All-in-One Laser MFPs That Do It All
We test seven space-saving laser MFPs, including three that print in color.
Lisa Cekan
Copy, scan, fax, and print: Four separate machines could handle those needs, but why tax your budget and your desk space when one machine can do it all? Most laser multifunction printers today handle all four tasks with more flair than inkjet MFPs and with performance rivaling that of stand-alone units. A handful of laser MFPs even let you add eye-catching color to your documents.
Selecting a laser MFP can be complicated, given the number of features to use as buying criteria. Still, MFPs can be a good deal if you know what you want.
The PC World Test Center ran seven laser MFPs through their paces, testing their printing, scanning, and copying output. We also tried linking the network-ready models to our office's local-area network, which in some cases opened up a world of additional features (see "Navigating the Networking Maze").
Picking the Right MFP
Once you've settled on purchasing an MFP rather than a stand-alone product, you need to decide whether an inkjet or a laser model better suits your needs. The choice is easy if you use your printer for business. Inkjets can produce colorful documents and outstanding photos (see June's Top 10 Printers), but they simply can't match the speed and professional document quality of a laser printer. And now that color has arrived in lower-cost laser MFPs, you no longer have to sacrifice color for sharp text quality in business documents.
Nor do you have to sacrifice quality: Most of today's laser MFPs compare favorably to dedicated laser printers in speed and print quality. Monochrome laser MFPs continue to offer a good range of office-oriented features and match the performance of single-function printers. Color laser MFPs are packed with features, too, but they're often slower than their stand-alone competition.
Unfortunately, in scan quality, laser MFPs usually fall short of the mark that single-function products set. And though an MFP typically comes bundled with an automatic document feeder, you usually won't get a transparency adapter--a common accessory for ordinary scanners.
Mono: The Value Option
Just as with stand-alone laser printers, if you're willing to give up color, your all-in-one will give you better performance for your dollar. The monochrome laser MFPs we tested performed at about the same level as their single-function counterparts, for a cost of only a few hundred dollars more. Each of the models that we evaluated--including our Best Buy, Brother's MFC-8840DN--costs $500 or less, and can handle even a busy home or small office's daily work output.
The average monochrome text speed for the MFPs we tested was 14.5 pages per minute, versus 14.2 ppm for similarly priced stand-alone laser printers from our November 2004 roundup. The single-function lasers we examined printed grayscale graphics only slightly faster than the MFPs did, averaging 7.4 ppm versus 6.1 ppm. The MFP with the fastest text printing performance was the monochrome Samsung SCX-4720F at 16.3 ppm, followed closely by the Brother MFC-8840DN. (We first tested the Brother back in October 2004. This month we retested it so that we could include hands-on testing on a network.)
Though monochrome print speeds impressed, print image quality was more of a mixed bag. The Brother and Samsung led the way, generating clean, razor-sharp text and crisp line art. The Brother MFP excelled at printing grayscale graphics, showing smooth transitions in our test photo. The Canon ImageClass MF5750 and the HP produced middling results: Both units output generally clean text documents but had serious problems on grayscale graphics. The HP model tripped over itself on our test black-and-white photo: The printed image revealed pixelation and distinct moiré patterns.
As with text speeds, the scanning speeds of this crop of monochrome laser MFPs matched those of stand-alone scanners fairly well. (Note: All of the monochrome laser MFPs we tested can scan in color.) They scanned a sample color document in 31.4 seconds on average, compared with 35.5 seconds for stand-alone scanners. And though some monochrome MFPs outperformed the color ones, none of the all-in-ones produced scan quality up to the level of a stand-alone scanner. In fact, many of our test scans struggled with skin tones and color accuracy, and some looked dull and fuzzy.
Of the monochrome group, the Canon fared best overall on scan quality, while the compact HP LaserJet 3030 did worst, hampered by reddish, fuzzy graphics (text documents looked markedly better). The Brother unit also produced accurate colors in printouts of scanned output.
In copier mode, the monochrome units all tested within a second or two of each other, but exhibited a wide range of image quality. The Brother and the sensibly designed Canon MF5750 did best at copying; the Samsung had some issues, however, producing light, jagged lettering.
The Brother and the Samsung stand out among the monochromes for their extra features. Brother includes ScanSoft's PaperPort software and a built-in duplexer, a good deal given the printer's sub-$500 price. Samsung offers a nifty extra USB 2.0 port so you can print directly from a USB storage device such as a flash drive or hard drive. Both models also supply a plethora of fax presets--a plus for offices with a heavy load of daily faxing.
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
Navigating the Networking Maze
In addition to their standard repertoire of scan, copy, print, and fax, many of today's laser MFPs can connect to a network and handle network scanning and faxing. The additional tools you can access may depend not only on the MFP you have, but on how you configure it on the network.
There are two ways to set up an MFP on a network. The first involves installing the drivers on a server, after which each client machine finds the print and fax drivers on the server and sends jobs through them.
The main advantage of this configuration is that the network manager retains control over the print properties and settings for the printer and for all clients that use it. Also, a print queue on the server manages print jobs, so the printer doesn't get overloaded with jobs sent simultaneously from multiple clients. Typically, though, under this method you lose the ability to use the MFP's scanner and fax capabilities.
The second method for connecting an MFP is via peer-to-peer networking. In this scenario you install the software and drivers on each client individually. Often, as in the case of the Brother MFC-8840DN and the HP Color LaserJet 2840, a network installation option loads all of the drivers and software necessary for the MFP's functions on each PC on the network.
The peer-to-peer approach is well suited for small workgroups. It lets you use the unit to scan a document to a folder on the network; but it also means that the network manager must install the software on each workstation (or put the drivers on the network for others to access), and individual users retain more control over the printer's settings. And with no print server, you may also run into problems if too many users try to print at one time.
Be sure you understand the networking capabilities of a prospective MFP before you buy. For example, you can connect the Canon ImageClass MF8170C to a network only in a server-client configuration; and if you install the Brother, the Canon, or the HP in a server-client environment, you lose the networked scanning function.
In contrast, Xerox's WorkCentre C2424 has a best-of-both-worlds networking option. I installed the print drivers on PC World's test server running Windows Server 2003; then, at each client station I installed all of the software and drivers via the printer's embedded Web server--a convenience that eliminates the need either to put the drivers on the network or to carry an installation disk to each client PC.
The remaining MFPs (all monochrome) in this roundup offer external ethernet options, ranging in price from $200 to $300; all but the Samsung limit you to using only the printer component via the network.