Brother, the office automation major, is targeting home and SOHO users with printers priced at less than Rs 10,000, among them is the super compact HL-2040. Given its positioning, Brother has emphasized on simplicity. The HL-2040 is easy to install and comes with dual connectivity options, USB and parallel port, catering respectively to users of new generation and legacy PCs.

According to Brother, the printer can churn out 20 prints of 2400 x 6000 DPI per minute off its non expandable 250 sheets paper tray, powered by 8MB of on-board memory and a meaty 96Mhz processor. Also, underlining its versatility, the HL-2040 works with virtually any operating systems, from Windows 95 through to Vista and with Macintosh as 9.1, 9.2, as X 10.2.4, or higher. And it can print on a range of stationery: envelopes, cards, transparencies and label sheets.

The controls again stress on the simplicity credo. There is just one button to operate and it appropriately enough says 'Go'. The four LEDs, Toner, Drum, Paper and Ready indicate the status of the printer. The printer, however, lacks a built-in Ethernet port and hence cannot be used as a network printer; but you can always install it on one PC and share thereby providing access to others. In our print test, the printer spun out the test document at 17 pages per minute. The text was crisp, clear and well defined.