Hardware

Review: Brother Workhorse HL-L8245CDW Is an Inexpensive Gateway to Color Printing

This reliable printer is affordable, secure and fast, suitable for remote or in-office work.

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John Breeden II is an award-winning reviewer and public speaker with 20 years of experience covering technology.

Even with the recent push to digitize as many files and records within government as possible, many state and local agencies still do a lot of their work on paper. They therefore require reliable, accurate printing, often in color. This is especially true when it comes to places where offices are interacting with the public, because things such as fishing licenses or tax bills sometimes need to be printed.

In that circumstance, the ideal printer is one that is accurate, reliable and fast. In short, agencies need a workhorse. And that is what Brother has always provided, especially with their aptly named Workhorse line. Brother recently overhauled these printers with new features and better performance. The Brother Workhorse HL-L8245CDW is a flagship member of the new lineup.

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As Fast as It Is Reliable

The Brother Workhorse HL-L8245CDW is a color printer that can print in laser quality, but it uses less power-hungry LED lights to drive its print engine. And it’s just a printer, not a multifunction device, so it sticks to the formula of doing one thing very well (and economically) without additional features such as fax machines or duplex scanners that may not be needed, and which could add unnecessary complexity or points of failure.

When it comes to performance, this machine is extremely speedy. In my testing, it was able to consistently put out 31 pages per minute in color or black and white. The printer also did not take long to process documents. On average, the first pages of a job hit the output tray after just 10 seconds. The accuracy of the printing is also extremely high.

When it comes to performance, this machine is extremely speedy.”

With a 4,000-page recommended monthly use cycle, the HL-L8245CDW would be a good choice for small or even medium-sized workgroups depending on how much printing they require. The only potential sticking point for larger workgroups might be the 250-sheet input tray for paper, which could require frequent refilling. Brother does offer an optional tray that can be added to double that capacity.

Brother Workhorse HL-L8245CDW Specs: Fast, affordable, secure.

Affordability Doesn't Come at the Cost of Security

At under $400, the HL-L8245CDW would also make an economical addition to a home office. The printer can connect to a network using 802.11ac wireless, via a LAN cable or with a standard USB printer cable. There’s also an option to set up printing from mobile devices, so it can fit in almost anywhere.

There are quite a few security features that suit government use. The firmware is encrypted, as are print jobs. There is also the option for secure printing, so users can send documents to the printer from anywhere but then must enter a code locally to release the job.

The Brother Workhorse HL-L8245CDW offers quick, reliable printing for government agencies at a great price and has the quality and security that agencies require.

SPECIFICATIONS

PRINTER TYPE: LED printer
PRINT SPEEDS: Up to 31 pages per minute in color or black and white
MAX PRINT DOCUMENT RESOLUTION: 2400x600 dpi
RECOMMENDED MONTHLY DUTY CYCLE: 4,000 pages
DIMENSIONS: 15.7x17.6x10.8 inches
WEIGHT: 36.82 pounds

Taking The Brother Workhorse HL-L8245CDW Printer For A Run

The Brother Workhorse HL-L8245CDW printer is extremely fast and reliable, especially for an economic printer. It was able to reach speeds of 31 pages per minute in either color or black and white, and it printed the first page in just over 10 seconds.

But government users also require accuracy along with speed, so I loaded up my printer benchmark, a punishing 30-page document that contains all kinds of accuracy challenges for printers to try and tackle. Those test pages include color bars with subtle differences in hues; fine lines arrayed in grid patterns; detailed photographs and line art; various fonts with different levels of kerning; and images pasted over, through and under text.

For the first part of the test, I concentrated solely on speed. Printers with smaller amounts of memory often need to pause and “think” about complex documents throughout their print processes, which slows down overall print times. But the HL-L8245CDW has 512 megabytes of RAM, which proved more than enough for full runs without pause.

In terms of print quality, the HL-L8245CDW also scored highly. Very subtle hues and color variations were easily detected on the printed pages, especially when using special paper designed to help capture details. Even using standard office paper, everything looked great. It’s clear that the HL-L8245CDW performs well beyond the expected for a sub-$400 printer.

I was especially impressed with the printer’s ability to render fine lines accurately. On a very small, multicolored grid, there were no detectable errors across entire pages.

Font reproduction was also very accurate. Even when looking at letters using a magnifying photo loupe, there was very little ink splashing outside of the defined areas. That made for some very readable pages and crisp documents regardless of fonts.

The Brother Workhorse HL-L8245CDW is an extremely accurate printer that is more than capable of putting out readable and clear government documents, whether in black and white or color.