|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Editions|myCNN|Video|Audio|News Brief|Free E-mail|Feedback |  |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|  |
Review: Top laser printers
(IDG) -- It's a good time for new, inexpensive monochrome lasers--all four we tested this month made the chart. On the SOHO list, IBM's $399 Infoprint 12 and NEC's $349 SuperScript 1400 offer similarly strong print quality. Samsung's ML-4500 is a basic laser at one of the best prices we've seen--$199. On the corporate side, the $589 Minolta-QMS PagePro 4100W climbs aboard, thanks to its ultralow price and quick graphics printing. Minolta-QMS PagePro 1100LWHAT'S HOT: At just $189, the Minolta-QMS PagePro 1100L costs less than any other laser printer on the chart, and it keeps up with the pack on text, at 8.6 pages per minute. Even better, its graphics speed of 4.7 ppm races ahead of the herd. It does a great job printing black, even text and lines (though those speedy graphics appear dark and rough in texture). A nice touch: The 1100L's paper tray folds tight against the case, and the output tray flops down over the top, so when it has no paper installed, the whole thing can seal up like a turtle. WHAT'S NOT: The toner and imaging drum are separate on this unit, which is unusual these days, and getting them in and out takes a sure touch. The printer offers only a parallel port--another hint that the 1100L may be based on an older design. The paper tray holds only 150 sheets, and the auxiliary feed tray can handle only one sheet or envelope at a time. Also, the unit we tested seemed somewhat shoddily assembled, with a wiggly feel and some loose parts.
WHAT ELSE: The 1100L is attractive and takes up very little desk space, even with its paper trays open. Minolta sells a 500-sheet feeder, which fits under the printer to retain a svelte profile, for a mere $149. The paper has a rear exit for heavy stock; a rear-exit paper tray costs only $19. BEST USE: A great deal for the home- or small-office that uses a parallel port connection, particularly an office that doesn't need high-quality gray-scale graphics. Buying Information for Minolta-QMS PagePro 1100L IBM Infoprint 12WHAT'S HOT: Racy print speed puts IBM's compact new laser printer way ahead of the competition--and that's despite a reasonable $399 price, which makes it an affordable purchase for a home office. The Infoprint 12 churns out text documents at 9.5 pages per minute, almost a full page faster than the next-fastest model on the SOHO chart, Minolta-QMS's PagePro 1100L. Gray-scale graphics print at a speed that's about the SOHO chart's average: 3.1 ppm. The Infoprint 12 is substantially the same machine as NEC's SuperScript 1400 but with different drivers that give the IBM a 38 percent speed boost over the NEC. The IBM's print quality looks sharp and black--text appears crisp, and straight narrow lines remain distinct. Another plus: You can switch the paper path to exit to the rear, which avoids bending the media and reduces the risk of card stock wrinkling or labels peeling off halfway through. WHAT'S NOT: The auxiliary paper tray uses a flimsy support extension, but you'll need to unfurl it only when you use legal-size paper. Also, the control panel lights flash in complicated ways to indicate when the printer is low on paper, jammed, or ready for toner; we couldn't decipher them without the manual in hand. One other negative: Despite using the same hardware, IBM charges 25 percent more than NEC for the same toner cartridge, which comes out to 2.5 cents per page of text. WHAT ELSE: The Infoprint 12's blocky black case can't be accused of looking bland. The unit comes with 4MB of memory, probably enough for a solo user, but to share among multiple users on a network you may need to add more. To share on a network, you'll also need the optional ethernet card. For printing lots of long documents, the 550-sheet add-on feeder ($215) might come in handy. BEST USE: Cheap enough for any well-equipped home office and fast enough for any small workgroup, the Infoprint 12 is a true SOHO printer suitable for home or office. Buying Information for IBM Infoprint 12NEC SuperScript 1400
WHAT'S HOT: This is substantially the same printer that IBM markets as the Infoprint 12. It costs less ($349), produces the same crisp black text, and thanks to different drivers, even does a slightly better job on detailed fine lines, with evenly balanced weights. NEC resisted the temptation to make the SuperScript 1400's case a distinctive color, opting instead for basic beige and giving it a somewhat more streamlined shape as well. NEC doesn't include a printed manual, but the on-screen documentation is comprehensive and even includes some useful videos of setting up, removing paper jams, and so on. NEC sells toner cartridges in two sizes: A 3000-page cartridge costs $80, which comes out to 2.7 cents per page, and a 6000-page cartridge that costs only $120, or 2 cents per page. WHAT'S NOT: NEC gave the printer a faster-sounding name than IBM did, but the SuperScript 1400 doesn't print nearly as fast as the IBM Infoprint 12 does: It slides out text at 6.9 pages per minute, compared with the IBM's stellar 9.5 ppm. (Graphics speed is similar at 3 ppm.) NEC's control-panel lights baffled us to no end, with combinations of flashes that make as much sense to the uninitiated as those international signal flags on a ship. If you buy this printer, keep the documentation handy. Graphics quality is similar to the IBM's: light, but grainy and dotted. WHAT ELSE: For heavy-duty use, you can add a 550-sheet paper feeder for $199. The printer supplies parallel and USB ports, but to share it among a small workgroup on a network you'll need an ethernet card. We didn't encounter any problems running the SuperScript 1400 in single-user mode, but those in a network environment may need to bump up its 4MB of memory. BEST USE: The SuperScript 1400's performance is good enough for a small office, but larger workgroups will probably want something faster. Buying Information for NEC SuperScript 1400 Samsung ML-4500WHAT'S HOT: On a mission to save money? Samsung's new laser printer is one of the least-expensive laser printers we've seen. The ML-4500 costs only $199, no more than a midrange ink jet printer. But because it's a laser, it prints solid, professional-looking black text that suffers only a hint of roughness; it also does a creditable job on fine parallel lines. Plus, it's small, taking up only about 13 inches by 13 inches of desk space. For labels and card stock, you can switch from the standard U-shaped paper path to a straight path that exits through the front (though the front exit has no tray, so the prints drop to the desk or floor). WHAT'S NOT: Performance. The ML-4500 prints text at 5.6 pages per minute, while the next-slowest printer competing for our charts prints almost 25 percent faster. Graphics print at a lethargic 2.6 ppm and suffer from dark, smudged print quality (but to be fair, many monochrome lasers produce the same results). And the normal toner cartridge is specified for 2500 pages and costs $70, which comes out to 2.8 cents per page--the most of any of the printers we looked at this month. Worse, the cartridge Samsung provides with the printer is a "starter" unit good for only 1000 pages, so you'll have to stock up on replacements almost as soon as you unpack the box. WHAT ELSE: The ML-4500 uses a parallel port connection only; no USB-connection bargain-hunters need apply.BEST USE: A great price and sharp text quality make the ML-4500 a great buy for a home user with light printing needs but who also needs to print laser-quality documents. Buying Information for Samsung ML-4500 Lexmark Optra M412
WHAT'S HOT: The Lexmark Optra M412 squeezes out an impressive 13 text pages per minute. That's faster than any other monochrome laser on the corporate list, and at $799 this printer is a good deal in its performance range. (We tested the basic, nonnetworked model; the networked version costs $1079. Most lasers drop in speed when tested on a network, so we'll test a networked version soon.) We like the M412's print quality, which features crisp, accurate text; clean lines; and smooth graphics. The control panel's carefully designed hierarchical buttons and menu prompts make using the printer simple; you can easily get to such features as "private printing," which allows you to send a confidential print job that will wait in memory until you go to the printer and type in a password. WHAT'S NOT: The Optra M412 comes with only 4MB of memory, or 8MB for the network-ready model. That's enough RAM for a single user or for small workgroups, but it's not enough for a larger workgroup--you'll definitely want to upgrade if you keep this model in the office. The dim, grayish LCD is not backlit, so it can be hard to read. The M412 offers somewhat limited paper-handling: It has a 250-sheet main tray and a handy 100-sheet auxiliary tray, but the only expansion option is a single 500-sheet feeder. Finally, the M412 prints gray-scale graphics at only 0.7 ppm--the slowest on the chart by far. WHAT ELSE: The M412's toner cartridge installs and removes smoothly along clearly marked grooves, but the angle subjects incautious knuckles to a good raking across the lip of the case. BEST USE: The M412 is fast, quiet, and easy to operate--just the thing for a small workgroup that doesn't print a lot of graphics and doesn't have someone to manage the printer. Buying Information for Lexmark Optra M412 IBM Infoprint 21WHAT'S HOT: Hitting number four on the corporate list, IBM's Infoprint 21 packs in the features that a busy office or a big workgroup needs, including 12.2-pages-per-minute text-printing speed, 1.5-ppm graphics speed, and a suite of network-management software to thrill the IS department. The $1179 price is modest for a system that includes an ethernet interface and can hold 550 sheets of paper; if that paper capacity doesn't cut it, you can add two 550-sheet paper feeders for $359 each, as well as an envelope feeder ($369), an internal duplexer to save paper by printing on both sides of the page ($399), and a device that collates and stacks multiple copies ($419). The Infoprint 21 prints great text with solid blacks and clear letters, and it's among the leaders at keeping narrow parallel lines clean. Gray-scale images are also smooth and detailed, though light. WHAT'S NOT: The Infoprint 21 is designed to produce 1200-dpi output in PCL or PostScript, but if high-resolution PostScript is in your job description you'll have to buy some extra memory--the 32MB standard memory isn't enough. Also, the LCD is not backlit, making it tough to read unless you give the printer a coveted window seat. WHAT ELSE: We could tell before we turned on the Infoprint 21 that its control panel menus would be easy to navigate--it has separate sets of clearly marked buttons for stepping through the menus, selecting a menu item, and setting its value. Also, the printer can send heavy stock straight out the rear door instead of around a sharp curve to the main exit tray; a tray for the rear exit costs a steep $149, but you could get by without it. BEST USE: Home-based users with money to burn and lots of printing to do would enjoy the Infoprint 21's quiet, easy design, but the performance, paper capacity, and management features of this printer mark it as a better choice for a big office. Buying Information for IBM Infoprint 21 Minolta-QMS PagePro 4100WWHAT'S HOT: Minolta packs a lot of printer into a small space at a low price--in fact, you might mistake the $589 PagePro 4100W for a SOHO model. But its 11-pages-per-minute text-printing speed and 4.9-ppm graphics speed, while somewhat slow for a corporate printer, are both decidedly quicker than the speeds of a typical SOHO laser. The 4100W's fine-print quality features precise, black print, and the unit further distinguishes itself on gray-scale graphics, which come out much smoother and more detailed than the output of other more expensive lasers. WHAT'S NOT: The 4100W's control panel doesn't depend on an LCD to convey printer status in words; instead, the manual devotes eight pages to explaining how to interpret all the different combinations of flashing lights. That's not the way to manage an office printer, whose manual will probably be sequestered in the IS department. Also, though the standard 9000-page toner cartridge costs $184, breaking down to a low 2 cents per page, the starter cartridge Minolta includes with the printer is smaller, holding only 5000 pages' worth of toner. WHAT ELSE: We tested the base model, which doesn't have a network interface and comes with just 2MB of RAM. A network interface card, which would be more appropriate for most corporate settings, costs $329. If the 250-sheet tray doesn't keep you in paper, you can add one or two 500-sheet feeders at $149 each. To allow printing on both sides of the paper, Minolta sells a duplexer for $399. As with Minolta's smaller lasers, when empty the PagePro 4100W's output support tray can swivel over the mouth of the printer to seal the insides from dust. BEST USE: The PagePro 4100W is plenty fast enough for a small office, and with a network card it should be well appointed to take a place on a company-wide network. Buying Information for Minolta-QMS PagePro 4100W RELATED STORIES: Bluetooth may help disabled people use printers RELATED IDG.net STORIES: Get the best Ink Jet out there RELATED SITES: Chart of Laser Printer Ratings | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Back to the top |
© 2001 Cable News Network. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Read our privacy guidelines. |
(
