Brother MFC-L2720DW

BY M. DAVID STONE

Whether you need a monochrome laser multifunction printer (MFP) for personal or shared use, the Brother MFC-L2720DW ($249.99) can be a good fit, both literally and figuratively. It’s small enough so it won’t take up much room, and it delivers paper handling and speed suitable for up to moderate-duty use in a micro office. It doesn’t offer quite enough to make it our favorite in its category, but if your needs include Wi-Fi Direct support or the ability to scan to websites and email attachments without a computer, the MFC-L2720DW is worth serious consideration.

Compared with the Canon imageClass MF227dw$155.35 at Amazon, our Editors’ Choice heavy-duty personal or light- to moderate-duty monochrome laser MFP, the MFC-L2720DW$161.67 at Amazon is slower and delivers a touch lower text quality, although the quality is still good enough for most business use. On the other hand, it matches the Canon printer for paper handling, and it offers some features that the Canon printer lacks.

Among the MFC-L2720DW’s more notable extras are the ability to scan and send email directly without needing a PC, and support for Wi-Fi direct, which lets you connect to it from a mobile device even if the printer isn’t on a network. If you can make good use of these features, they can easily make up for the Canon printer’s advantages in text quality and speed.

Paper Handling, Basics, and Extras
As with the Canon MF227DW, the MFC-L2720DW’s suitability for use as a shared printer rests solidly on its paper handling. Both models offer a 250-sheet main tray, a single-sheet manual feed, and a duplexer (for two-sided printing). That should be enough for most micro offices, but if you need more, you’ll have to look elsewhere, since no paper handling upgrades are available in either case.

Both models also offer the same paper handling for scanning, each with a letter-size flatbed and a 35-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF) for up to legal-size paper. Neither ADF can scan or copy in duplex, however. If you need duplex scanning, the Brother MFC-L2740DW$189.99 at Amazon, which is similar to the MFC-L2720DW in most ways, adds duplexing, with its scanner able to scan both sides of the page at the same time.

Basic MFP features for the MFC-L2720DW include the ability to print and fax from, as well as scan to, a PC and the ability to work as a standalone copier and fax machine. Extras include its ability to send scans as email attachments without needing a PC, its support for mobile printing, and its Web-related features.

If you connect the printer to a network via Ethernet or Wi-Fi, you can connect through an access point on the network to print from and scan to a tablet or smartphone, as well as print though the cloud, assuming the printer is connected to the Internet. Connect to a single PC via USB cable instead, and you won’t be able to print through the cloud, but you can still connect directly to print or scan, thanks to the printer’s Wi-Fi Direct.

You can both print from and scan to a variety of websites (including Dropbox, Google Drive, Evernote, and OneDrive) using the 2.7-inch touch screen on the MFP’s front panel. You can also scan to a choice of file formats and save the file to a cloud site or send it as an email attachment without needing a computer. Even better, if you scan to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or searchable PDF format, the printer will automatically use Brother’s servers in the cloud to recognize scanned text as part of the process, which is a particularly impressive feature that can come in handy

Setup, Speed, and Output Quality
Setup is typical for the breed. At 12.5 by 16.1 by 15.7 inches (HWD) and weighing 25 pounds 6 ounces, the MFC-L2720DW is light enough for one person to carry, and small enough so it won’t take up a lot of space. For my tests, I connected it using its Ethernet port and installed the software on a system running Windows Vista.

Brother rates the printer at 30 pages per minute (ppm), which is the speed you should see when printing text documents with little or no formatting. I timed it on our business applications suite (using QualityLogic’s hardware and software for timing) at 9.6ppm, which makes it essentially tied with the Brother MFC-L2740DW. However, it’s significantly slower than the Canon MF227dw’s 13ppm for printing in simplex (one-sided) mode, and its speed for simplex mode is effectively tied with the Canon’s 9.7ppm for printing in duplex.

The MFC-L2720DW’s output quality is good enough for most business needs, but not particularly impressive. Text is at the low end of the range that includes the vast majority of monochrome laser MFPs. That translates to being good enough for almost any business use, but well short of what you’d want for, say, high-quality desktop publishing.

Graphics output is a touch below par, making it easily good enough for any internal business use, but not something you’d want to hand out to a client or customer who you’re trying to impress with a sense of your professionalism. Photo quality is typical for a monochrome laser, making it good enough to print recognizable images from photos on webpages, but not suitable for anything more demanding than that.

If you need an MFP that can copy and scan in duplex, be sure to consider the Brother MFC-L2740DW or the Canon imageClass MF229dw$199.99 at Amazon, which is similar to the Canon MF227DW with a duplexing ADF added. If you don’t need to scan in duplex, take a look at the Canon MF227dw, which offers both faster speed and better text quality than the Brother MFC-L2720DW. However, if you can make good use of the Brother printer’s Wi-Fi Direct support, its ability to scan to Web sites and email attachments without a computer, or its ability to scan to specific file formats complete with text recognition, the MFC-L2720DW should be on your short list.

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Xerox Phaser 3260/DNI

BY M. DAVID STONE

The Xerox Phaser 3260/DNI ($209) is a little different from most monochrome laser printers in its price range. It’s meant as a personal printer or for shared use in a micro office, but instead of focusing on paper handling and running cost, like most of its competition, its strength is its output quality. If high quality is your key concern, and particularly if you have relatively light-duty print needs, that can make it your preferred choice.

In essence, the 3260/DNI$159.00 at Amazon is a variation on the Xerox Phaser 3260/DI$159.00 at WalMart at a little higher price and with Ethernet added as an alternative to Wi-Fi for connecting to a network. The Ethernet connector makes the printer a little more appropriate than its near-twin for sharing in an office. It also makes it more directly competitive with the OKI B412dn$199.98 at Amazon, and the Brother HL-5450DN$147.99 at Amazon, which is our current Editors’ Choice medium- to heavy-duty monochrome laser for personal use or for shared printing in a micro office.

Aside from the lack of an Ethernet connector in the Xerox 3260/DI, the two key differentiators among these four models are paper handling and running cost. All four include a 250-sheet paper tray and duplexer (for two-sided printing) as standard. Beyond that, the two Xerox printers offer only a single-sheet manual feed with no upgrade options. Both the OKI and Brother models include multipurpose trays as standard, for paper capacities of 300 sheets or more, and both offer additional options, boosting their maximum total capacities to 800 pages or more.

The OKI and Brother printers also have the advantage on running cost, claiming roughly 2 cents per page in each case. Both Xerox printers have a claimed cost of 3.4 cents per page, a difference that works out to well over $100 for 10,000 pages. Depending on how much you print, you could easily save enough with the OKI B412dn or Brother HL-5450DN to cover the initial price of the printer. And the more you print, the more costly either Xerox model will be over its lifetime compared with printing the same set of pages with the OKI or Brother printers.

Basics, Setup, and Speed
Like the Xerox 3260/DI, the 3260/DNI offers mobile printing, but it’s limited to support for Apple AirPrint and for printing through the cloud. If you connect the printer to a network by either Wi-Fi or Ethernet, you can print to it through a Wi-Fi access point on the network using AirPrint from iOS phones and tablets, as well as Apple computers that support AirPrint. If you connect to a single PC via USB cable instead of connecting to a network, you won’t be able to print through the cloud. However, you can still print using AirPrint, by taking advantage of the 3260/DNI’s Wi-Fi Direct to connect directly to the printer.

Setup is standard. The printer weighs only 16 pounds 13 ounces, making it easy for one person to move into place, and it’s small enough to fit on your desk easily at 8.4 by 14.5 by 13.2 inches (HWD). For my tests, I connected it to a network by Ethernet and installed the driver on a Windows Vista system.

Xerox rates the 3260/DNI at 29 pages per minute (ppm) in simplex mode, but the driver installs to print in duplex (two-sided) mode by default. On our business applications suite, I clocked the printer (using QualityLogic’s hardware and software for timing) at a respectable, but not impressive, 7.2ppm in duplex mode and 8.9ppm in simplex mode, essentially tied with the Xerox 3260/DI in both cases. For simplex mode, it’s a touch slower than the OKI B412dn (9.6ppm), and slower still when compared with the Brother HL-5450DN(10.8ppm).

Output Quality
Output quality is one of the 3260/DNI’s strongest points, with text quality in the middle of a fairly tight range that includes most models, top-tier graphics, and photo quality that’s close to top tier.

For text, that translates to being good enough for nearly any business use, although not quite suitable for high-quality desktop publishing applications. Graphics output is easily good enough for any business need where monochrome output is appropriate, including, for example, PowerPoint handouts and the like. Similarly, photo output is equal to or better than most monochrome lasers can manage. That makes it good enough for, say, anyone who still prints newsletters, instead of sending them as PDF files.

Unless you can take good advantage of the Xerox Phaser 3260/DNI’s high-quality output, you’ll probably be better off with the OKI B412dn or the Brother HL-5450DN, with their higher paper capacities and lower costs per page. Similarly, if output quality is a key consideration, but you don’t need to connect by Ethernet, you can save a little on initial cost by getting the Xerox 3260/DI. If output quality matters, however, and you need to—or simply prefer to—connect to a network by Ethernet instead of Wi-Fi, the 3260/DNI is the obvious choice.

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Xerox Phaser 3260/DI

BY M. DAVID STONE

If output quality is your primary consideration for a personal monochrome laser printer or a shared laser in a micro office, the Xerox Phaser 3260/DI ($189) may be the one you want. It’s easy to find competing models that beat it for speed, paper handling, or running cost, but the 3260/DI$159.00 at WalMart stands out in its price class for its output quality overall, and particularly for graphics.

Obvious head-to-head competitors include the OKI B412dn$199.98 at Amazon that I recently reviewed, and the Brother HL-5450DN$147.99 at Amazon, which is our Editors’ Choice medium- to heavy-duty monochrome laser for personal use or for shared printing in a micro office or workgroup. All three are small enough to sit on your desk without taking up a lot of room, but capable enough to share among several users.

Unlike the OKI and Brother models, the 3260/DI lacks an Ethernet connector, which means you can’t connect it directly to a wired network. However, it supports Wi-Fi, so you can connect it through an access point. A more important difference is that the 3260/DI doesn’t match either the OKI or Brother printers for paper handling. All three offer a 250-sheet paper tray and duplexer (for two-sided printing) standard. However, the 3260/DI supplements that with only a single-sheet manual feed. The OKI and Brother printers both include multipurpose trays, with a 50-sheet capacity for the OKI B412dn and a 100-sheet capacity for the Brother HL-5450DN. Both also let you upgrade to a total capacity of 800 pages or more. The 3260/DI doesn’t offer any additional trays. If you need more capacity, you’ll have to look elsewhere.

Another key difference is running cost. The claimed cost per page for both the OKI B412dn and the Brother HL-5450DN is about 2 cents. Xerox puts the cost per page for the 3260/DI at 3.4 cents. The difference works out to well over $100 per 10,000 pages. Depending on how much you print, you could easily save enough in running cost with either the OKI or Brother printer to pay for the initial price of the printer.

Basics, Setup, and Speed
Like more and more printers, the 3260/DI offers mobile printing, although it’s limited to support for Apple AirPrint and for printing though the cloud. If you connect the printer to a network, you can print to it from iOS smartphones and tablets—as well as Apple computers that support AirPrint—over your Wi-Fi access point. If you choose to connect to a single PC via USB cable instead, you won’t be able to print through the cloud, but you can still take advantage of the printer’s Wi-Fi Direct support to connect to it directly and print using AirPrint.

Setup is typical for the breed. At 8.4 by 14.5 by 13.2 inches (HWD), the 3260/DI is small enough to share a desk with comfortably, and at 16 pounds 13 ounces, it’s easy for one person to move into place. For my tests, I connected it to a Windows Vista system by USB cable.

Xerox’s rates the engine at 29 pages per minute (ppm) in simplex (one-sided printing) mode, but the driver installs to print in duplex mode by default. (Xerox doesn’t provide a rating for duplex printing.) I timed it on our business applications suite (using QualityLogic’s hardware and software for timing) at a respectable, but not impressive, 9.2ppm in simplex and 7.1ppm in duplex. That makes it essentially tied with the OKI B412dn, at 9.6ppm for simplex, and just a touch slower than the Brother HL-5450DN, at 10.8ppm.

Output Quality
The saving grace for the 3260/DI, and the main reason to consider it, is its output quality. Text is in the middle of a fairly tight range that most monochrome laser printers fall in, making it not quite good enough for high-quality desktop publishing, but easily suitable for any other business use.

Graphics output is in the top tier for monochrome lasers, which also translates to being good enough for any business need where monochrome output is appropriate. Unless you need color, it’s easily good enough for PowerPoint handouts and the like. Similarly, photo output is better than most monochrome lasers can manage, making it suitable for, say, newsletters, if you’re inclined to print your newsletters instead of sending them electronically.

If you don’t need particularly high-quality output, either the OKI B412dn or Brother HL-5450DN is likely to be a better fit, with the Editors’ Choice Brother HL-5450DN offering faster speed and better text quality, and the OKI B412dn offering a slightly lower claimed cost per page and slightly better paper handling. If your primary concern is output quality, however, particularly for graphics and photos, and you don’t mind the higher running cost, the Xerox Phaser 3260/DI is a more than reasonable choice, and can easily be the best fit.

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OKI MB472w

BY M. DAVID STONE

If you’re looking for a monochrome laser multifunction printer (MFP)for heavy-duty use in a micro office, small office, or workgroup, or for up to moderate use in a midsize office, the OKI MB472w ($399) is a strong contender. Like other OKI printers that compete directly with lasers, the MB472w$412.25 at Amazon is actually an LED printer, which means that it uses LEDs rather than a laser to draw the image of each page on its drum. However, it uses the same technology as laser printers otherwise, making it indistinguishable from a laser in any practical sense.

One obvious competitor for the MB472w is the Canon imageClass MF6160dw$299.99 at WalMart, which remains our Editors’ Choice in this category primarily because it delivers somewhat higher text quality than the OKI printer, as well as faster speeds in our tests. However, the MB472w comes in a close second overall, and offers some strengths of its own, most notably a lower claimed cost per page. Depending on your preferences, either one could be the better fit.

Basics
The MB472w offers a full set of basic MFP features, including the ability to print and fax from a PC, scan to a PC, and work as a standalone copier, fax machine, and direct email sender—meaning it can scan a document and send it as an email attachment without needing a PC. Going beyond the basics, it can print to and scan from a USB memory key, and it also offers mobile support.

Assuming you connect the printer directly to a network, using either Ethernet or Wi-Fi, and the network is connected to the Internet, the MB472w will let you print through the cloud. It will also let you print through a Wi-Fi access point on your network from iOS and Android smartphones and tablets. It doesn’t offer Wi-Fi Direct, which means you can’t connect to it if it’s not on a network. However, that shouldn’t be an issue, since most offices that need this heavy-duty a printer will almost certainly put it on a network.

Part of what defines the printer as suitable for moderate to heavy-duty use in a midsize office is its paper handling. The MB472w comes standard with a 250-sheet drawer, a 100-sheet multipurpose tray, and an automatic duplexer (for two-sided printing). You can also add a 530-sheet tray ($229) for a maximum capacity of 880 sheets.

For scanning, the MB472w offers both a letter-size flatbed and a 50-page automatic document feeder (ADF) that can handle up to legal-size pages. It can also copy, scan, and fax in duplex, by scanning one side of the page, turning it over, and scanning the other—a feature that the Canon MF6160dw also offers. This approach to duplex scanning is slower than scanning both sides of the page at once, but it’s a lot more convenient than having to scan duplex documents manually.

As is typical for MFPs that can both print and scan in duplex, the MB472w can mix and match the two features for copying, so you can copy both single- and double-sided originals to your choice of single- or double-sided copies.

Setup, Speed, and Output Quality
The MB472w is a typical size and weight for this heavy-duty an MFP. It’s too big to share a desk with comfortably, at 17.9 by 16.8 by 18.8 inches (HWD), and heavy enough, at 44 pounds 2 ounces, that you may want some help moving it into place.

Setup is typical for a monochrome MFP. For my tests, I connected it to a network by Ethernet and installed the drivers on a Windows Vista system. One minor potential issue is that the Recommended Install choice doesn’t install the fax driver. If you want to fax from your PC, you need to choose Custom Install and then click on the Fax Driver check box.

The engine rating for the MB472w is 35 pages per minute (ppm), which is the speed you should see when printing documents like text files that need little to no processing. The speed on our tests was within the typical range for the engine speed, but not impressive.

I timed the printer on our business applications suite (using QualityLogic’s hardware and software for timing), at 9.7ppm. That’s just a bit slower—although not significantly slower—than the 10.1ppm I timed for the more expensive OKI MB492$622.42 at Amazon, which is rated at 42ppm. However, it’s significantly slower than the Canon MF6160dw, which has the same speed rating as the MB472w, but came in at 13.2ppm in simplex (one-sided) mode. The Canon printer also managed 9.9ppm in its default duplex setting, essentially tying the MB472w’s time for simplex mode.

Output quality overall is at the high end of what we expect in this category. Text quality falls in the middle of a fairly tight range that includes the vast majority of monochrome MFPs, making it good enough for any business use, as long as you don’t have an unusual need for small fonts.

Graphics and photo quality both fall at the high end of the range for monochrome MFPs. For graphics, that translates to being good enough so that most people would consider the output suitable for PowerPoint handouts and the like. Photos are easily good enough for printing webpages with photos or even photos in, say, newsletters—for those few who may still print newsletters instead of sending them electronically.

If you need still better output quality than the OKI MB472w offers for text, or you can benefit from faster speed, you should certainly take a close look at the Canon MF6160dw. But also keep in mind that the MB472w’s lower claimed running cost—at 1.9 cents per page compared with 2.8 cents for the Canon printer—can save you $9 for every 1,000 pages you print. Print 45,000 pages over the printer’s lifetime, and the savings can pay for the initial price of the printer. If you expect to print enough for the savings to matter, the MB472w may well be the printer you want.

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Brother HL-L2340DW

BY M. DAVID STONE

Small enough to serve as a personal monochrome laser printer, the Brother HL-L2340DW ($139.99) is also a candidate for sharing in a micro office. It offers suitable speed and paper handling for either role, and it supports mobile printing with Wi-Fi Direct as a welcome extra. The lack of an Ethernet connector will rule it out for sharing in many cases, but if you want a printer that connects to your network via Wi-Fi, it’s well worth a look.

Paper handling is one of the HL-L2340DW’s$109.99 at Amazon strong points. Like the Samsung Xpress M2825DW$122.80 at Amazon, which is our Editors’ Choice moderately-priced personal or micro-office monochrome laser, the printer offers a 250-sheet tray, a one-sheet manual feed, and a built-in duplexer for two-sided printing. This should easily be enough for most personal or micro-office use. If you need more capacity, however, you’ll have to look elsewhere, since Brother doesn’t offer any paper handling upgrades for the printer.

More Basics
The HL-L2340DW also earns points for personal or micro-office use for its small size and weight. At just 7.2 by 14 by 14.2 inches (HWD), it can fit on your desk without taking up much room, and at only 15 pounds, one person can easily move it into place. That makes it a touch smaller and lighter than both the Samsung M2825DW and the next-generation replacement in Samsung’s line—the Samsung Xpress M2835DWBest Price at Amazon.

Going a step beyond the basics, the HL-L2340DW also offers mobile printing support. If you connect it to a network, it will let you print through the cloud and print from an iOS or Android tablet or smartphone through your network access point. If you connect it to a single PC via USB cable instead, you won’t be able to print through the cloud, but the built-in Wi-Fi Direct will still let you connect directly to the printer from mobile devices—a feature that can be highly useful even for a personal printer.

Setup, Speed, and Output Quality
For my tests, I connected the HL-L2340DW to a Windows Vista system. Setup is absolutely standard for a USB-connected monochrome laser.

Brother rates the printer engine at 27 pages per minute (ppm), which is the speed you should see when printing a text document or other files that need little to no processing. On our business applications suite (using QualityLogic’s hardware and software for timing), I timed it at 8.9ppm, which is a respectable speed for the price and engine rating. In comparison, the Samsung M2835DW managed a somewhat faster 9.7ppm, essentially tying the Samsung M2825DW’s 9.9ppm.

Unfortunately, the HL-L2340DW’s output quality is a touch below par overall. Text quality is good enough for any business use, as long as you don’t have an unusual need for small fonts, but it’s a step below the range that includes the majority of monochrome laser printers.

Graphics quality is also a step below the level that most of the competition delivers. It’s good enough for any internal business use, but few people would consider it good enough for PowerPoint handouts or the like. Photo quality is typical for a monochrome laser, but that’s a low bar. The output is good enough to print recognizable images from webpages, but not suitable for anything more demanding than that.

If you need better-looking output or an Ethernet connector, you should consider the Samsung M2825DW or the Samsung M2835DW. The Brother HL-L2340DW still has a lot going for it, with mobile printing support, ample paper handling, nearly the same speed as the Samsung models, and a somewhat lower price. If you don’t need a wired connection to a network, and you care more about cost than output quality, it may be the printer you want.

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Brother HL-L2380DW

BY M. DAVID STONE

Even though the Brother HL-L2380DW monochrome laser multifunction printer (MFP) ($199.99) can scan and copy, Brother groups it on its website with single-function printers. The company treats it that way because it lacks an automatic document feeder (ADF), which limits its copying and scanning to manually placing pages on its letter-size flatbed. Whether you think of it as an MFP or as a single-function printer with convenience features, however, it’s of most interest if your primary need is printing, but you can also make use of its extremely light-duty copy and scan capability.

Much like the Canon imageClass MF212w$109.00 at WalMart that I recently reviewed, the HL-L2380DW$138.00 at Amazon can be a particularly good fit as a personal printer but can also serve as a shared printer in a micro office. The lack of an ADF in both cases helps make the printers small enough to keep on your desk without feeling like they’re towering over you. Both also include a 250-sheet paper tray and one-sheet manual feed, giving them ample paper capacity for either role. The HL-L2380DW adds a duplexer for two-sided printing.

Mobile Devices and the Cloud
In addition to printing, scanning, and copying, the HL-L2380DW offers support for both mobile printing and scanning and the ability to connect to selected cloud sites. If you connect the printer to a network, using either Ethernet or Wi-Fi, you can connect to, and both print from and scan to, a tablet or smartphone through an access point on the network. If the network is connected to the Internet, you can also print through the cloud. Connect the printer to a PC via USB cable instead, and you won’t be able to print through the cloud, but you can still use Wi-Fi Direct to connect directly to the printer for printing and scanning.

Choices on the touch-screen menu include Web-connection options for both scanning to and printing from a selection of websites (including Box, Google Drive, Evernote, and OneDrive). Other choices let you scan to specific file formats—including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint—and either save the file to a cloud site or send it as an email attachment. Brother handles the conversion to the file format you want with its own online server.

Setup, Speed, and Output Quality
The HL-L2380DW is bigger and heavier than the Canon MF212w, but still small enough, at 10.5 by 16.1 by 15.7 inches (HWD), to put on your desk. It’s also light enough, at 21 pounds 10 ounces, for one person to move it into place. For my tests, I connected it to a network by Ethernet and installed the drivers on a Windows Vista system. Setup was typical for the breed.

Brother rates the HL-L2380DW at 32 pages per minute (ppm), which is the speed you should see when printing text documents or other files that need little to no processing. On our business applications suite, I timed it (using QualityLogic’s hardware and software for timing) at 9.5ppm.

That qualifies it to be of acceptable speed for the price and engine rating. However, it’s notably slower than the 12.2ppm I measured for the Canon MF212w and the nearly identical 12.3ppm for the Canon imageClass MF216n$119.99 at Amazon, which is our Editors’ Choice MFP for personal use or for light-duty use in a micro office.

The HL-L2380DW’s output quality is similarly acceptable but unimpressive. Text, which is generally the most important kind of output for a monochrome printer, is slightly below par for a laser MFP, even though it’s good enough for most business use. As long as you don’t have an unusual need for small fonts, you shouldn’t have a problem with it.

Graphics output is on par with the vast majority of monochrome lasers, making it easily good enough for any internal business need. Depending on how critical an eye you have, you may or may not consider it good enough for PowerPoint handouts or the like. Photo quality is good enough to print recognizable images from photos on Web pages, but not suitable for anything more demanding than that.

If you’re considering the Brother HL-L2380DW, be sure to take a look at the Canon MF216n and Canon MF212w as well. Both Canon printers offer faster speed and better text quality than the HL-L2380DW, with the Canon MF216n adding an ADF. However, the HL-L2380DW has some advantages over both Canon printers as well, including Wi-Fi Direct, mobile scanning along with mobile printing, printing through the cloud, and the ability to print to and scan from specific websites. If you can make good use of the HL-L2380DW’s Web-related features or its mobile printing and scanning, it can easily be the right choice.

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OKI B412dn

BY M. DAVID STONE

The OKI B412dn ($199) is the sort of compact but powerful beast that’s small enough to share a desk with, but capable enough to serve as a shared printer. Built around an LED engine—which means it substitutes LEDs for a laser as its light source—it’s technically not a laser printer, but it uses the same technology otherwise, which is why most people don’t draw a distinction between LED and laser printers. More important, compared head-to-head with actual laser printers, it can be an attractive choice.

The B412dn$190.00 at Amazon is a close competitor in many ways to the Brother HL-5450DN$142.47 at Amazon, which is our Editors’ Choice moderate- to heavy-duty monochrome laser for personal use or for shared printing in a micro office or workgroup. In particular, it offers slightly better paper handling. Both printers come with a 250-sheet paper tray and duplexer (for two-sided printing) standard. Both also include a multipurpose tray. However, the B412dn’s tray holds 100 sheets rather than 50.

The paper capacity for either printer should be sufficient for most offices, but the extra capacity for the B412dn is a welcome convenience. For those offices that need more, both printers also offer an additional tray. Here again, the B412dn offers a little extra, with its 530-sheet tray ($229) boosting the capacity from 350 sheets to a maximum 880 sheets. The Brother HL-5450’s maximum is 800 sheets.

Basics, Setup, and Speed
As tested, the only connection choices for B412dn are USB and Ethernet, although a Wi-Fi module ($75) is also available. Mobile printing support includes printing through the cloud—assuming the printer is on a network, and the network is connected to the Internet. It also includes connecting though an access point on the network to print from an iOS or Android smartphone or tablet. However, the Wi-Fi module does not offer Wi-Fi Direct or the equivalent, which means that if you chose to connect to a PC via USB cable instead of connecting to a network, you won’t be able to take advantage of mobile printing.

Setup is standard fare. The printer is small enough to find room for easily, at 9.6 by 15.2 by 14.3 inches (HWD), and it weighs just 26 pounds 8 ounces. For my tests, I connected it using its Ethernet port and installed the driver on a system running Windows Vista.

OKI rates the B412dn at 35 pages per minute (ppm), which is the speed you should see when printing a text document or other file that needs little to no processing. On our business applications suite, I clocked it (using QualityLogic’s hardware and software for timing) at an effective 9.6ppm. That’s acceptably fast for the price and engine speed, but is a touch slower than the Brother HL-5450DN, at 10.8ppm. It’s also slower than the less-expensive Canon imageClass LBP6230dw$99.99 at Amazon in the Canon printer’s default duplex mode, at 10.8ppm, and a lot slower than the Canon printer in simplex (one-sided) mode, at 13.2ppm.

Output Quality and Running Costs
Output quality for the B412dn earns the same general description as its speed: more than acceptable overall, but not impressive.

Text quality in my tests was just a touch below par for a monochrome laser, but not in a way that will matter for most business use. With small font sizes, the strokes were so thin that the text looked gray rather than black, making it hard to read. At 8 points and above, however, almost every font we test with was highly readable and easily good enough for most purposes short of high-quality desktop publishing. As long as you don’t need small fonts, you shouldn’t have a problem.

Graphics and photo quality are both typical for a monochrome laser. For graphics, that translates to being easily good enough for any internal business use. Unless you have a particularly critical eye, you’ll probably consider it good enough for PowerPoint handouts and the like as well. Photo quality is good enough to print recognizable images from photos on Web pages.

One final strong point for the B412dn is its running cost, at a claimed 1.9 cents per page. That’s about the same as the claimed cost for the Brother HL-5450DN, but a lot cheaper than the cost for most printers in this price range. The more pages you print, the more this can save you. The Canon LBP6230dw’s claimed cost, for example, is 4.1 cents per page, with the 2.2 cent per page difference working out to $22 for 1,000 pages.

If you print few enough pages so you don’t have to consider running cost, you may prefer the Canon LBP6230dw to the OKI B412dn because of its faster speed. However, if you print enough for the cost per page to matter, either the B412dn or the Brother HL-5450DN will be far less expensive in the long run. Between them, the Brother printer offers faster speed and better text quality, which keeps it firmly in place as our Editors’ Choice. That said, if the B412dn’s speed and text quality are good enough for your purposes, its slightly lower claimed cost per page and its slightly better paper handling may make it the better fit.

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OKI B432dn

BY M. DAVID STONE

Although technically not a laser printer—because it uses LEDs instead of a laser to draw the image of each page on its drum—the OKI B432dn ($349) uses the same technology otherwise, putting it firmly in the monochrome laser category for all practical purposes. Beyond that, its strong points include both its level of paper handling and its low running cost. The combination will make it of particular interest to small offices with both heavy-duty print needs and an appreciation of how spending just a little less on each printed page can add up to big savings in the long run.

The advantage of the B432dn’s 1.6 cents-per-page running cost will vary depending on how much you print and what printer you’re using for the comparison. The OKI B412dn$190.00 at Amazon, for example, also has a low running cost for its price. However, the printer itself is $150 less than the B432dn, and its claimed running cost is 0.3 cents her per page .

The difference works out to $30 for 10,000 pages. Print 50,000 pages with both printers over their lifetimes, and the total cost of ownership will be the same in both cases. Every 10,000 pages beyond that translates to a $30 savings for the B432dn. Run the same calculation with the Brother HL-5450DN$142.47 at Amazon and the advantage for the B432dn is even greater. The difference in initial price is smaller and the savings in running cost is bigger, at $50 for every 10,000 pages.

Basics
Complementing the B432dn’s low running cost is paper handling that’s suitable for heavy-duty printing in a micro office. The printer comes with a 250-sheet drawer, 100-sheet multipurpose tray, and a duplexer (for two-sided printing) standard. If you need more, you can boost the capacity to 880 sheets with an optional 530-sheet tray ($229).

Going a little beyond the basics, the B432dn adds mobile printing support. If you connect to a network with either Ethernet or with the optional Wi-Fi module ($75), you can print from an iOS or Android smartphone or tablet by connecting through an access point on your network. You can also print though the cloud. However, the Wi-Fi option does not support Wi-Fi Direct or the equivalent, which means that if you connect to a single PC via USB cable rather than to your network, you can’t connect directly with mobile devices.

One other feature worth noting is support for PostScript, a printer language that most offices can do without, but some applications require.

Setup and Speed
The B432dn weighs 26 pounds 8 ounces and measures 9.6 by 15.2 by 14.3 inches (HWD), making it small and light enough for one person to move into place. Setup is typical for a monochrome laser. For my tests, I connected it to a network using its Ethernet port and installed the driver on a Windows Vista system.

OKI rates the printer engine at 42 pages per minute (ppm), which is close to the speed you should see when printing a file that needs little to no processing. However, the effective speed can be much slower, depending on how many pages are in the print job.

Results on our tests are usually significantly slower than the engine rating, both because most of our test files include graphics and photos that require processing, and because we time what’s known as throughput, which includes the time between giving the print command and the first page starting to print. Engine ratings don’t include that time. Even after taking this into account, however, the B432dn was slow for both its price and its rating on our tests.

The reason for the slow performance is that the B432dn takes more time than most of the competition to warm up at the start of a print job. For long documents, the fast speed once printing actually begins will largely make up for the slow start. However, our tests consist of one to four-page documents, because most offices print far more short documents than long ones.

I timed the printer on our business applications suite (using QualityLogic’s hardware and software for timing) at only 6.8ppm. In comparison, the OKI B412dn came in at 9.6ppm, the Brother HL-5450DN managed 10.8ppm, and the much-less-expensive Canon imageClass LBP6230dw$99.99 at Amazon hit 10.8ppm in its default duplex mode and 13.2ppm in simplex (one-sided) mode. The best that can be said of the B432dn’s speed for short print jobs is that it’s tolerable, but sluggish. The good news is that with substantially longer documents, the slow warm-up time won’t be as significant a drag on the overall print time.

Output Quality
Output quality overall is more than acceptable, particularly for text, which is easily good enough for almost any business need short of high-quality desktop publishing. Unless you make extensive use of small font sizes, you shouldn’t have a problem with it.

Graphics and photo quality are both typical for a monochrome laser. The graphics output is easily good enough for any internal business use, and most people would consider it good enough for PowerPoint handouts and the like as well. Photo quality is good enough to print recognizable images from photos on Web pages.

If you won’t be printing enough for the B432dn’s low cost per page to be a key consideration, you might be better off with the OKI B412dn, which offers the same paper handling plus faster throughput for short print jobs. Also consider the Brother HL-5450DN. In addition to offering nearly the same level of paper handling, the Brother model delivers better text quality than the B432dn, which helps make it our Editors’ Choice moderate- to heavy-duty monochrome laser for personal use or for shared printing in a micro office or workgroup.

If your print needs are heavy-duty enough, the OKI B432dn’s low running cost can save money in the long run compared with less expensive printers with higher running costs. And if most of the documents you print are long enough for the fast engine speed to make up for the slow warm-up time, it can even be a compelling choice.

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Canon imageClass MF216n

BY M. DAVID STONE

Meant primarily as a shared monochrome laser multifunction printer (MFP) for a micro office or small workgroup, the Canon imageClass MF216n ($199) delivers fast speed and suitably high-quality output. It lacks a duplexer (for two-sided printing), but it includes an automatic document feeder (ADF) for easy scanning and an Ethernet connector for sharing on a network. The combination makes it our Editors’ Choice monochrome laser MFP for light-duty micro-office use or heavy-duty personal use.

Design and Features
The MF216n$144.71 at Amazon offers far more than the Panasonic KX-MB2000$190.50 at Amazon that it replaces as our preferred pick. It has the same 250-sheet input capacity, but it adds a one-sheet manual feed, which is a significant convenience. It’s also faster on our tests, and it ups the ante for scanning and copying by supplementing its letter-size flatbed with a 35-sheet ADF that can handle up to legal-size paper.

Basic MFP features include the ability to print and fax from, as well as scan to, a PC and the ability to work as a standalone copier and fax machine. In addition, the printer offers mobile support to let it print from and scan to Android and iOS phones and tablets.

An important limitation for mobile printing and scanning is that the MF216w has to be connected by Ethernet to a network that includes a Wi-Fi access point. Some printers, including the Samsung Xpress M2070FW$129.99 at Amazon, offer Wi-Fi Direct to let you connect to the printer even if it’s not on a network. The MF216n doesn’t even support Wi-Fi, much less Wi-Fi Direct.

Setup, Speed, and Output Quality
At 14.2 by 15.4 by 14.6 inches (HWD), the MF216n is small enough to share a desk with, but tall enough that you may prefer not to do so. At 26.7 pounds, however, it’s light enough for one person to move into place. Setup is standard. For my tests, I connected it to a network and installed the drivers on a Windows Vista system.

Canon rates the printer engine at 24 pages per minute (ppm), which is the speed you should see when printing documents that require little to no processing. On our business applications suite, I clocked it at 12.3ppm (using QualityLogic’s hardware and software for timing). That’s a fast speed for the rating and faster than either the Panasonic KX-MB2000, at 8ppm, or the Samsung M2070FW, at 9.8ppm.

Output quality counts as a strong point, with solid quality for a monochrome laser MFP across the board. Text quality, which usually matters most for monochrome printers, is easily good enough for any business use, even if you need to use small fonts.

Graphics quality is at the low end of a tight range that includes most monochrome laser MFPs. It’s certainly suitable for any internal business use. Depending on how much of a perfectionist you are, you may or may not consider it acceptable for PowerPoint handouts and the like. As with most monochrome laser MFPs, photo quality is good enough to print recognizable images from photos on a Web page, but not for anything more demanding than that.

If you need mobile printing and scanning with a printer you intend to connect to a single PC by USB cable, consider the Samsung M2070FW, with its Wi-Fi Direct support. If you need Wi-Fi to connect to a network, but don’t need Wi-Fi Direct, take a look at the Canon imageClass MF212w, which offers the same capability for printing as the MF216n, but lacks an ADF and fax support. For most offices, however, the MF216n’s combination of speed, output quality, and paper handling—plus its ADF and fax capability—make it the better fit. It’s our Editors’ Choice for personal or light-duty, micro office monochrome laser MFPs.

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Canon imageClass MF227dw

BY M. DAVID STONE

Although small enough to use as a personal monochrome laser multifunction printer (MFP), the Canon imageClass MF227dw ($249) is capable enough for a micro office or small workgroup. Its speed and paper handling are suitable for up to moderate workloads by micro-office standards, and it adds such niceties as a well-designed touch-screen control panel. More important, it offers all the features the vast majority of micro offices need, which is more than enough to make it our Editors’ Choice for moderate use in a micro office.

The MF227dw$189.39 at Amazon is one of four similar models, including the Canon imageClass MF216n$144.71 at Amazon, which is our Editors’ Choice monochrome laser MFP for light-duty micro office use or heavy-duty personal use. It’s also a big step up from its lesser cousin.

Compared with the Canon MF216n, the MF227dw offers a faster engine rating, adds Wi-Fi to Ethernet and USB as a connection choice, and it features duplex (two-sided) printing. If you want to connect to a network, and don’t want to string wires, its Wi-Fi capability makes the MF227dw the better choice. For most offices, however, the more important difference is duplexing, which, if you need it, easily justifies the additional cost.

Basics
Basic MFP features for the MF227dw include printing and faxing from, as well as scanning to, a PC plus the ability to work as a standalone copier and fax machine. In addition, mobile printing and scanning features let you print from and scan to Android and iOS phones and tablets.

Unfortunately, the mobile printing and scanning is limited to working only over a Wi-Fi access point. Unlike the Samsung Multifunction Xpress M2875FW$239.99 at Amazon, another top pick in this category, the MF227dw doesn’t offer Wi-Fi Direct or the equivalent. If you connect the printer to a single PC by USB cable, that leaves you with no way to connect from a mobile device.

The printer’s paper handling counts mostly as a plus. In addition to the duplexer, the MF227dw offers a 250-sheet tray, plus a one-sheet manual feed. This should be enough for most micro offices, but if you need more capacity, you’ll have to look elsewhere, since Canon doesn’t offer any upgrade options. For scanning, it includes a 35-sheet automatic document feeder.

Setup, Speed, and Output Quality
The MF227dw weighs 28.2 pounds, which is light enough for one person to move the printer into place, and it measures 14.2 by 15.4 by 14.6 inches (HWD), which makes it tall enough that you may not want it sitting on your desk. Setup is standard fare. For my tests, I connected it to a network using its Ethernet port and installed the drivers on a system running Windows Vista.

Canon rates the printer at 16 pages per minute (ppm) in its default setting, using duplex mode, and 28ppm for simplex (one-sided) mode. In each case, these are the speeds you should see when printing text documents or other material that doesn’t need much processing. In my tests (using QualityLogic’s hardware and software for timing), it came in on our business applications suite at 9.7ppm in duplex mode and 13ppm in simplex. That makes it just a little faster in simplex mode than the Canon MF216n (12.3ppm), and essentially tied with the Canon imageClass MF4880dw$150.40 at Amazon that it’s in the process of replacing in Canon’s line. More impressive is that it’s almost as fast for duplex printing as the Samsung M2875FW is for simplex (10ppm).

Output quality is solidly average across the board for a monochrome laser MFP. Text, which for most offices is the most important type of output for monochrome printers, is good enough for anything short of high-quality desktop publishing.

Graphics quality falls within a tight range that includes most monochrome laser MFPs, although it’s in the bottom half of that range. It’s certainly suitable for any internal business use. Whether you consider it acceptable for PowerPoint handouts or the like will depend on how much of a perfectionist you are. Photo quality is roughly equivalent to newspaper-quality photos, which makes it good enough to print recognizable images from photos on a Web page.

If you don’t need duplex printing or Wi-Fi, your best choice will likely be the Canon MF216n, which will give you nearly the same speed and capability as the Canon imageClass MF227dw at a lower cost. If you need duplexing, as well as the ability to connect to the printer directly—or want additional mobile features like faxing from mobile devices—the Samsung M2875FW will likely be the right fit. For most offices, however, the MF227dw’s faster speed will give it just enough of an edge to make it the better choice, which also makes it our Editors’ Choice monochrome laser MFP for up to medium-duty use in a micro office.

original article