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Top 10 Color Laser Printers

Xerox's new, affordable Phaser 8400N earns second place on this month's chart, but Oki Data's Oki C7300n remains the undisputed top choice.

Eric Butterfield

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C7300N COLOR LED PRINTER 20PPM COLOR 24PPM MONO NETWRK 128MB (Okidata-62417304) PCW Rating: PCW Rating: PCW Rating:

Last Rated: April 01, 2004

1. Oki Data C7300N COLOR LED PRINTER 20PPM COLOR 24PPM MONO NETWRK 128MB (Okidata-62417304)

Rated 24 ppm monochrome; 20 ppm color, 1200-by-600-dpi maximum color resolution, Banner-size paper, maximum, 630 pages input, 500 output, 16.9 by 24.4 by 16.9 inches; 105 pounds, Street price when ranked: $1990

Bottom Line: The C7300n did a stellar job when printing monochrome text or line art; and especially when printing color, it was very fast for the price. Color images, though detailed, had a dotty texture.

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Phaser 8400N PCW Rating: 57.1PCW Rating: 57.1PCW Rating: 57.1

Last Rated: January 27, 2004

2. Xerox Phaser 8400N

Rated 12 ppm monochrome; 12 ppm color, 600-by-600-dpi maximum color resolution, Legal-size paper, maximum, 625 pages input, 250 output, 16.3 by 21 by 14.5 inches; 59 pounds, Street price when ranked: $1299

Bottom Line: This solid-ink printer produced very crisp text and attractive color photos. Line art and gray-scale photos, however, looked unappealing. Built-in duplexer is included.

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Phaser 7300DN Laser Printer (Xerox-7300DN) PCW Rating: PCW Rating: PCW Rating:

Last Rated: April 01, 2004

3. Xerox Phaser 7300DN Laser Printer (Xerox-7300DN)

Rated 37 ppm monochrome; 30 ppm color, 600-by-2400-dpi maximum color resolution, Tabloid-size paper, maximum, 650 pages input, 600 output, 26.2 by 24.7 by 18.1 inches; 149 pounds, Street price when ranked: $4100

Bottom Line: Still the fastest printer on the chart, this well-designed model printed very sharp text and line art, and it comes with a built-in duplexer. Color photos, however, looked oversaturated and grainy.

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Aficio CL5000 PCW Rating: PCW Rating: PCW Rating:

Last Rated: February 27, 2003

4. Ricoh Aficio CL5000

Rated 36 ppm monochrome; 10 ppm color, 1800-by-600-dpi maximum color resolution, Tabloid-size paper, maximum, 350 pages input, 400 output, 25 by 26.4 by 18.5 inches; 130 pounds, Street price when ranked: $2999

Bottom Line: The CL5000 printed razor-sharp text at a rapid clip, and it can handle 12-by-18-inch paper. It's slow at printing in color, however.

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C9500DXN PCW Rating: PCW Rating: PCW Rating:

Last Rated: April 01, 2004

5. Oki Data C9500DXN

Rated 37 ppm monochrome; 30 ppm color, 1200-by-1200-dpi maximum color resolution, Banner-size paper, maximum, 650 pages input, 500 output, 26.2 by 23.2 by 18.2 inches; 155 pounds, Street price when ranked: $4765

Bottom Line: The C9500dxn has a long list of features, including lots of RAM, and it was consistently fast in our tests. It generated extremely good-looking text.

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COLOR LASERJET 5500N PRINTER 22PPM A4 96MB 500 PAPER TRAY (HP (Hewlett-Packard)-C7131A) PCW Rating: PCW Rating: PCW Rating:

Last Rated: April 01, 2004

6. HP COLOR LASERJET 5500N PRINTER 22PPM A4 96MB 500 PAPER TRAY (HP (Hewlett-Packard)-C7131A)

Rated 21 ppm monochrome; 21 ppm color, 600-by-600-dpi maximum color resolution, Tabloid-size paper, maximum, 600 pages input, 250 output, 22.7 by 27.7 by 25.2 inches; 132.2 pounds, Street price when ranked: $3550

Bottom Line: The 5500n turned out great text and line art, but it produced dark, muddy gray-scale images. Though it printed color photos quickly, its other times were average.

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One-Pass Color Laser Printer 17/21PPM 64MB (Panasonic-KXCL500) PCW Rating: PCW Rating: PCW Rating:

Last Rated: June 18, 2003

7. Panasonic One-Pass Color Laser Printer 17/21PPM 64MB (Panasonic-KXCL500)

Rated 21 ppm monochrome; 16.9 ppm color, 1200-by-1200-dpi maximum color resolution, Legal-size paper, maximum, 630 pages input, 250 output, 16.5 by 21.1 by 15.5 inches; 65.7 pounds, Street price when ranked: $1199

Bottom Line: The KX-CL500 printed excellent text; but diagonal lines in graphic art looked jagged, and color photos looked splotchy and fuzzy. Control panel menus were easy to navigate.

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Magicolor 2300 DL PCW Rating: PCW Rating: PCW Rating:

Last Rated: February 27, 2003

8. Minolta-QMS Magicolor 2300 DL

Rated 16 ppm monochrome; 4 ppm color, 600-by-2400-dpi maximum color resolution, Legal-size paper, maximum, 200 pages input, 200 output, 14 by 19.7 by 15.4 inches; 61.2 pounds, Street price when ranked: $799

Bottom Line: This surprisingly capable small-office printer has a great price. It produced sharp text, though not quite up to the standard set by other units.

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HL4200 CN COLOR LASER PRINTER 26 PPM 1200 DPI 64 MB (Brother-HL4200CN) PCW Rating: PCW Rating: PCW Rating:

Last Rated: March 31, 2004

9. Brother HL4200 CN COLOR LASER PRINTER 26 PPM 1200 DPI 64 MB (Brother-HL4200CN)

Rated 26 ppm monochrome; 26 ppm color, 1200-by-1200-dpi maximum color resolution, Legal-size paper, maximum, 600 pages input, 250 output, 17.3 by 23.2 by 17.5 inches; 77.2 pounds, Street price when ranked: $1999

Bottom Line: Text looked crisp, though a burlap-like texture marred prints of both black-and-white and color photos, both of which lacked detail in shadows. Built-in duplexer is included.

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C5100N Color LED Printer (Okidata-62418601) PCW Rating: PCW Rating: PCW Rating:

Last Rated: April 01, 2004

10. Oki Data C5100N Color LED Printer (Okidata-62418601)

Rated 20 ppm monochrome; 12 ppm color, 1200-by-600-dpi maximum color resolution, Legal-size paper, maximum, 400 pages input, output not rated, 16.6 by 20.7 by 13.6 inches; 57.3 pounds, Street price when ranked: $799

Bottom Line: The C5100n printed razor-sharp text. Line art, however, didn't look crisp. Color photo prints lacked detail and had a very reddish cast. Black-and-white photos showed good detail.

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The overall rating for color laser printers is based on print quality (25 percent), price (25 percent), features (15 percent), ease of use (15 percent), speed (10 percent), and service and support (10 percent). For all ratings, higher is better. Data based on tests designed and conducted by the PC World Test Center. All rights reserved.

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