01.Introduction
Test results for 10 colour laser printers, priced from $269 to $1007 - UPDATED*
Inkjet printers were once the only way to get quality colour printing at home. You can buy all-in-one printers that combine inkjet printing, copying and scanning functions (some have fax) into one device. See our latest test of these multifunction printers to see their advantages. Inkjets undoubtedly still produce the highest quality colour photos, but printing more than just a couple can prove expensive.
That’s where a colour laser printer comes into its own. The print quality is high and the output is fast, with some laser printer engines able to spit out black and white copies at up to 20 pages per minute and only a few pages slower for colour.
We tested 10 colour laser printers designed for the home and small office to see which produced the fastest output and the best quality – but quality and speed don’t tell the full story. We also compared their ongoing running costs which, like inkjet printers, can quickly outstrip the initial purchase price. The differences were dramatic.
*Following your feedback in the Comments of this article about the high running costs of some of our recommended models, we updated this article on 23 February, 2010, to factor this into our results. As a result, some of our What to Buys have changed.
Printer brands tested
- Brother HL4040CN
- Canon Lasershot LBP5050N
- Dell 1320c [A]
- Fuji Xerox DocuPrint C1110B
- HP Colour LaserJet CP1215
- Konica Minolta Magicolour 1600W
- Kyocera FS-C5100DN
- Lexmark Professional C540N
- Oki C3300n
- Samsung CLP-315
6 Dec 2010
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The printers combine inkjet printing, copying and scanning functions (some have fax) into one device.
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