The basic laser printer from Dell, the 1320c prints at a best resolution of 600 X 600 dpi. Printing speed is average at 16ppm for black and 12ppm for colour. It’s an Ethernet printer and the major claims that it is best suited as a small office printer out of the box. This printer carries a price tag of £135.

At a slightly higher price of £150, Dell takes out the colour printing and Ethernet function and enhances the resolution and speed of the printer with 2330d. Best printing resolution is at 1200 X 1200 dpi and offers a printing speed of 35ppm. Networked variation of this printer is also available as 2330dn at an extra £10.

The one designed for large enterprises, 7330dn prints at a whopping speed of 50ppm. First page spits out in less than 7 seconds, as claimed by the manufacturer. It can handle paper sizes up to 11” X 17”. As expected, it features automatic duplex printing and two 500-page paper trays. Monthly duty cycle is massive at 300,000. With great features come a standout price and this feature rich printer is priced at £1600.

TX600FW leverages upon Epson patented DURABrite Ultra Ink technology that provides a resin coated finish which results in high quality prints. There are four individual cartridges (CMYK) on this printer; cyan, magenta, yellow and black, only the ink that runs out needs replacement. Epson claims that an intelligent ink cartridge system available on the printer can detect the exact levels of ink even if a cartridge is removed and reinstalled.

Printing speed is top notch at 38ppm for black and 19ppm for colour. Photo printing is the quickest we have heard of at 20 seconds per 4” X 6” photograph.

There are other additional features that go without saying such as a tilt adjustable 2.5” LCD screen and provision for hooking cameras and memory cards. Software provided with the printer contains several photo enhancement features which should gel well with home users in particular.

This feature rich Epson inkjet printer is priced just over £100 and the Epson ink cartridges are available in extra capacity variation as well.

This Samsung laser printer prints, scans and faxes, even over a network; additionally doubles up as a standalone fax machine, copier, and e-mail sender. Users can directly scan-to or print-from USB drives through a USB slot provided in the front portion of the printer. Surprisingly, the CLX-3175FN also features a PictBridge port which is an oasis for laser printers.

Output quality generally is good, but the monochrome output is below par when compared with other laser printers. Graphics output was better with fully saturated colour and solid fills. When observed carefully, white gaps were found between blocks of colours which can upset perfectionists. Photo printing was good enough for a laser printer but colour imbalances were observed on monochrome photo outputs.

Printing speed is below par for a laser printer. Samsung claims that the printer can output 17ppm for monochrome and 4ppm for colour. During the tests, the actual printing speeds were 13ppm and 2ppm respectively.

The printer is priced just over £200 and the array of features it offers, lures customers into buying it. Great features, yet ordinary outputs can eventually put off many potential buyers. At the end of the day, it’s the output from a printer that matters rather than all the other things that it can perform. A good blend of features and outputs would be ideal for any consumer.

Bret Bottger, an HP employee states that the printing costs involved with their office inkjet printers is up to 50% cheaper than that of laser printers (comparison with non-HP laser printer and not a HP laser printer interestingly). He is referring to companies that are sized up to 25 employees and not large enterprises.

Some reasons for backing office inkjet printers over lasers include:
• Lower cost per page (CPP) than lasers
• Lower energy use than lasers
• Professional print quality
• Faster print speeds than low-end lasers
• Lower purchase price than low-end lasers
• Complete set of office features
• Choice of fill-level in ink cartridges and specialty papers tailored to individual office needs
• Brand strength and reliability

To prove that HP isn’t shooting arrows into thin hair, they refer to a test commissioned by them that showed that HP Officejet had a net saving over Samsung’s ML1620 monochrome laser printer. Their colour prints were cheaper than Samsung’s monochrome prints.

Why are they comparing a HP inkjet printer with a non-HP laser printer? We would like to know the results when they compare a HP inkjet printer with a HP laser printer. I do not believe that the results would be much different either. HP has the rare distinction of having the most expensive cost-per-page for all the HP printers we have seen by far.

To conclude, smaller businesses might be benefitted by inkjet printers rather than laser printers, but it all comes down to the volume of printing. The universal thumb rule is simple, if your printing is volume is more, laser printers are ideal else, head towards inkjet printers.

Putting great features on a product along with the quality and rate of output is the backend face of success, whereas advertising the product with the right punches makes a product popular, and hence success that follows. Brother has tied up with Didsbury’s Clear Marketing Communications last year and the company latest ad for the Brother inkjet printer, MFC-6490CW, the world’s first compact A3 inkjet printer that also copies, scans and faxes is jaw dropping, literally.

The campaign is aimed at homes and small-to-medium businesses. The ad features a man with a photoshopped elongated jaw with the MFC-6490CW printer sitting waist high at his front. This is sufficient to lure consumers into reading it, which states what consumers need to know – “Print, copy, scan and fax in stunning A3 colour for under £250”, and a Brother logo at the right bottom.

Managing director of Clear Marketing Communications, Jim Smith said: “The campaign has been deliberately designed to have maximum standout and grab attention for what is a fantastic proposition. “It is also in keeping with our previous acclaimed adverts created for Brother UK to reinforce a clear creative identity for the brand. “It is visually arresting while clearly communicating the key message of incredible value.”

Phil Jones, Sales and Marketing Director for Brother UK, said, “Early response in terms of interest in and orders for the MFC-6490CW printer has been phenomenal and we’re confident that our new press campaign will capitalise on the product’s clear benefits over similar printers on the market.”

The printer is smartly designed with a touch of classic HP feel coupled with modern simplicity; controls are located on the top end like most HP inkjet printers.

Installation of this printer is a tedious process, very much unlike HP. The printer doesn’t have permanent feeder trays and the temporary ones result in misfeeds, quite often. Putting this printer onto a wireless network requires this printer to connected to a computer through USB during setup, which can pose problems if your printer is situated far away from the computer.

Printing quality for monochrome text is almost-laser-like. Colour graphics are no lesser than the monochrome counterparts, matching the original to the finest detail. Photo printing is exceptional with an ideal combination of natural looking colours and good definition. Photos fared better on HP Advanced Photo paper as advertised by the company.

Printing speed is relatively good over printers in the same segment but well below par over laser printers. Monochrome printing speed was tested to be at 6ppm where the claimed speed is 50% over at 9ppm. Colour printing speed is worse at 2ppm whereas the claimed is 300% more at 6ppm. A 4” X 6” photograph took around 2 minutes to print.

The printer is moderately priced at £80 but it was found that the price of printing was on the higher side, especially for colour graphics. It was estimated that the cost-per-print for a monochrome print is around 2.6p and for a colour document at 9p.

It’s definitely a good printer for the quality of printing and the features it offers at the price. Misfeeds can be annoying. Ideally suited for homes and home offices.

This series comes in six different flavours, each differentiating the other in some feature or the other. Some models are capable of stapling multiple sets of documents up to 50 pages. One model boasts of 80GB hard drive for storing documents to enable quick printing.

Printing, scanning and copying speeds are lightning quick at 55ppm. A professional copier does not produce as many copies as the X658, and hence the title. It is learnt that many companies are doing away with bulky copiers for this printer.

The input tray is humongous at 2300 pages. Maintenance on this printer is made simple with high yield cartridges that last up to 36,000 pages. As expected for a high end laser printer such as this, duplex printing is available as default.

Prices start from £1900 which is economical for an office printer that can deliver at such great efficiencies as claimed. But, as wise men have coined – the proof of the pudding is in the taste; we need to review it before drawing conclusions.

The printer is boxy and generally unattractive when compared to the likes of Samsung printers, but does cover a smaller footprint. Paper trays are aplenty with a 500-page main tray supported by an additional tray and a 100-page multi-function tray. Printer controls are made simple with navigation keys.

A particular button on the control panel – Reprint – provides a gaping loophole for data security. The last print job is saved in the printer cache memory and can be automatically printed by the click of this button. There are no options on the printer to disable this button.

Print quality for black text is excellent with sharp, dark and well formed characters. Graphic output is not the greatest but is forgivable as the main job for a monochrome printer is to print text material.

Claimed printing speed is 24ppm and as we have witnessed these many years, the claimed and actual speeds are never close. For this printer, actual printing speed is not far-off at 20ppm. Surprisingly, printing speed does not deteriorate when duplex printing is employed; printing speed for duplex printing is 10ppm.

The printer drum needs replacement after printing 30,000 pages where as each toner cartridge should last for 7500 pages, which should make maintenance job a little easier. Calculating the costs of the toner, drum and stationary, each printout works out to be 0.83p which is one of the most economical printers that we have seen in quite some time. The printer itself costs around £300, depending on where you buy it from.

An ideal printer for every office!!! It produce great prints at a quick time and what more, it’s economical. But, users must be aware of the deadly Reprint button while printing sensitive documents.

We need to have an inkjet printer which can handle cards, and preferably a printer that has a paper path that doesn’t involve turning of sheets. Laser printers that print in colour and the one that fits the bill with the card feeder will also be a good alternative. If we have a printer that turns the paper by 180 degrees, we will need to employ a special kind of card that doesn’t curl nor bend upon turning.

To design a card, we need some DTP software that contains templates for creating cards for all occasions. Some of the popular DTP programs include MS Publisher, InDesign, PagePlus among several others. Some inkjet printers come with proprietary DTP software which may very well be employed.

TR has published a tutorial for designing cards using Serif’s PagePlus which is one of the leading DTP software, and is widely used by professionals today. The process defined for creating a card involves minimal graphic skills and can be completed on the fly.

Now, for the most important part of any discussion, the price!!! If we are printing our own cards, chances are good that the price of each card that we produce may turn out to be more expensive than the ones available in the market. This is due to the sheer volumes of cards the printers produce that helps them reduce their costs, and hence would be a cheaper alternative to producing our own cards. TR estimates that the price of each card might fall between 75p and £1.

The base model, P2035 has a best printing resolution of 600 dpi and prints at a speed of 30ppm. The printer has a 266 MHz processor and 16MB memory for caching prints. The printer has two print trays, 250 page and 150 page. Connectivity is through USB and parallel ports and the printer is compatible with Windows, Linux and Mac operating systems. P2035 has a quiet mode that brings down the printer noise levels to 50 dB; however, the printing speed also dips along with the sound which is disappointing. Manufacturer claims that the printer does not release ozone during its operation. HP has set a nominal price of £160 for this printer.

The next model, P2055d contains all the features of the former with some enhancements. It has a best printing resolution of 1200 dpi. The two paper trays can hold 250 and 800 pages each. Internal memory on the printer is quadrupled at 64 MB. This printer is estimated to cost £240 in the market.

P2055dn as the suffix n denotes is a networking printer. It can connect onto networks through the Ethernet port located on the backside of the printer. While all the printer features are similar to P2055d, it contains more memory at 128 MB and can be expanded until 384 MB. The networking and additional memory has taken the price of this printer to £320.