The HL-4150CDN is part of a new range of laser printers from Brother that offer colour printing at an affordable price and are designed for those who need a printer that can churn out a lot of documents on a daily basis.
This one is priced at around £300 and also has a duplexer, so it can automatically print on both sides of a sheet of paper.
Business-like design
Most manufacturers creating laser printers for business users don’t really bother themselves with trying to make their devices look aesthetically appealing, but with its cuboid design and white side panels, the 4250CDN is a bit more attractive than most, especially as the white contrasts nicely with the dark grey finish of the main body of the printer.
The control panel is quite basic, as it comprises just a two-line monochrome flip-up screen and a mere seven buttons, but the menu system isn't all that complicated, so it's still relatively easy to use.
One interesting feature is the secure printing functionality. You can add a security code to documents via the printer driver, so the printer will store them in memory until someone presses the Secure button and enters a passcode to release them. This is handy if you're in a shared office and need to print off more sensitive documents such as salary information or confidential letters.
On the front, just under the control panel, Brother has added a USB port. This isn’t for printing photos from PictBridge cameras, but instead allows you to print documents like PDF files and JPEG and TIFF images directly from memory keys.

The bottom of the printer houses a slot in cassette-style paper tray that can hold up to 250 sheets at a time and there's a 500 sheet tray available as an option if you've got particularly demanding print needs. Above this tray, hidden behind a pull-down panel, there's a 50 sheet feeder tray for odd-sized papers and envelopes.
As with most laser printers, all the printed material gets fed into a recessed paper tray at the top of the machine and there's a small flip-up piece that helps to stop pages from falling off the front of the tray.
Discuss Brother HL-4150CDN