Dell 968w

For a machine that's intended primarily to push paper, however, the 968w could be better designed. The 50-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF) is nice, but the front-mounted, 150-sheet input tray seems flimsy; its guides and markings are hard to see, as well. A second 150-sheet input tray costs $69. The top of the tray catches output (100 pages), but you must retract its extension every time you load paper--and if you're using legal-size paper, the extension gets in the way a bit. An automatic duplexer (for two-sided printing) is a $79 option.

Deep within the output area lurks a particularly troublesome component: a pair of spring-loaded guides for feeding a single envelope or other thick media. They're supposed to close in securely on both sides of the media, but I couldn't get them to work properly--my photo paper always skewed.

The 968w's pricey inks are business-unfriendly. The $26 high-yield black (K) cartridge lasts 490 pages, or 5.3 cents per page. The $32 high-yield tricolor cartridge lasts 400 pages, or 6.3 cents per page. Figuring out how to reach the cartridges is challenging, too, as you get no obvious handle for lifting the scanner unit to do so--just a subtle side indentation.

The 968w is a good machine overall. I just can't recommend it quite as highly as I would Lexmark's X9575 Professional or HP's OfficeJet J6480 All-in-One, both of which offer similar (or better) capabilities for about the same price.

--Melissa Riofrio