Sharp Sharp AR-C200P

Working with the AR-C200P is easy. The hinged lid opens all the way to reveal the toner cartridges and imaging drums sitting in a basket across the top; you can lift the basket completely out of the machine, exposing the paper path and other components. Another door on the printer's front face provides reach-in access to the paper path. We also found the control panel easy to use, thanks to a backlit LCD and separate buttons for each level of the menu hierarchy. Sharp supplies Oki's in-depth on-screen manuals. However, unlike most newer color laser printers, the AR-C200P doesn't include an internal Web server with its network management tools--instead, the tools function as a client on a Web server running IIS and SNMP. Therefore, only a skilled network manager should attempt to implement features like client controls.

The AR-C200P has a 530-sheet main tray and a 100-sheet auxiliary feed, though you can expand its paper capacity with one or two extra 530-sheet trays for $520 each. Sharp offers no other paper-handling options. Based on PC World's page-yield test, toner for the AR-C200P costs 13 cents per color page--the average. Sharp, like Oki Data, warrants the printer's LED arrays for five years; the rest of the machine gets one year of coverage.

Upshot: The AR-C200P boasts exceptional text quality and speeds, but many less-expensive models print comparable-quality graphics faster, and offer longer support hours.

Dan Littman