Today small offices have a wide selection of printers to choose from. Color printers may be inkjets, lasers, and models based on other technologies; and monochrome lasers remain an economical choice. Another option is a multifunction printer, sometimes called an "all-in-one," which combines printing, scanning, copying, and faxing functions.
The first part of this guide details how four printers we've recently tested could work well in your small office, with links to the charts in which they are ranked and to our Shop & Compare pricing tool. (Keep in mind that online prices fluctuate constantly.) The second part of the guide offers tips on how to find the best printer for your particular work situation.
Best Printers for Small or Home Offices
The best printers for a small office or home office generate pages quickly and produce crisp output on plain paper as well as on special media. Higher-end models can hold more paper or can print in duplex mode. Multifunction printers perform a wider set of tasks without skimping on efficiency.
The following recently reviewed models are among the best small-business buys we've seen: Canon's Pixma iP4500 and Dell's 1720dn Laser Printer are top-ranked because they're good at pretty much everything as well as being affordable. The HP OfficeJet Pro L7680 is expensive but offers plenty of features and speed in return.
- PCW Rating: 82 (Very Good)
- Rank: #2 on PC World's Top 10 Inkjet Printers chart (November 2007)
- Recent low price online: $125
Our review unit earned a performance score of 90, one of the highest scores we've seen from an inkjet printer. (Note: Performance is one of four attributes we use in computing the total rating for a product. The others are price, specifications, and design.)
Drawbacks: My primary design complaint relates to the scattered control buttons. All have icons instead of plain-English labels, so they're harder to identify. Photos of people looked excessively yellow.
- PCW Rating: 80 (Very Good)
- Rank: #1 on PC World's Top 5 Monochrome Lasers chart (January 2007)
- Recent low price online: $99
Our review unit earned a good performance score of 79.
Drawbacks: The main input tray feels a bit flimsy. Though the control panel is clearly labeled, you have to consult the manual to figure out the meaning of some of the blinking-light patterns.
- PCW Rating: 77 Good
- Rank: #7 on PC World's Top 10 Inkjet Multifunction Printers chart (September 2007)
- Recent low price online: $319
Our review unit earned a performance score of 80, making it one of the faster color inkjet MFPs we've tested.
Drawbacks: It's expensive, and print quality is middling overall.
Dell Color Laser Printer 1320c
- PCW Rating: 84 (Very Good)
- Rank: #1 on PC World's Top 10 Color Lasers chart (August 2007)
- Recent low price online: $229
Our review unit earned a performance score of 79, a middling score for a color printer.
Drawbacks: The 1320c's text print speeds were mediocre (but output looked okay). The control panel is confusing. The toner cartridge's low capacity (1000 to 2000 pages) translates into higher costs for both black and color pages--at best, 3 cents for a half-page of black text and 15 cents for a page with small amounts of black plus all three colors. Low-volume users may not notice for a while, but a busier office will feel the pinch pretty quickly.
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