Buyers looking for a personal monochrome laser printer will find a lot to like in the Brother HL-5340D. It has a very compact size, at 9.7 inches high and 14.6 inches wide, and weighing only 20.9 pounds, it is not much larger or heavier than a large inkjet printer. Most users will be able to move it by themselves quite easily, and its relatively small footprint will make it easy to find a place for it on a desk.

As it is designed to be a personal printer, the base model does not include an ethernet port, nor does Brother sell an optional ethernet add-on for the printer. If you want ethernet, you must purchase the HL-5370DW or HL-5370DWT models, which have ethernet and wifi both built in. While it is understandable not to include ethernet in a personal printer, in today’s world where laptops and routers are extremely common even in the home office, this is a consideration for buyers, and many manufacturers are including ethernet even in their base configurations, realizing that most users want to connect a printer to a wifi router for portability around the home or office.

The print speed is quite impressive, especially for the price. At 32 pages per minute, it is one of the fastest personal laser printers available. Print quality is very good. Text quality is excellent, but doesn’t fare as well on very small fonts as other laser printers. Graphics quality is surprisingly good, and exceeds expectations for a laser printer.

The printer includes a 250-sheet paper tray, which is quite roomy for a personal printer, with a 50-sheet multipurpose tray as well. You can also purchase two additional trays of 250 sheets each if you need more capacity. It is worth noting that the printer supports duplexing (two-sided printing) even in the base model. This is an uncommon, but welcome, feature in a personal laser printer.

Overall, its speed and print quality combined with its compact size make the HL-5340D a great choice for a personal laser printer. Bonus features like duplexing and a large input capacity simply sweeten the deal.