Last year, we said that testing printers was a nightmare. I took the opportunity at the time to curse Marc, my boss, for making me test them. I gave in once again and said yes one more time, even when he insisted testing these printers with very high print volumes. This time however you will be happy as we recorded and filmed each printer. You will hear what we went though for the past few weeks! Our only regret is that we didnīt really find an interesting cost per page. The current trend is to embed electronic meters in toners that freeze printers once a certain amount of prints are made. And of course we didnīt have enough toners. So this year we apologize. We will have to make do with the manufacturersī autonomy figures for consumables. Fortunately, these values are usually more reliable than those for inkjet models.
Speed and quality tests are still included. Compared to the 2005 survey this year, we particularly insisted on color accuracy, noise level and warm-up time. Indeed, many of you send us e-mails on that subject. The usual color problem is the professional who prints papers with their logo and find that the printer doesnīt have color accuracy.
Models selected
We kept the same policy as last year and we only tested "economical" products at less than 500. In the meantime, product prices have dropped noticeably and they are under 300 for a single-pass and 8 pages per minute color printer.
There are new models in the race by Konica Minolta, Canon, and Dell. Other manufacturers have kept their previous product lines in their catalogue and havenīt planned replacements soon. For example, the HP 2600N and Epson C1100 are back and face new challengers. Even if they already went through a series of tests we invited them back to record the noise level, check a couple of details and measure warm-up time. This is something that we didnīt do last time.
Just like last year, we added an inkjet printer as a reference. We even selected two, the HP Photosmart D7360 and Canon Pixma MP600R, which use separated cartridges. Also, like laser printers itīs possible to share them between several users, but we included them first to compare the quality, print time and cost per page with laser printers. Last but not least, you will notice the presence of a Samsung laser printer in tests. We actually tested it last year and seriously criticized it. We chose to include its results to show the quality of "office" type prints, but we didnīt think it was necessary to dedicate an entire page in this survey.
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Initialization and time to warm up
Initialisation and time to warm up
Before starting printing, we have to wait for the printer to be available and some are faster than others. Some are ready immediately like the latest Canon while others require almost 2 minutes!
The time given for the Canon LBP5200 is impressive, but fortunately this isnīt always the case. You donīt always have to wait two minutes before each print. This only happens when the printer is switched on (we invite you to take a look and listen to the noise it makes in the second half of this page). Usually when the printer is already warm, only 15 seconds are required before printing a page (this is what we see in the second video of the LBP5200).
Noise levels
Not only are laser printers sometimes slow to initiate, but they can be very noisy! We filmed all printers from the same distance with the same camera (a Kodak P712 which is particularly good for video and sound recording). The below sequences show the entire range of noise that they produce: initialization, warming up, taking one piece of paper, and ejection. The clips last from 20 seconds to 1 minute and 30 seconds and are worth a look. We apologize for the video of the HP 2600n. Someone held the camera in a vertical position and we only realised this after returning the product. The guilty man has been punished.
For all videos, the camera was placed 1 meter away from the printer, else in font or a little bit on the side.
The most bothersome is the Konica Minolta. Not only is the noise level high, but it also goes along with a very acute whistle that only takes a short break when the paper goes out. Imagine this during the autonomy tests several thousands of pages with this awful sound
The Canon LBP5200 is also irritating, especially when it starts a very long initialisation cycle. The HP 2600n has a comparable noise level when printing.
It is difficult to say that the other printers are silent. Nevertheless, the Canon LBP5000, Dell 3110n and Epson C1100 are more bearable. You may want to put a maximum of space between your desk and the printer or if possible a wall between the two.
The only one missing is the Samsung CPL-510. As we explained above, we chose not to test it again and we already gave it serious criticism last year. Even if it is still sold by Samsung, we didnīt feel that it was interesting to have it back to find the same results. It is nevertheless present in the following pages to show its quality and print rates. Also, it is interesting to point out that even if it has more downsides, it has a double sided system.
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Office quality : color accuracy and precision
Office quality : color accuracy and precision
Original graphic
X3 magnifying
Canon Pixma MP600R
HP PhotoSmart D7360
Canon LBP5000
Canon LBP5200
Dell 3110cn
Epson C1100n
HP LaserJet 2600n
Konica Minolta Magicolor 2500W
Samsung CPL-510
Results were generally very nice. Two criteria have to be taken into consideration; precision and color accuracy.
Color accuracy :
Unless if you purchase the Samsung, chances are that you wonīt be surprised by colors. It will always be "quite" similar. If you want to have the best in this area, it is best to choose the:
Canon LBP5000
Epson C1100n
Konica Minolta 3500W This is much better than last year and at the time, only Epson successfully passed this test.
You should note that the HP, inkjet and laser prints are darker than usual. The Samsung always printed documents (office, photo ) too dark.
Precision :
As shown in the photo, Dell failed this test. In black and white, shifting is OK, but in color there is always a problem of overlapping, which is frankly disturbing. The real nuisance caused by this problem can be put into perspective. Here you have a magnified extract X3. With a 1/1 scale, the text is readable but less than other printers.
Amongst the last ones, there is once more the Samsung, whose dark color spaces tend to encroach on the lighter ones in the background.
The inkjet printers are also beaten even if they are famous for their accuracy. They are just one step less accurate than the best laser printers.
After color accuracy, the leaders of color precision are the:
Canon LBP5000 equality with the avec la HP LaserJet 2600n
and then Epson C1100n equality with Konica Minolta 2500W
The quality color test color accuracy + precision - is won by Canon with the brand new LBP5000. Now, we still have to see if print rates are also up to par.
Color speed
The first graph indicates the continuous print rate without the time to warm up and the timer required to interpret the commands from a computer. This is what happens with big documents.
One of the advantages of laser printers is that they really are able to print the number of pages announced, which isnīt the case for inkjet printers. The Canon MP600R is supposed to print 24 pages per minute in color and the HP Photosmart D7360 31 ppm.
Here is an interesting point. The laser printer that somewhat missed the precision test is the fastest by far. Dell prints pages two times faster than other printers, but you have to expect a little color shifting in the end. This seems a bit too much to us, all the more that there are no options in the driver to slow it down to improve precision. It was possible to adjust a couple of parameters but we never obtained perfect results.
Coming just after, there is a good surprise. There are two printers that shined for the quality of their color prints, especially the latest Canon. It is important to remind you that HPīs printers use Canonīs base. We even visited a Canon factory a few years ago that integrally produced the series of the two brands.
Printing one web page:
You may not necessarily have 15 pages to print. This test is only one simple web page that we want on paper. Are the speed ranks still valid? Not necessarily. This time, the stopwatch starts as soon as the print command is launched from the computer. There is no preheating period for this test. The figures are the processing of the command, the time required to catch one page, etc.
Dell is still first. Their printer is still twice as fast as the others. It is impressive! We have to wait approximately 20 seconds for the first page with the other laser printers, even with the Canon LBP5000.
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Texts and black and white graphs
Texts and black and white graphs
Original text
X3 graphic
Canon Pixma MP600R
Canon Pixma MP600R
HP PhotoSmart D7360
HP PhotoSmart D7360
Canon LBP5000
Canon LBP5000
Canon LBP5200
Canon LBP5200
Dell 3110cn
Dell 3110cn
Epson C1100n
Epson C1100n
HP LaserJet 2600n
HP LaserJet 2600n
Konica Minolta Magicolor 2500W
Konica Minolta Magicolor 2500W
Samsung CPL-510
Samsung CPL-510
This time, only three laser printers had nice results in black and white. The Dell and Epson produced very similar results with uniform color areas and accurate color.
Two printers produce results that were too dark, Canon with the LBP5000 and Samsung.
The Dell and Epson printers are all the more deserving that they are by far the faster models:
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Photo rendering
Photo rendering
The quality of colored pictures printed by laser printers often surprises the user. Itīs so good that we can consider printing illustrated reports or even print photos to hang on the wall or constitute a sort of "photo book".
Original picture
X3 magnifying
Canon Pixma MP600R
HP PhotoSmart D7360
Canon LBP5000
Canon LBP5200
Dell 3110cn
Epson C1100n
HP LaserJet 2600n
Konica Minolta Magicolor 2500W
Samsung CPL-510
Inkjets give better results than the laser printers. The fight wasnīt, however, equal as inkjet photos were obtained with photo paper whereas laser printers use standard paper. Two printers are much above the rest, the Canon LBP5000 and Epson C1100n. The two produce very small defects, with a banding for Canon and a lack of sharpness for Epson. We, however, remind you that this is a X3 magnifying of the original image. Once you get the prints in hand, these defaults are strongly diminished and in the end much less visible.
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Access to consumables
Consumables access
Access to consumables is more or less simple. The idea to film this only came during tests and unfortunately the HP 2600n and Konica Minolta were already gone. Here is nevertheless the results for the other printers:
Epson AcuLaser C1100 Epson C1100n Changing the toner for Canon, Dell and HP is particularly simple. We open the central panel, and all toners are immediately accessible one above another. It is more complicated for Epson and Konica Minolta, who only give access to one toner at a time. Itīs necessary to rotate the block to access the next one when it is possible. For Epson for example, you will only be able to access a toner that is considered as almost empty by the printer. It isnīt possible to replace a cartridge if we know that it will be empty soon. It is a rare operation but it might be the case if you know that you will print a considerable amount of documents that require a specific color.
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Announced autonomy
Announced autonomy
Once more, we wanted to check if the autonomy announced by manufacturers was correct. When we were able to conduct the tests, this was the case. However, we werenīt able to verify for each model for lack of consumables or tones that leaked. Now the current trend is to have a meter integrated to the printer. If you reach over a certain amount of prints, the printer imposes replacement of the toner and stops working as long as you donīt intervene. It isnīt possible to fool the printer by removing a cartridge and put it back in as the cartridges are recognised. Beyond this complication, we also had to face some rather odd estimations from drivers. A typical example was the yellow toner announced as empty and blocks printing until it is replaced. This wasnīt possible considering that a majority of manufacturers havenīt send several sets of cartridges. The idea to estimate the cost based on the remaining toner in each cartridge also came up. The problem was that we sometimes saw that the cyan and black toner were still 50% full even if we printed the same amount of pages with each toner and that the capacity announced is 2000 pages for the first and 4000 for the second. Obviously, estimation would have been too vague.
We apologize because this year we just give you the data provided by the manufacturer. There are important differences from one product to another. Some toners have a capacity of 2000 pages and are priced the same as toners for 4000 to 5000 pages.
The values reported below correspond to the price per page for a 5% ink cover in black or in color (cyan + magenta + yellow for a total of 5%):
An interesting point is that Canon supplies printers and consumables to HP, however, HP has a better cost per page than the suppliers counterpart.
In answer to a letter, the cost per page communicated above isnīt the one usually reported based on 5% color per page and with a total ink percentage of 20% (5% black + 5% magenta + 5% cyan + 5% yellow). We feel that this calculation isnīt really representative of the real use of these products. For those who would like to calculate it, its simple: Black cost + 3x color cost (as reported above).
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Canon LBP5000
Canon LBP5000
Canon really updated its entry level laser printer. The new one is more compact, silent, and has more accurate colors. The color print rate is twice as high and warm-up time is almost equal to zero. It also requires less power. According to Canon, the power required decreases from 405W for the LBP5200 to 205W for the LBP5000. Knowing that it is also cheaper than the LBP5200, it is one of the few to be available at less than 250.
This printer has the best current performance/price/quality ratio. Our biggest regret is that it doesnīt use the postscript that is so important amongst others for graphic designers. This printer can hardly be used to verify prints before sending them to a professional. Prints might show a slightly degraded resolution and will only be usable to verify the set up. Another minor downside noticed during tests is that the black and white prints are less accurate than the color ones.
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Canon LBP5200
Canon LBP5200
This printer is still in stores but we feel that this wonīt last long. The new LBP5000 is better in almost every category. Its cheaper, twice as fast, has more accurate colors, and requires half the power. There is only one domain where it remains better than its successor and that is in monochrome prints. Its faster and colors are closer to the original. This isnīt, however, enough to ensure a good position in sales.
And if that wasnīt enough this is also the printer that needed the most time to print pages. The initialisation cycle is very long.
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Dell C3110n
Dell C3110n
Dell doesnīt really build printers as they borrow their engine from others. And they are by the way quite unfaithful. Some are based on Lexmark, Samsung, and Epson engines. The result of the C3110n is quite a success, because it is the fastest in color. The downside is that it is also one of the slowest for this exercise, and that various adjustments couldnīt correct this alignment issue. In black and white it is, however, flawless being very fast and accurate.
It is best to use it for quickly printing documents that will only be used in the office. For web pages, internal reports it is perfect! Whether if we are alone or several users, we really appreciate the very high print rate and the short response time when only one page is requested.
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Epson C1100n
Epson C1100n
Epsonīs printer hasnīt evolved since last year. The one tested last year is still the last one released by the manufacturer. The only thing different is the lower price and this year even the network version is under 500 .
The C1100 didnīt really require another review as it won the 2005 survey by far. The only thing is that the competition is this year much fiercer. Dell is much faster in color, Canon has a handier product that is better for colors and more precise. The C1100 consequently loses its status. It is still a very good printer but better products now exist elsewhere and some are even cheaper like the Canon LBP5000. However the Canon printer is designed for much smaller volumes. The quite expensive cartridges are designed for 2000 pages instead of the 4000 for Epson (if this is important to you, you can also take a look at the Dell printer with the high capacity 8000 pages cartridges).
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HP LaserJet 2600n
HP LaserJet 2600n
Last year, it was the first mono printer to be released under 500 . This is no longer the case and the Canon LBP2000 is even now under 300 euros (if you spend a little time searching on Internet). The price gap is justified by the "n" of the 2600, for "network". For Canon it is an option. The base of the two products is the same with the same 8ppm engine, printing path, and expensive small capacity cartridges (2000 pages) compared to the competition. This small autonomy indicates that the manufacturer aims for a larger clientele than last year, which consumes less toner and paper but who would be less reticent to leave the inkjet technology because of the price of the cartridges. The drivers are however designed by each manufacturers and that leads to considerable rendering and language differences. HP has darker colors and rather lighter monochromes prints. None of them is however compatible with Postscript unlike the previous HP LaserJet 2550ln.
Besides the better color rendering, Canon also wins in the field of readiness as the new LBP5000 no longer has warm up time or initialisation. Unless you open and close the control panel, it is always almost immediately available. For HP, this might take up to 20 seconds.
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Konica Minolta Magicolor 2500W
Konica Minolta Magicolor 2500W
If Konica Minolta left the reflex and compact camera market, it isnīt the case for laser printers. Their other products still have a strong presence. New models are released like this small 2500W announced as being reactive and fast. Also, with only 10 seconds to start to print a document, the 2500W is one of the swiftest. It also gave great results for colour print quality.
It however has a major downside, in that it is noisy. We tested two models successively and were equally unimpressed. Not only does it has a very high noise level but it also produces a strident whistle. You can listen to the sound produced in the video. It is unfortunate because this ruins an overall good product.
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Conclusion
Conclusion
Once more, the contest of the best entry level laser printer ends up with a strong disparity in the printer behaviours. Even more surprising, we know that Canon supplies the mechanical pieces to HP and still the two printers provide much different results.
Now if we organise the medal ceremony by category:
Color rendering: Canon LBP5000, Epson C1100n, Konica Minolta 3500W
Color speed: Dell C3100n, followed by the Canon LBP5000 and HP 2600N
Monochromes prints: Dell C3100n, Epson C1100n
Photo rendering: Canon LBP5000 and Epson C1100n
Consumables: Dell C3110n, Canon LBP5200
Two printers end up more often than the others in the recommendations: Canon and the LBP5000 and Epson with the C1100n (n for network, the version without this option also exists).
We can add another criterion to decide between the two finalists: the buy price. The LBP5000 is 100 euros less expensive than the basic C1100; the C1100n with network is 50 euros more expensive.
