Dell Dell Multifunction Color Laser Printer 3115cn

The plain control panel (typical for Dell) is not always easy to use. Navigation buttons move through menus displayed on the four-line monochrome LCD. The main menu list doesn't scroll through to the beginning; rather, you must back out the way you came. The messages displayed on the LCD often lack helpful prompts or read more like machine code than natural English. The documentation can be vague on how to adjust menu settings, too.

The front of the printer is complex: You open one large panel to reveal the multipurpose tray, and another, even larger, panel behind it to reach the machine's innards. Strong, geared arms control the inner panel's descent to protect the transfer belt attached to it. Mucking around inside the printer with this key part exposed made me nervous, but that's the only way to reach the toner cartridges arrayed within. They are easy to insert and remove.

Toner costs are quite low for the category. The high-capacity cartridges, all designed to last 8000 pages, cost $110 for black (1.4 cents per page) and $215 for each color (2.7 cents per page, per color), but even the standard-capacity cartridges that come with the machine (a 5000-page black one and a 4000-page one for each color) are reasonably priced.

Equipped with the speed and features to satisfy a busy small office or department, Dell's Multifunction Color Laser Printer 3115cn is a solid buy in most ways. If you need high-quality photo printing, however, the Xerox Phaser 6180MFP does a better, albeit slower, job.

--Melissa Riofrio