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Macworld Buying Guides: Color laser printers | Macworld
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The Apple, Mac, iPod, and iPhone Experts
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Nov 21, 2008 3:37 am
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Macworld Buying Guides: Color laser printers
What to look for in a color laser printer—and three models you should consider
by Chris Holt, Macworld.com
Color laser printers offer great speed and reliability for demanding business and home users. At their best when put to work in a network
setting, color laser printers allow multiple users to take advantage of the high speeds and duplexing capabilities of the printer.
Oki C6150dn
But how to weigh those advantages? We’ve got some tips on shopping for a color laser printer if you’re in the market for one this holiday
season. And we’ve got a trio of recommendations for models that passed muster in our tests.
Color laser printer buying advice
Consider the cost Most quality color laser printers run in the range of $400 to $600 and are on the heavy side (around 50 pounds). They
are a bigger investment than standard printers and require more room to operate. Most come with longer warranties than typical inkjet
printers, however.
Two sides are better than one Printers that offer duplexing can print on both sides of the page—a useful feature for users who want to
maximize speed and efficiency. And printing on both sides of a page ultimately saves you money on paper.
On a related note, color laser printers cost less per page to print than their inkjet counterparts; they’re also more environmentally friendly.
What to look for When judging a color laser printer, there are two key factors you should focus on—speed and text quality. Macworld Lab
includes both time trials and jury ratings in our color laser printer reviews—make sure to look at both when deciding which model to buy.
Brother HL-4070CDW
A quality color laser printer typically prints 10 pages in around 30 to 45 seconds. As for our jury tests of printing quality—which also include
ratings on the quality of image and graphics output—a quality color laser printer score a rating of “very good” or better in our text-quality test.
Ponder Postscript Postscript capability or emulation is an important ability to consider. Postscript is a print description language that
enables color laser printers to handle high-quality graphics alongside text. No longer an absolute necessity, Postscript printing is still
important as it takes the load off your computer’s CPU and allows the use of certain types of fonts.
Our favorite color laser printers
The Oki C6150dn (
) produces great-looking prints and includes built-in duplexing. It also offers easy network connectivity and quick
printing speeds. It’s particularly ideal for printing top-quality brochures and handouts with photo elements. Read our full review. [$600 (Get
best current price for the Oki C6150dn); Oki Data]
11/24/2008
Macworld Buying Guides: Color laser printers | Macworld
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Xerox Phaser 6180/DN
The Brother HL-4070CDW (
) is a color laser printer perfect for a small-to-midsize workgroup and comes packed with a ton of useful
features—wireless networking, duplexing capabilities, and PostScript compatibility (via emulation). It also delivers speedy performance, ease
of use, and excellent print quality for a relatively low price for laser printers. Read our full review. [$500 (Get best current price for the Brother
HL-4070CDW); Brother]
The Xerox Phaser 6180/DN (
) is a color laser printer that’s also aimed at the small- to midsize-business crowd. It produces clean, crisp
copy and features 10/100BaseTX Ethernet networking capability, automatic duplexing, and Adobe PostScript 3 compatibility. Though it’s
been on the market for a while, the Phaser 6180/DN remains one of the most user-friendly printers out there. Read our full review. [$649
(Get best current price for the Xerox Phaser 6180/DN); Xerox]
[Chris Holt is an assistant editor at Macworld.]
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11/24/2008
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