The Brother MFC-9970CDW color laser multifunction printer tackles the full laundry list of small-office and workgroup print/copy/scan/fax needs, outdoing every competitor in its price range (US$700 as of July 18, 2011) and offering cheap toner to boot. The only thing wrong with this picture is, well, the picture: Its photo quality is middling, and its color scans can be overly dark.
The printer ate your TPS reports, but no excuse matters when you're rushing off to meet clients empty-handed. No wonder everybody loves to hate printers. When you need them most, they'll display a stupefying error message and create a hot mess of jammed paper and spilled ink.
Ready to buy a printer? These are the specs you need to understand to make an informed choice.
Konica Minolta's biggest problem with its Magicolor 2590MF colour laser multifunction is that better-designed machines (such as the Brother MFC-9440CN) can be had for around the same price. While this model works reasonably well, its design and scan quality could be better.
Is your printer stealing from you? Yes--if it's making you replace ink or toner constantly, or if you need to buy pricey special paper to get the best output. Maybe it's stealing your time or sanity by being a lot slower than it said it'd be, or having cheapo components that break or are just plain hard to use. PC World reveals some sinners-and saints-based on our recent printer reviews.
Don't let that blank, boxy look fool you: Printers can steal your money and your time if you're not careful. Printer manufacturers have come up with a few creative ways to drain your wallet through ink and toner cartridge costs. Other printer models just make you waste precious minutes fooling around with complicated menu systems or stupidly designed hardware.
Ricoh's Aficio SP 4210N monochrome laser printer is a decent performer with a somewhat high price ($649 as of May 25, 2009). The Xerox Phaser 3600/N, which carries the same sticker price, is better designed and easier to use, but the Aficio laser's extra-cheap toner could make it a better buy for high-volume offices.
Lexmark's T652n monochrome laser printer combines a speedy engine, lots of paper capacity, and a vast array of paper-handling options. But in view of its high price, it seems a bit skimpily configured. (We have the same complaint about its similarly priced competitor, the HP LaserJet P4014n.)