Brother HL-1070 review

We tested using two documents. Our newsletter contains photographic images, text and a two-tone masthead, consisting of a white headline and a graphic on top of a colour-matched tint box. Our report contains text, business graphics (such as charts), and line art.

The Brother handled our two test documents really rather well. Its 1,200dpi resolution pays dividends on bitmaps, producing pretty smooth greyscales. The dithering it uses can lead to a mild 'tartan' appearance, but it 'colour-matched' the greys in our newsletter masthead perfectly. Its handling of skin tones is fairly good, but it can go a touch heavy on contrast. Some tweaking of the darkness settings in the driver may well sort that out to your personal tastes, however.

All kinds of claims are made by manufacturers regarding print speed, but they almost always concern the simplest of documents. Our test documents are designed to work the printers' engines to the full, with plenty of graphics and complex layout to slow them down. We print the files out from CorelDRAW!, and time the process from the moment we click the OK button to when the printout drops into the tray. We also pay attention to how quickly you get control of your PC back - some drivers really cripple your machine as they go about their business.

Once again, the Brother passed with flying colours, beating machines that cost more than twice as much. Both test sheets took 31 seconds to complete, with subsequent copies of the same document taking 6 seconds each (in keeping with the 10ppm spec). The machine relinquished control of the PC in very quick time too.

Overall, Brother's HL-1070 comes through shining. If you've got £300 to spend on a laser, this is the one to go for. It's well built, flexible, can hang off a USB port and its 1,200dpi print quality is excellent.