Brother Introduces 19ppm Laser Printers With Built-In Duplex & Advanced 3-Color LCD User Control Panel

Business Wire, March 1, 2002

Business & Technology Editors

BRIDGEWATER, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 1, 2002

New HL-1850 & HL-1870N Energize Brother's Line of Printers for

Business and Commercial Markets

Brother International Corporation today introduces the 19 page per minute HL-1850 and HL-1870N office laser printers, replacement models for the multi-award-winning HL-1600 series.

The new models retain the line's standard built-in automatic duplex printing, the 3-color LCD user control panels, and sleek form.

The HL-1850 and HL-1870N each come with 16MB & 32MB memories respectively, up to 3 pages per minute faster print speed, and a 33% increase in monthly duty cycle over their predecessors. They also utilize Brother's exclusive HQ1200 print technology (2400x600 dpi), which allows them to produce their best quality output even at their fastest print speeds. The HL-1850 and the HL-1870N will have estimated street prices of $549 and $699 respectively. These products are shipping to customers currently.

"Desktop or workgroup users planning to purchase a new printer or upgrade their existing printer will have many compelling reasons to choose the new HL-1800 Series" said Don Cummins, Vice-President of Marketing. "The professional quality output, fast print speeds, unparalleled ease of use and productivity-enhancing features are just a few. It's the unbeatable combination of quality, value and support that make them tough to pass up."

PRODUCTIVITY, POWER & PERFORMANCE

The key features of the HL-1850 and HL-1870N begin where the award-winning HL-1600 Series ended. Each is consistently platform compatible, offering the same powerful features to both Windows and Mac users. Additionally, these new models have also been enhanced to now support Postscript printing via USB.

STANDARD FEATURES: MORE FOR LESS!

"These new printers are ideal for corporate desktops, satellite offices, and small workgroups," says Jeff Sandler, Brother's Senior Product Manager for Printers. "More importantly, the HL-1850 and HL-1870N are full-featured, high-performance workhorses capable of reliably producing the output needed for everyday business printing."

Brother continues to offer automatic duplex printing as a standard feature in these more advanced products. Duplex printing is a cost-effective means for printing on both sides of a sheet of paper automatically. These Brother duplexing features make producing in-house manuals, booklets and multi-page documents simple, and significantly reduces paper consumption and operating costs.

Another distinguishing feature now standard on many Brother printers is the 3-color backlit LCD display and its intuitive user control panel. The LCD glows green, amber or red with a text message that indicates ready status, set-up status, or if user intervention is required.

CROSS PLATFORM COMPATIBILITY AND CONNECTIVITY

The HL-1850 and HL-1870N are dual platform units that are fully compatible with PC and Mac environments. They come with parallel and USB connectivity standard and include the drivers for Windows(R) 98/98Se/95/ME/NT 4.0/2000 and a USB driver for iMac(TM) iBook(TM)/G3/G4/. Postscript Level 3 compatibility (BR-Script3) is also standard for both PC and Mac platforms, and users now have the option of printing Postscript(R) via USB for both platforms as well.

OPTIONAL FEATURES

A number of additional features are also available for Brother's new office laser printers including:

-- 10/100 BaseT Ethernet Print Server (standard on HL-1870N)

-- Additional 250-sheet paper capacity

-- IrDA interface for wireless printing

-- 136 Postscript 3 font upgrade package

ABOUT BROTHER

Bridgewater, New Jersey is the corporate headquarters for Brother in the Americas, from Canada to South America. It has fully integrated sales, marketing services, manufacturing, research and development capabilities located in the U.S. In addition to its headquarters in Bridgewater, New Jersey, Brother has branches in California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Tennessee and Texas as well as subsidiaries in Ohio, Canada, Brazil, Chile and Mexico. Additional information may be obtained from the Brother fax-back system toll-free at (800) 521-2846 or by visiting their web site at www.brother.com.

All trademarks and registered trademarks referenced herein are the property of their respective companies.