Brother DCP-L5500DN, a high altitude monochrome laser multifunction

The magic may be in the color, but both photography and cinema once again look at black and white with different eyes… and for a reason. The truth is that each of the two options is appropriate in its context, and that makes a monochrome laser multifunction system like the  Brother DCP-L5500DN have a lot to say. And even more to contribute, especially in productivity environments, such as offices or in the offices of companies and freelancers . Why does it stand out? We will tell you immediately.

Technical specifications

It is important to start from a base: we are talking about a multifunction equipment designed especially for productivity environments (offices, offices, etc.), with printing ratios of between 1,000 and 3,500 copies per month. Below these values ​​it may be a little "too much", and for a larger volume it is advisable to opt for other models with greater capacity. Within the range, it offers great performance, a very affordable price, and all the features you would expect from an office MFP.

For management, it has a touch screen of 9.3 cm , which together with its keypad, allows all operations and settings on your computer, as well as access to the functions of some of the cloud services with which it's compatible.

When it comes to printing, its speed is up to 40 pages per minute in prints and copies with a resolution of up to 1,200 x 1,200 dots per inch. It is not as fast as the Brother HL-L6400DW, but it gains in versatility with its extra functions.  It has a really fast automatic double-sided printing system , and that allows to reach 20 pages per minute when using this function. As for its activation speed (from standby mode) it is quite fast, the first page printing time is around seven seconds.

As regards paper handling, its basic configuration has a 250-sheet tray , but this is expandable with up to two others, with a capacity of 250 or 520. Thus, it can have a deposit of up to 1,290 sheets or another type of printable formats. In this regard, the standard tray supports A4, Letter, A5, A5 (longitudinal), A6, Executive, Legal, Folio, Mexico Legal, and Indian Legal formats. And the multipurpose tray allows you to use any format with a width of 76.2 and 215.9 millimeters and a length between 127 and 355.6 millimeters. For all of them, it supports paper of standard weights (between 60 and 120g / m2 for the standard tray and between 60 and 200g / m2 for the multipurpose one).

Copier and scanner

As when it comes to printing, its speed when making copies is 40 pages per minute , with a resolution of up to 1,200 x 600 dots per inch. In addition, to make copies of documents of more than one page, it has an automatic document feeder (ADF) with capacity of up to 40 sheets . In this way, it will be possible to leave the printer generating several copies of the original document and collect them at the end of the process, without having to worry about inserting the sheets one by one.

It also has an enlargement and reduction function on the original. You can modify its size between 25% (that is, reduce its size to a quarter) and 400% (just the opposite, multiply its size by four). This, in addition, is in addition to the N in 1 copy function , which allows the content of up to four sheets to be printed on one, rescaling to 25% and distributing them in the resulting document.

If we talk about the scanner function, its speed is up to 24 pages per minute in grayscale , and up to 20 if we scan the original documents in color . In terms of scanning resolution, it reaches up to 600 x 6,000 dots per inch for documents deposited in the automatic feeder and 1,200 x 1,200 for documents deposited directly on the scanner glass. In addition, it has a software interpolation function, with which it is possible to obtain up to 19,200 x 19,200 dots per inch.

A very interesting feature, and which should be noted at this point, is that the  Brother DCP-L5500DN is capable of simultaneously performing several operations. Thus, for example, we may be printing one document and, at the same time, scanning another. We don't have to wait for one process to finish to start the next, as long as they don't both rely on the same team members. Something that is particularly useful in offices.

Network functions

A multifunction equipment of this type must undoubtedly have a network interface, which allows the device to be connected directly to the network, so that all computers connected to it can directly access it. Such is the case of the Brother DCP-L5500DN, which in addition to the local USB 2.0 connection interface to be connected directly to a computer, also has a 10Base-T / 100Base-TX ethernet connection , the most common standard and which offers a more than adequate for use.

It is also compatible with some of the most popular mobile printing systems (from devices): AirPrint, Android Print Service Plugin, Cortado Cloud Print, Google Cloud Print 2.0, iPrint & Scan and Mopria, so it will be possible to order copies remotely. In the case of some services (such as Google Cloud Print) even if the device is not connected to the same network as the printer.

Security

A device that scans and prints documents has to be subject to certain security measures, both for their content and for the abuse that some employees can make of it. To mitigate these risks, the  Brother DCP-L5500DN has several functions, such as password locking of certain documents , which can only be printed by authorized persons. On the other hand, it has the so-called Secure Function Lock, a set of security settings that allow you to limit the maximum number of prints that each user can make, keep track of what each employee prints and even assign different levels to them, so that for example some can only scan but do not print, others have a maximum number of prints, only certain accounts can access the configuration settings, and so on.

This, in relation to the functions of the device. But another of the common risks faced by network multifunctions is, precisely, the network, whose traffic can be intercepted with malicious intentions. In order to prevent this threat, this device supports the main security protocols , specifically  SMTP-AUTH, SSL / TLS ( IPPS, HTTPS and SMTP for remote administration functions), SNMP v3, Kerberos, IPSec  and, referred to as  802.1x, EAP-MD5, EAP-FAST, PEAP, EAP-TLS and EAP-TTLS . This guarantees, beyond any reasonable doubt, that the operations carried out between the multifunction and the clients will be totally secure.

Availability and price

The  Brother DCP-L5500DN monochrome laser multifunction  has been available on the market since the beginning of the year, and the manufacturer's recommended price is 435 euros .

Features table Brother DCP-L5500DN

Print

Copy

Scanner

Connectivity

Size and weight

General data

+ info

Price 435 euros