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Add a Splash of Color

Bright colors can liven up any document, whether it's a marketing report, a brochure for your business, or a program for your child's swim meet. Color laser MFPs offer one-stop shopping for anyone who needs to print in color, but you'll have to accept more trade-offs if you choose one over a single-function color laser printer. Two of the color devices we saw--Canon's ImageClass MF8170C (our Best Buy) and HP's Color LaserJet 2840--each cost $999; the third model, Xerox's $2999 WorkCentre C2424, has features geared toward larger workgroups.

Perhaps the biggest compromise is in speed: The three color laser MFPs we tested printed monochrome text documents at an average of 9.6 pages per minute, and the one that was fastest at printing text--the Xerox WorkCentre C2424--printed at only 11.2 ppm. In February's Top 10 Color Laser Printers chart, the average text speed of comparably priced stand-alone color laser printers was 17 ppm, nearly twice the MFPs' average. Overall, HP's Color LaserJet 2840 was the most sluggish of the seven MFPs we tested: It printed text documents at 7 ppm (interestingly, that's on a par with the speeds we noted on our June inkjet printers chart) and color graphics at 1.3 ppm.

Graphics print speeds were also significantly slower for these MFPs as a group: They turned in an average of 2.9 ppm compared with an average of 4.3 ppm for the stand-alone color lasers on our February chart. The Xerox proved the speediest, even beating the average page rate of our stand-alone models; at 5.5 ppm, it was over 4 ppm faster than the poky HP.

The Canon's print output quality was top-notch: Text looked sharp, and images displayed balanced colors. The MF8170C won't print on photo paper; but color images that we printed on plain paper appeared vibrant and smooth, with bright reds and blues and little pixelation.

In text quality, the HP Color LaserJet 2840 matched the color Canon's output. Printed grayscale graphics had a smooth texture and little banding, though our test pages came out a bit too dark. Its color graphics were mostly good, showing smooth transitions, attractive contrast, and generally realistic (though oversaturated) color. A print of our test image on photo paper looked vibrant, with some pixelation.

Unfortunately, the Xerox stumbled on print image quality. The unit's text looked thick, with slightly jagged edges, and narrow parallel lines merged into a mess of overlapping light and dark sections. Though our grayscale image had fairly good contrast, it was very grainy. Color graphics were muted and off-kilter; people had slightly orange skin tones, as if they were suffering from heat exhaustion.

The color laser MFPs printed slowly, but they scanned fairly speedily: The average time the three units took to scan a color document was 27 seconds, versus an average of 43 seconds for a range of similarly priced stand-alone models from our March Top 10 Scanners chart. Unfortunately, you probably won't like what you see. Our test color scans often came out garish, fuzzy, and pixelated; and they lacked the sharpness and color accuracy possible from a single-function scanner. Only Canon's MF8170C did moderately well: Its scans, whether printed or viewed on screen, reproduced color and detail nicely, showing good skin tones and accurate lines.

The copy speeds of the color MFPs we tested were just a second or two apart. But their image quality varied greatly, from the Canon's deft text reproduction to the Xerox's too-light duplication.

HP provides several photo-specific features, including integrated media card slots and the company's HP Image Zone organizing and editing software. In addition, you can mark a proof sheet with the photos you want to print; after it has rescanned the proof sheet, the 2840 will print the photos you've chosen.

The Xerox model faltered on imaging tests, but it excels at networking (see the sidebar). This model is clearly designed for heavy workflow, with an abundance of paper-handling options and extra trays (to expand capacity by more than 2.5 times).

Ready, Set, MFP

Though MFP lasers still have some weaknesses, the performance gap between them and stand-alone laser printers has narrowed. The Brother MFC-8840DN remains one of the faster MFPs around, and it gave us consistently good image quality. With an automatic duplexer and standard networkability for $490, the MFC-8840DN makes a great choice for a small office or workgroup.

For now, color laser MFPs and color laser printers have the most noticeable performance difference. Depending on your needs, however, the benefits of a color MFP may outweigh the sacrifices you make. Of the three units we tested, the Canon ImageClass MF8170C had the best balance of price and performance. It was faster than the HP Color LaserJet 2840 and delivered better print and scan quality than both the HP and the Xerox.

Lisa Cekan