Laser multifunctions
To facilitate your life, the option of owning a laser multifunction is very attractive. We selected four economical models for this article at less than 500 euros. This is “entry level” and most are monochrome. There is only one exception, where HP has succeeded in offering a color printer at the same price as the competition’s monochrome printers. In addition, it isn't the most expensive of the lot.
It is also interesting to note that these multifunctions are basically as expensive as entry level monofunction laser printers.
Impressive autonomy
Why choose such a product? To avoid changing the cyan, black, and red cartridge every other morning, to have better transfer rates, a product really conceived for professional use and adapted to this area.
As for consumables, the autonomy of these laser multifunctions has nothing to do with their inkjet equivalents. In this domain one of the best references is the
Canon Pixma MP600R, a network model with separated cartridges. The black cartridge is particularly long lasting and according to our tests, its autonomy is approximately
415 pages with 5% ink coverage and continuous prints. With the automatic print head cleaning cycle, this volume can be reduced by 10% for moderate and normal use. There are even more long lasting products for A4 monofunction. We recently tested the
HP Photosmart D7350: it goes up to
520 pages. This is most impressive but it is still far from the autonomy of these
laser multifunctions which all reach over
3500 pages (our results). The best product is the Lexmark x342n at 6000 pages! Individual users, artisans, independent professionals and even small work groups probably won't change a cartridge before at least a year or they maybe never will.
The tests
Ergonomics, noise level, autonomy, speed, quality, all aspects have been taken into account . We tested all printer modes (draft, normal, high quality and even photos), scanner (with scans from 75 to 1200 ppp, even if we have only reported tests made at 300 ppp) and copy – normal and enlargements.
Autonomy was measured with monochromes prints, 5% ink coverage and continuous prints. The costs resulting from this test is raw cost based on the toner’s usual price in online stores. It doesn't take into account other consumables such as the drum whose autonomy is generally much higher.
As usual, in the following pages we have extracts of pages printed by the models tested and two videos for each printer:
- The first one in the next page will give you an idea of the noise level of each product: initialization, taking one sheet of paper, printing and extracting the print. There really is nothing like it!
- the second extract is dedicated to the replacement procedure of toner for each printer. All in all, it is rather simple, but here again some are easier than others.
Note: we contacted most manufacturers for this test. Those included in this article were the only ones to respond, and there weren't too many.
