cycle, and both USB2 and Ethernet connectivity.

Impressively, Dell has managed to keep the price to just £338 including Vat and delivery.

Straight out of the box the 1815dn comes with a 300-sheet paper input tray, but you can increase this to a maximum of 550 pages with the addition of a second 250-sheet draw (£88)

To replace the standard 3,000-page toner cartridge costs £41, while a high-yield 5,000-page cartridge costing an extra £11.75.

In addition to the rear-mounted USB port, there is another at the front of the 1815dn to allow you to print documents direct from a flash memory key. It will also scan to a USB key, but the resulting scans are low-resolution Jpeg files so, while a useful feature, it is best used for basic scans only.

The 1815dn will scan in 24-bit colour up to 4,800dpi (1,200dpi optical resolution). Scanning a magazine cover at the default 300dpi took just 15 seconds but the scan looked slightly pale on the screen and the resulting mono printout shows a loss of detail in the shadows; they're certainly usable for normal office duties though.

Overall print quality, however, is very good with text being printed crisply and accurately.

Considering its wealth of features, the Dell 1815dn is great value for money.

Also consider:
OKI C3300n LED single-pass LED printer
A fast alternative to a laser printer for small workgroups and home users

Brother MFC-8860DN mono laser MFD
Fax, copy, print and colour scanning combined in a laser multifunction device

Dell Laser 1110 budget laser printer
A mono laser for under £100 but the starter toner cartridge is disappointingly small

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