HP LaserJet Pro MFP M426fdw

BY M. DAVID STONE

The HP LaserJet Pro MFP M426fdw ($449.99) monochrome laser multifunction printer (MFP) is capable enough to serve as a shared printer, but small and inexpensive enough to consider for heavy-duty personal use. It’s also one of the more impressive MFPs in its category, with fast print performance, excellent paper handling, a full set of MFP features, and extras like mobile and cloud printing. Its text quality is at the low end of what we consider typical for the breed, but it’s easily good enough for most business use. All this makes the M426fdw our Editors’ Choice monochrome laser MFP for heavy duty use in a micro office.

Among the M426fdw’s strongest competition are two other top picks: the Canon imageClass MF6160dw$406.22 at Amazon and the OKI MB471. All three of these printers offer similar paper capacities, with the M426fdw delivering the highest capacity, albeit by a meager 20 sheets. It’s also the fastest of the three on our tests by far, and it’s the only one with such conveniences as Wi-Fi Direct and single-pass duplex scanning.

Basics and Beyond
Basic MFP features for the M426fdw include the ability to print and fax from, as well as scan to, a PC, and the ability to work as a standalone copier, fax machine, and direct email sender (for sending scans as attachments directly, without having to send them to an email client on a PC first). In addition, it can both print from and scan to a USB memory key.

Paper handling for printing is suitable for up to heavy-duty use in a micro office or light- to medium-duty use in a small to midsize office. The printer includes a 250-sheet drawer, a 100-sheet multipurpose tray, and an automatic duplexer standard. You can also add a 550-sheet drawer ($139) for a maximum 900-sheet capacity.

For scanning, the M426fdw supplements its letter-size flatbed with a 50-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF) that can both scan legal-size pages and scan in duplex. Most inexpensive MFPs that scan both sides of a page use a duplexing ADF instead, which takes longer, since it scans one side, turns the page over and then scans the other side. As with most MFPs that can both print and scan in duplex, the combination lets you copy both single- and double-sided originals to your choice of single- or double-sided copies. Oddly, however, you can’t scan in duplex when faxing.

If you connect the M426fdw to your network, using either its Ethernet or Wi-Fi connector, it will also let you print through the cloud, as well as connect a phone or tablet through a wireless access point on your network for printing from and scanning to your mobile device. Connect the printer to a single PC via USB cable instead, and you’ll lose the ability to print through the cloud. Thanks to the printer’s Wi-Fi Direct, however, you’ll still be able to connect directly from mobile devices to print and scan. For phones and tablets with NFC, you can also establish a connection simply by tapping the device to the NFC logo on the top-front right of the printer.

Setup and Speed
At 28 pounds 6 ounces, the M426fdw is on the light side for its category. The Canon MF6160dw weighs 14 pounds more. However, it’s still heavy enough that you might want some help moving it into place. It’s also big enough, at 12.8 by 16.5 by 15.4 inches (HWD), that you probably won’t want it sitting on your desk, although you shouldn’t have trouble finding enough flat space for it, even in a small office. Setup is standard. For my tests, I connected it to a network using its Ethernet port and installed the drivers on a Windows Vista system.

HP rates the M426fdw at 40 pages per minute (ppm), which is the speed you should see when printing text files with little to no formatting. On our tests, I timed it (using QualityLogic’s hardware and software for timing) at a suitably fast 16.4ppm. In comparison, the Canon MF6160dw came in at 9.9ppm on our tests with its default duplex setting, and only 13.2ppm even for printing in simplex.

The OKI MB471 was even slower, at 9.5ppm on our tests. As yet another point of comparison, the Dell Mono Multifunction Printer – B2375dnf$269.99 at Dell Small Business was even slower, coming in our tests at only 5.9ppm. Quite simply, the M426fdw is fast for its price.

Output Quality
The printer’s output quality is typical for monochrome lasers across the board, which makes it good enough for most purposes. Its text quality is at the low end of the range that includes the vast majority of monochrome lasers, but that still makes it good enough to print highly readable text at 8-point size or smaller on our tests. Almost half of the fonts in our tests qualified as highly readable at 5 and 6 points.

Both graphics and photo output on our tests were a match for most monochrome lasers. For graphics, that makes the output easily good enough for any internal business use. You may also consider it good enough for PowerPoint handouts and the like, unless you have a very critical eye. For photos, it translates to being able to print recognizable images from photos on webpages, which is about all you can expect from a monochrome laser.

Conclusion
If you need top-quality text above all, you should consider the Canon MF6160dw or the OKI MB471. Between the two, the Canon printer offers higher text quality, as well as better speed, but the OKI model delivers better photo quality. That said, the HP LaserJet Pro MFP M426fdw offers text quality that’s well within the expected range for a monochrome laser and easily good enough for most offices. It also adds excellent paper handling, notably fast printing, and features, ranging from duplex scanning to mobile printing, that help it stand out from the crowd and make it our Editors’ Choice for up to heavy duty use in a micro or small office.

HP LaserJet Enterprise MFP M527dn

BY TONY HOFFMAN

The HP LaserJet Enterprise MFP M527dn ($1,799.99) is a fast workhorse monochrome multifunction printer (MFP) for small to midsize offices. The M527dn’s speed, good paper handling, and a low running cost are key strengths, although it’s pretty much neck and neck in all these areas with the Dell B3465dnf Multifunction Laser Printer$1,099.99 at Dell Small Business. What keeps the Dell B3465dnf as our Editors’ Choice monochrome MFP for heavy-duty printing in up to a midsize office are its lower price and the inclusion of fax capabilities, which the M527dn$998.99 at Amazonlacks.

Design and Features
Although somewhat small for a heavy-duty laser MFP, the M527dn is still big enough that you will want to set it on a table or a bench of its own. It measures 19.6 by 19 by 19.5 inches (HWD) and weighs 48 pounds. It has an 8-inch color touch screen that tilts forward, and an easy-to-use menu system. This machine can print, copy, and scan (but not fax, which is available as a $299 option). It can scan to a folder, to email, to Internet fax, to an FTP site, or to a USB thumb drive (and print from a thumb drive as well).

Standard paper capacity is 650 sheets, split between a 550-sheet main tray and a 100-sheet multipurpose feeder. Up to three optional 550-sheet paper trays ($199 each) are available, for a maximum paper capacity of 2,300 sheets. The printer comes with an automatic duplexer for printing on both sides of a sheet of paper.

Built for heavy-duty printing, the M527dn has a maximum monthly duty cycle of 150,000 pages and a recommended monthly duty cycle of up to 7,500 pages. This matches the paper capacity of the Dell B3465dnf, although the latter has a higher recommended monthly duty cycle of up to 15,000 pages, with the same 150,000-page maximum.

For scanning, the M527dn has both a flatbed and an automatic document feeder (ADF). The latter fits up to 100 sheets, and can scan both sides of a document on a single pass. This compares favorably with the Dell B3465dnf, whose ADF holds up to 50 sheets and must flip each page over for two-sided scanning.

The M527dn is the base model in HP’s M527 series of monochrome laser MFPs. The HP LaserJet Enterprise MFP M527f ($2,099.99) adds fax capability, plus a 500GB secure hard drive. Although you can buy a fax module ($299) separately for the M527dn, you’re better off getting the HP M527f instead, because for the same money you in effect get the hard drive thrown in for free. The HP LaserJet Enterprise Flow MFP M527z ($2,599.99) adds workflow solutions, such as a pull-out keyboard and HP’s EveryPage ultrasonic scanning double-feed protection, plus Wireless Direct and NFC capabilities.

This MFP can connect to a computer via USB, and to a network by Ethernet. I tested this printer over an Ethernet connection with drivers installed on a computer running Windows Vista. Drivers include PCL 6, PCL 5 (available as a download), and HP’s PostScript emulation.

Print Speed
The M527dn is speedy, though not unusually so. I timed it on our business applications suite (using QualityLogic’s hardware and software for timing), at 14.8 pages per minute (ppm). This is in line with its 45ppm rated speed that’s based on printing text documents without graphics or photos—our test suite includes text pages, graphics pages, and pages with mixed content. The speed is just short of the Dell B3465dnf, rated at 50ppm, which we timed at 15ppm. Some other printers are considerably slower, such as the OKI MB562w$699.99 at Amazon, rated at 47ppm, which we tested at 8.4ppm.

Output Quality and Running Cost
Output quality for the M527dn is typical for a monochrome laser, with text, graphics, and photo all falling in the average range. Even average text quality for a laser is very good, though, and suitable for any business use short of demanding desktop publishing applications that use very small fonts. With graphics, the M527dn did well in displaying thin lines, but performed poorly in differentiating between similar tones in several test illustrations. Graphics should be fine for in-office use, and basic PowerPoint handouts. Photo quality is okay for printing out images from webpages and the like, but not for marketing materials.

Based on HP’s prices and yields for consumables, the M527dn has a running cost of 1.6 cents per page. That’s reasonably low, matching the OKI MB562w’s cost, and a tenth of a penny more per page than the Dell B3465dnf.

Conclusion
The HP LaserJet Enterprise MFP M527dn is a strong choice as a monochrome laser MFP for heavy-duty printing in a small to midsize office, provided that you don’t need your MFP to send and receive faxes. The Editors’ Choice Dell B3465dnf has similar specs, but comes in at a lower price and includes fax capabilities. That said, the M527dn can do most anything else the Dell B3465dnf can, and has a more capable scanner. It’s a good workhorse MFP to handle the printing, scanning, and copying needs of a busy workgroup or office.

HP Laserjet Enterprise MFP M725dn

BY TONY HOFFMAN

The HP LaserJet Enterprise 500 MFP M725dn inhabits a sparse niche: it’s a monochrome laser multifunction printer (MFP) that can print, scan, and copy at up to tabloid size. It’s a good option for businesses that need those capabilities, provided that they don’t plan to use the graphics they output for formal reports and the like.

The M725dn is enormous, measuring 24 by 24.2 by 25.6 inches (HWD) and weighing 119 pounds, so you’ll need at least two, and preferably three people to move it into place.

Features
This machine can print, copy, and scan (but not fax, which is available as a $300 option). It can scan to folder, email, or USB thumb drive (and print from a thumb drive as well). It has an 8-inch color touch screen and a built-in encrypted hard drive.

Standard paper capacity is 600 sheets, between two 250-sheet trays (one that fits tabloid-sized paper) and a 100-sheet multipurpose tray. The printer comes with an automatic duplexer for printing on both sides of a sheet of paper. The M725dn is built for heavy-duty printing, with a maximum monthly duty cycle of 200,000 pages and a recommended monthly duty cycle of up to 20,000 pages.

It scans at up to tabloid size from either its flatbed or automatic document feeder (ADF). The reversing ADF (which scans one side of a sheet, flips it over, and then scans the other side) can hold up to 100 sheets.

An optional 500-sheet paper tray ($359 direct) is available, as is a 500-sheet feeder with cabinet and stand ($599) and a 3 x 500-sheet feeder with cabinet and stand ($1,299), as is a 3,500-sheet feeder with cabinet and stand ($1,699). Maximum paper capacity is 4,600 sheets.

The M725dn is the base model in HP’s M725 series of mono laser MFPs. The M725f ($4,699) includes standard fax, plus a 500-sheet tray and a 500-sheet feeder and cabinet. The M725z ($5,599) includes fax, plus a 3 x 500-sheet feeder and stand, and a 500-sheet in-line stapler. The M725z+ ($6,931.33) includes fax, plus a 3,500-sheet feeder and stand, and the 500-sheet in-line stapler. There are other, minor differences between the models.

The M725dn offers USB and Ethernet (including Gigabit Ethernet) connectivity. I tested it over an Ethernet connection using a computer running Windows Vista.

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Print Speed
I timed the M725dn on our business applications suite (usingQualityLogic’s hardware and software for timing), at an effective 11.1 pages per minute (ppm). A good clip, though not particularly fast for a mono laser MFP, or for its 40 page-per-minute rated that’s based on printing text documents without graphics or photos—our test suite includes text pages, graphics pages, and pages with mixed content. It did beat the 9.9 ppm of its single-function counterpart, the HP Laserjet Enterprise M712dn $2,199.99 at HP, rated at the same 40 pages per minute.

Normally, in selecting comparison systems, they’re similar enough to the product under review that one can make a direct comparison. However, since we haven’t tested a tabloid-sized mono laser MFP in recent memory, we have no systems we’ve reviewed that are directly comparable, so I’ll have to use printers that have some characteristics in common though are far from exact matches. At the end of the review, though, I’ll try to tie some of these disparate systems together.

The Editors’ Choice Dell B3465dnf Mono Laser Multifunction Printer$1,279.99 at Dell Small Business, a letter- to legal-sized monochrome MFP rated at 50 pages per minute, tested at 15 ppm. I timed the Editors’ Choice Xerox Phaser 7100/N$1,305.99 at TheNerds.net, a tabloid-sized color laser single-function printer, rated at 30 pages per minute, at 7.6 ppm. (Granted, it was printing some of the pages in color, while the other printers mentioned here are strictly monochrome.)

Output Quality
The M725dn’s output quality is below par over all, with average text quality, slightly sub-par photos, and below-par graphics. Even average text quality for a laser is very good, though, suitable for any business use short of demanding desktop publishing applications that use very small fonts.

When it came to graphics, the M725dn did well in displaying thin lines. It did less well with backgrounds, with some showing mild blotchiness. A couple of illustrations showed faint, spurious shadows, and some showed mild banding (a regular pattern of faint striations). One figure contains a gradient between dark and light tones (which in the original are red); this printer showed the entire gradient as a uniform, darker gray. In another illustration, drop-out type against a dark background in a sidebar did not show up at all. You could probably use this printer for simple graphics for in-house use, but you’d do well to look them over closely before handing them out.

Photo quality is good enough for printing out recognizable images from Web pages. There was slight blotchiness in some dark solid areas, as well as mild banding and the ghost shadows I also saw in some graphics.

Running Costs
The M725dn has reasonably low running costs of 1.5 cents per page, in line with those of the single-function HP M712dn.

As we don’t have any directly comparable systems, we’ll first look at the M725dn strictly on its own merits. Considering that its ADF and flatbed can both handle tabloid-sized paper, and it can print at tabloid size, its price is within reason, especially considering that many HP mono MFPs limited to legal-size printing have cost more. Its price is also in line with the single-function HP M712dn. The M725dn has good paper capacity and prodigious paper-handling options. Its cost per page is competitive, and its speed is decent.

Although text is good enough for typical business uses, graphics and photo quality were both below par. This is less of a disadvantage for monochrome printers than for color models, but still it limits the M725dn’s usefulness in printing more formal documents. If this is not an issue, it’s a reasonable choice for an office that needs high-volume printing, scanning, and copying at up to tabloid size but doesn’t require color printing.

A single-function tabloid printer is another option, either a monochrome machine such as the HP M712dn or a color printer like the Xerox 7100/N. You could even add an MFP such as the Dell B3465dnf in addition to one of the aforementioned printers and still pay less than you would for the M725dn. The B3465dnf’s ADF and flatbed are limited to legal-sized pages, though; if you need tabloid-size scanning, you could combine a tabloid printer with a tabloid-size scanner such as the Xerox DocuMate 4830$2,029.00 at Scantastik.

For many companies, though, the HP LaserJet Enterprise MFP M725dn may be solution enough. It certainly has the ample paper capacity, low running costs, and MFP features befitting a device that prints, scans, and copies at tabloid size. It’s easy to recommend as such, as long as you don’t need to print in color or require graphics output of a quality suitable for formal reports and the like.

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Samsung Multifunction ProXpress M3370FD

BY M. DAVID STONE

Depending on your point of view, the Samsung Multifunction ProXpress M3370FD$168.17 at Amazon is either the next step up in Samsung’s current monochrome laser multifunction printer (MFP) line from the Editors’ Choice Samsung Multifunction Xpress M2875FW$327.19 at pcRUSH.com, or the first step on the ladder for the ProXpress MFP line. As a ProXpress model it’s built around a bigger, heavier-duty engine than the Xpress M2875FW. That makes its natural home a small office or workgroup with light to medium-duty needs by small office standards, although it can also be a good fit as a heavy-duty workhorse in a micro office.

Part of what makes the M3370FD more definitively a shared printer than the Samsung M2875FW is its larger size. At 17.7 by 16.3 by 16.6 (HWD), it’s too large to share a desk with comfortably. However, a better indication of how much more heavy duty it is than the M2875FW is its 50,000-page maximum monthly duty cycle, which dwarfs the 12,000 pages for the M2875FW.

Keep in mind that maximum duty cycles for printers are far higher than recommended maximums. Even so, the higher rating means that the M3370FD is designed to churn through a lot more pages per month than the M2875FW.

Basics
As you would expect, the M3370FD offers a full set of basic MFP features. It can print and fax from, as well as scan to, a PC, including over a network, and it can work as a standalone copier, fax machine, and email sender.

Paper handling features for printing include a 250-sheet drawer, an automatic duplexer (for two-sided printing), and a single-sheet manual tray standard, so you can feed a different paper stock without having to swap out the paper in the main tray. A multipurpose tray would be more useful, but a manual feed tray is typical for mono laser MFPs in this price range. If you need more capacity, you can also add a 520-sheet second drawer ($200 street) for a total of 770 sheets, which is something you can’t do with the Samsung M2875FW.

For scanning, the M3370FD offers a letter-size flatbed plus a 50-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF) that can handle up to legal-size pages. The ADF does simplex (one-sided) scans only, but, as a nice touch, there are options in the menus to let you copy single-sided originals to your choice of single- or double-sided copies.

Setup and Speed
Setting up the M3370FD is standard fare, with Ethernet and USB as the only connection choices. For my tests, I connected it to a network and installed the drivers and other software on a system running Windows Vista.

Samsung rates the M3370FD at 35 pages per minute (ppm), which is the speed you’ll see when printing unformatted text or other pages that need little to no processing. I clocked it on our business applications suite (using QualityLogic’s hardware and software for timing), at 10.8 ppm. That makes it just a touch faster than the Samsung M2875FW, at 10.0 ppm, and well within the typical range for the engine rating. However, it’s well short of impressive. The Editors’ Choice Canon imageClass MF4880dw$224.93 at B&H Photo-Video-Pro Audio, for example, with a rating of only 26 ppm in simplex mode, managed 12.5 ppm on our tests.

Output Quality
The M3370FD’s output quality earns much the same description as its speed. It’s good enough to be useful for most business purposes, but not particularly impressive. Text falls in the middle of the range that counts as par quality for a mono laser MFP, making it good enough for virtually any business need, but a little short of what you might want for high-quality desktop publishing.

Graphics and photos both fall at the low end of par for monochrome laser MFPs. For graphics that makes the output good enough for any internal business need. Depending on how critical an eye you have, you may or may not consider it suitable for, say, PowerPoint handouts. For photos it means you can print recognizable images from photos on Web pages or the like, but the quality will be roughly equivalent to what you’d expect to see in a newspaper.

The Samsung Multifunction ProXpress M3370FD doesn’t offer any particular feature that might make it a compelling choice, like fast speed or impressive output quality. However, it offers all the basics, including printing, scanning, faxing, copying, and direct email, plus some welcome conveniences, like copying from simplex originals to duplex copies. It also delivers an appropriate level of speed, output quality, and paper handling for a small office. If a workhorse MFP is what you need, that makes the Samsung Multifunction ProXpress M3370FD a potentially good fit.

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HP LaserJet Pro MFP M521dn

The HP LaserJet Pro MFP M521dn is a quietly impressive beast. Designed as a mono laser workhorse, with a 75,000 page per month maximum duty cycle and a 6,000 page per month recommended maximum, it can print and fax from, as well as scan to, a computer – including over a network – and it can work as a standalone copier, fax machine, and direct email sender. More importantly, it does well enough at everything it does to make it a great choice for medium to heavy-duty use in a small to mid-size office or workgroup.

There’s nothing flashy here, like super-fast speed. In fact, it’s easy to find printers that are faster, such as the Brother MFC-8950DW. On the other hand, the M521dn offers a combination of features that make it more usable than most MFPs.

Features

In addition to the basic MFP features I’ve already mentioned – printing, scanning, copying, faxing, and email – the M521dn can both scan to and print from a USB memory stick. In an unusual touch for a monochrome printer, it will even let you preview the photos stored on the USB stick before printing them. It also supports printing though the cloud.

Much higher on its list of key features is its scan capability. Like most MFPs aimed at office use, the M521dn supplements a flatbed scanner with an automatic document feeder (ADF). Unlike most of the competition, however, including some significantly more expensive MFPs like the Dell B3465dnf Multifunction Laser Printer, the M521dn offers a duplex scanner for copying and scanning. (It won’t scan in duplex for faxing, however, which takes a little shine off the feature).

Having a duplex scanner (meaning that it can scan both sides of a page at the same time) is different from having a duplexing ADF, which scans one side, turns the page over, and then scans the other. Either approach will let you scan duplex documents. And if the MFP also offers duplex printing plus appropriate copying commands, as with the M521dn, either approach will also let you copy single or double-sided originals to your choice of single or double-sided copies. However, scanning in duplex is a lot faster than scanning with a duplexing ADF.

We don’t usually time duplex scanning with MFPs, because most desktop MFPs that duplex use duplexing ADFs, which is more of a convenience feature than something that’s truly competitive with duplexing scanners. With the M521dn, however, I ran a test using a 25-sheet document just to get a sense of its speed. For scanning to disk, and including the time for saving the file to disk after scanning, the M521dn came in at 10.7 pages per minute (ppm) or 21.4 images per minute (ipm), with one image on each side of the page. If you scan duplex documents very often, this one feature can save a lot of time in comparison to using an MFP with a duplexing ADF.

Very much on the plus side for the M521dn is its 3.5in touch screen, with a particularly well-designed menu system. The combination makes it easy to both change settings in the printer and give commands for copying, faxing, and emailing.

One other strong point is the paper handing for printing, with both a 500-sheet paper drawer and 100-sheet multipurpose tray coming as standard, along with the automatic duplexer. The 600-sheet capacity should be enough for most small to mid-size offices. If you need more, however, you can add a second 500-sheet drawer for a total of 1,100 sheets.

Setup and speed

At 465 x 465 x 508mm (WxDxH), the M521dn is too imposing to share a desk with. It’s also heavy enough, at 22kg, that you’ll probably want some help moving it. Once in place, however, setup is standard fare. For my tests I connected it to a wired network and installed the driver on a system running Windows Vista.

As I’ve already suggested, speed is not a strong point. HP rates the engine at 42 ppm, and I timed it as being a touch faster, at 43 ppm, for printing a text document with little to no formatting from Microsoft Word. On our business applications suite, however (timed with QualityLogic’s hardware and software), it came in at a surprisingly slow 5.3 ppm. Although that’s a tolerable speed, it’s significantly slower than most other mono laser printers we’ve tested. The Brother MFC-8950DW, for example, managed 10.6 ppm, and the Dell B3465dnf hit 15.0 ppm.

Output quality

Output quality is a mixed bag. The good news is that the M521dn handled text particularly well, which is generally the most important kind of output for a mono printer. Text quality was well above par, making it easily good enough for any business use and even good enough for most desktop publishing applications.

Graphics output was a touch below par, but still within the tight range where the vast majority of mono laser MFPs fall. That makes it good enough for any internal business need. Depending on how critical an eye you have, you may or may not consider it acceptable for, say, PowerPoint hand-outs.

Photo quality was also at the low end of par for a mono laser MFP. It was certainly good enough to print recognisable photos from web pages. Whether you consider it suitable for anything more than that will depend, once again, on how critical an eye you have.

Verdict

The one feature I feel is missing from this MFP is the ability to fax in duplex. However, if you don’t need to fax duplex documents, that won’t be an issue. It also doesn’t leave you any worse off for faxing than when using an MFP that can’t handle duplexing at all, making this oversight more of a missed opportunity than an actual problem.

It’s true that a faster print speed would be welcome, too. However, the time saved with duplex scanning and copying (presuming you need to do so) can more than make up for whatever points the printer loses on print speed. The text quality is a big plus, too, as part of a highly attractive balance of speed, output quality, paper handling, and MFP features.

For a small to mid-size office that needs to copy or scan (but not fax) duplex documents on a regular basis, all this can make the HP LaserJet Pro MFP M521dn a near-perfect fit, which is also enough to grab it one of our Best Buy awards.

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HP LaserJet Pro MFP M521dn

BY M. DAVID STONE

The HP LaserJet Pro MFP M521dn ($899.99 direct) is a quietly impressive beast. Designed as a mono laser workhorse, with a 75,000 page per month maximum duty cycle and a 6,000 page per month recommended maximum, it can print and fax from, as well as scan to, a computer, including over a network, and it can work as a standalone copier, fax machine, and direct email sender. More important, it does well enough at everything it does to make it Editors’ Choice for medium to heavy-duty use in a small to mid-size office or workgroup.

There’s nothing flashy here, like super-fast speed. In fact, it’s easy to find printers, like the Editors’ Choice Brother MFC-8950DW$588.96 at pcRUSH.com or the far less expensive Canon imageClass MF4770n$129.99 at OfficeMax that are faster. On the other hand, the M521dn offers a combination of features that make it more usable than most MFPs.

MFP Features and Basics
In addition to the basic MFP features I’ve already mentioned—printing, scanning, copying, faxing, and email—the M521dn can both scan to and print from a USB memory key. In an unusual touch for a monochrome printer, it will even let you preview the photos stored on the memory key before printing them. It also supports printing though the cloud.

Much higher on its list of key features is its scan capability. Like most MFPs aimed at office use, the M521dn supplements a flatbed scanner with an automatic document feeder (ADF). As is common, the flatbed is limited to letter-size paper while the 50-page ADF lets you scan up to legal size. Unlike most of the competition, however, including some significantly more expensive MFPs like the Editors’ Choice Dell B3465dnf Multifunction Laser Printer$1,399.99 at Dell, the M521dn offers a duplex scanner for copying and scanning. (It won’t scan in duplex for faxing, however, which takes a little of the shine off the feature.)

Having a duplex scanner (meaning that it can scan both sides of a page at the same time) is different from having a duplexing ADF, which scans one side, turns the page over, and then scans the other. Either approach will let you scan duplex documents. And if the MFP also offers duplex printing plus appropriate copying commands, as with the M521dn, either approach will also let you copy single- or double-sided originals to your choice of single- or double-sided copies. However, scanning in duplex is a lot faster than scanning with a duplexing ADF.

We don’t usually time duplex scanning with MFPs, because most desktop MFPs that duplex use duplexing ADFs, which is more of a convenience feature than something that’s truly competitive with duplexing scanners. With the M521dn, however, I ran a test using a 25-sheet document just to get a sense of its speed. For scanning to disk, and including the time for saving the file to disk after scanning, the M521dn came in at 10.7 pages per minute (ppm) or 21.4 images per minute (ipm), with one image on each side of the page. If you scan duplex documents very often, this one feature can save a lot of time compared with using an MFP with a duplexing ADF.

Very much on the plus side for the M521dn is the 3.5-inch touch screen, with its particularly well-designed menu system. The combination makes it easy to both change settings in the printer and give commands for copying, faxing, and emailing.

One other strong point is the paper handing for printing, with both a 500-sheet paper drawer and 100-sheet multipurpose tray standard, along with the automatic duplexer. The 600-sheet capacity should be enough for most small to mid-size offices. If you need more, however, you can add a second 500-sheet drawer ($185 street), for a total of 1,100 sheets.

Setup and Speed
At 20.0 by 18.3 by 18.3 inches (HWD), the M521dn is too imposing to share a desk with. It’s also heavy enough, at 52.7 pounds, that you’ll probably want some help moving it. Once in place, however, setup is standard fare. For my tests I connected it to a wired network and installed the driver on a system running Windows Vista.

As I’ve already suggested, speed is not a strong point. HP rates the engine at 42 ppm, and I timed it as being a touch faster, at 43 ppm, for printing a text document with little to no formatting from Microsoft Word. On our business applications suite, however (timed with QualityLogic’s hardware and software), it came in at a surprisingly slow 5.3 ppm. Although that’s a tolerable speed, it’s significantly slower than most other mono laser printers we’ve tested. The Brother MFC-8950DW, for example, managed 10.6 ppm, the Canon imageClass MF4770n came in at 12.3 ppm, and the Dell B3465dnf hit 15.0 ppm

Output Quality and Other Issues
Output quality is a mixed bag. The good news is that the M521dn handled text in our tests particularly well, which is generally the most important kind of output for a mono printer. Text quality was well above par, making it easily good enough for any business use and even good enough for most desktop publishing applications.

Graphics output was a touch below par, but still within the tight range where the vast majority of mono laser MFPs fall. That makes it good enough for any internal business need. Depending on how critical an eye you have, you may or may not consider it acceptable for, say, PowerPoint handouts. Photo quality was also at the low end of par for a mono laser MFP. It was certainly good enough to print recognizable photos from Web pages. Whether you consider it suitable for anything more than that will depend, once again, on how critical an eye you have.

The one feature I wish this printer had that it doesn’t is the ability to fax in duplex. However, if you don’t need to fax duplex documents, that won’t be an issue. It also doesn’t leave you any worse off for faxing than with an MFP that can’t handle duplexing at all, making this oversight more of a missed opportunity than an actual problem.

Faster print speed would be welcome also. However, the time saved with duplex scanning and copying if you need it can more than make up for whatever points the printer loses on print speed. The text quality is a big plus too, as part of a highly attractive balance of speed, output quality, paper handling, and MFP features. For a small to mid-size office that needs to copy or scan (but not fax) duplex documents on a regular basis, all this can make the HP LaserJet Pro MFP M521dn a near-perfect fit, which is also enough to make it an Editors’ Choice.

original article

Dell B1165nfw MFP

by M. David Stone, 

One step down in Dell’s current line from the Dell B1265dnf Multifunction Mono Laser Printer that I reviewed last year, the Dell B1165nfw is Dell’s least expensive multifunction printer (MFP) right now. It’s also an obvious candidate if you need a personal MFP. It’s small enough to share your desk with comfortably, and it can be a good fit as a personal printer in any size office, or indeed as a shared printer for light duty use in a micro office.

The B1165nfw offers most of the MFP features you’re likely to need. It can print and fax from, as well as scan to your PC, including over a network, and it works as a standalone copier and fax machine. It also supports an assortment of mobile printing features, including Google Cloud Print for printing over the Internet and both AirPrint and Dell’s own app for Android devices for printing over a Wi-Fi connection. In addition, it offers Wi-Fi Direct, which lets you connect directly to the printer from a mobile device and print over Wi-Fi even if you don’t have an access point on your network.

Paper handling

One of the features that defines the B1165nfw as primarily a personal printer is its limited paper handling (with no upgrades available, either). The paper capacity is only 150 pages, which means that if you print more than about 30 pages a day, including copies and incoming faxes, refilling the paper tray can turn into an annoying chore. However, it should be enough for most personal use or for light duty use as a shared printer in a micro office.

Also missing is a duplexer (for two-sided printing). This can be an issue if you have to walk to the printer to turn over a stack of pages every time you manually duplex, but it’s not a problem for a personal printer sitting on your desk. For scanning, the printer offers both a letter-size flatbed and a 40-page automatic document feeder (ADF).

Setup and speed

Another feature that helps define the B1165nfw as a personal printer is its small size. At 402 x 293 x 296mm (WxDxH), it’s small enough to sit on your desk without towering over you. It also helps that it weighs only 8kg, which makes it easy for one person to move.

Setup is standard for a mono laser MFP. For my tests, I connected the printer to a wired network and installed the drivers on a system running Windows Vista.

Dell rates the printer engine at 21 pages per minute (ppm), which is the speed you should see when printing files that need little to no processing. I actually timed it at 22 ppm for printing a text file with no graphics or photos. On our business applications suite (timed using QualityLogic’s hardware and software), however, I clocked it at 7.5 ppm, which is a reasonable, but not that impressive speed for the rating and price.

As one point of reference, the less expensive Panasonic KX-MB2000 was a touch faster than the Dell printer at 8.0 ppm.

Output quality

The B1165nfw’s output quality counts as a plus, thanks primarily to its text and graphics. In both cases, the output is at the high end of the range where most mono laser MFPs fall. That makes the text a little short of what you would want for serious desktop publishing, but easily good enough for almost any business use. Graphics output, similarly, is good enough for almost any business need, including PowerPoint hand-outs and the like.

Photo quality is at the low end of par for a mono MFP, which makes it good enough to print recognisable photos from web pages. It’s not suitable for anything much more demanding than that, but if a mono printer is what you’re looking for, odds are that’s good enough for your needs.

Verdict

If you need a shared MFP in your micro office for even medium duty printing, this is clearly the wrong printer to get. You’ll be better off with the Dell B1265dnf Multifunction Mono Laser Printer instead. However, if what you need is a personal printer in any size office, or a shared printer for light duty use by micro office standards, the Dell B1165nfw Mono Laser Multifunction Printer is a potentially attractive choice, especially if you need a printer that’s small enough to sit on your desk.

Specifications

Manufacturer and Model Dell B1165nfw Mono Laser Multifunction Printer
Type Copier, Fax, Printer
Printer Category Laser
Direct Printing from Cameras No
Print Duplexing Manual with guidance
Rated Speed at Default Settings (Mono) 21 ppm
Type All-In-One
Color or Monochrome Monochrome
Technology (for laser category only) Laser
Connection Type USB, Ethernet, Wireless
original article

Brother MFC-1810 MFP

By Trevor Tan
Digital Life, The Straits Times
Sunday, Jun 30, 2013

Looking for an economical all-in-one monochrome laser printer that can print, copy, scan and fax?

The Brother MFC-1810 might just be the answer.

Weighing about 8kg and standing almost as tall as a 1.5l soft drink bottle, it is a little bulky, with a footprint slightly bigger than a copy of Digital Life.

To feed paper into the printer, you have to pull down its lower front casing and extend a paper tray which holds up to 150 sheets of paper. This expands the device’s footprint by almost 40 per cent.

This printer is not going to win any beauty pageant. Predominantly grey with the front half bathed in black, it has a long control panel just under the auto document feeder (ADF) and scanner lid.

The control panel consists of the Power button, Fax function buttons and Mode keys on the left. The Menu keys, Dial pad, and Start and Stop buttons sit on the right. In between is the monochrome LCD that displays date, time and status.

I found it counter-intuitive to have the Fax function buttons sited so far from the Dial pad. It might be better for these buttons to be housed closer to the Dial pad so that users do not have to use one hand to press the hook button and the other to dial the fax number.

At the printer’s rear, you will find a USB port with a phone port for faxing. It does not have an ethernet port or built-in Wi-Fi.

For this review, the MFC-1810 was hooked up to an Apple MacBook Pro via a USB connection.

It takes about 25 seconds to power up the printer before it is ready to print or copy.

Printing 20 monochrome pages takes about 64.5sec, which is pretty quick and in line with the advertised speed of 20 pages per minute. It printed five 2MB JPEG images in 18.2sec. The printer’s ADF does not support duplex copying, meaning that you can copy only one side of the document at a time.

It takes 45.7sec to copy five single-sided documents using the ADF, which is an average of 9.1sec per document.

On the other hand, it takes 10sec to copy a document using the scanner.

The quality of text is crisp and sharp, good enough for your resume as long as it does not include printing your photo on it.

The graphics or pictures printed with this machine tend to look slightly pixellated, with tiny dots visible on close examination.

Each print costs only about 5 cents, which is about the rate of most office laser printers. But the drum can support up to 10,000 print-outs, making it highly economical.

The Brother MFC-1810 offers a quick and fuss-free monochrome fax, copy and printing solution for home office and school projects.

Its rating would have gone up a notch if it had built-in Wi-Fi for ease of connection.

Tech specs

Price: $238
Cartridge: $52 (TN-1000 toner, 1,000 pages), $32 (DR-1000 drum, 10,000 pages)
Print resolution: Up to 2,400 x 600 dots per inch
Speed: 20 pages per minute (black)

Rating

Features: 3
Design: 3
Performance: 4
Value for money: 4
Overall: 3

original article

Brother MFC-9340CDW MFP

BY TONY HOFFMAN

The Brother MFC-9340CDW is the most full featured of Brother’s three new laser-class (LED-based) multifunction printers (MFPs). It includes all the features of the Brother MFC-9330CDW$446.97 at pcRUSH.com and Brother MFC-9130CW$349.99 at OfficeMax, and like them, it has a 35-page automatic document feeder (ADF) for copying, scanning, and faxing multipage documents unattended. But it’s the only one whose ADF is duplexing, able to scan both sides of a two-sided document—on a single pass, no less.

Features
The MFC-9340CDW can print, copy, scan, and fax. It lets you fax either from your computer (PC Fax), or standalone faxing from the MFP’s touch-sensitive keypad without needing to be connected to a computer. As an LED printer, the MFC-9340CDW uses LEDs as a light source instead of lasers. LED printers are typically smaller than the equivalent laser printer; and this model is reasonably compact at 16.1 by 16.1 by 19.0 inches (HWD) and weighs 51.8 pounds.

This two-toned (off-white and black) MFP is boxy except for a swept-back front panel, which includes a 3.7-inch color touch screen. The backlit numerical keypad to the right of the touch screen only appears when you press Fax or other functions that require data entry. The only physical button is the start/stop button. A front-facing port lets you print JPEG and PDF files from (and scan files to) a USB thumb drive.

Paper capacity is 250 sheets, plus a one-page manual feed slot, with no additional paper options. It has an automatic duplexer for printing on both sides of a sheet of paper.

The MFC-9340CDW connects to a PC via a USB cable, or to a network via Ethernet or Wi-Fi. It also supports Wi-Fi Direct, which enables direct printing between compatible devices without needing to go through a WiFi network. It supports mobile printing via Apple AirPrint, Brother iPrint&Scan (which allows you to print from or scan to an Apple, Android, or Windows Phone mobile device as well as Kindle Fire), Google Cloud Print, and Cortado WorkPlace. I tested it over an Ethernet connection with the drivers installed on a computer running Windows Vista.

Brother MFC-9340CDW

Printing Speed 
The MFC-9340CDW printed out our business applications suite (as timed with QualityLogic‘s hardware and software) at 5.8 effective pages per minute (ppm), a reasonable speed considering its 23 page per minute rated speed for both color and monochrome printing, which should be about its print speed when printing text only. (Our test suite includes text pages, graphics pages, and pages combining text and graphics.) Its tested speed was a bit lower than the Brother MFC-9330CDW (6.8 ppm), also rated at 23 pages per minute, and the Brother MFC-9130CW (6.5 ppm), despite its rating of only 19 ppm.

The Editors’ Choice Dell 2155cn$439.99 at Dell, rated at 24 ppm for both color and black output, tested at 5.9 ppm, while the Canon Color imageClass MF8580Cdw$479.00 at B&H Photo-Video-Pro Audio, rated at 21 pages per minute for simplex printing and 10 ppm for duplex, tested at 4.9 ppm in its default duplex mode, and 6 ppm in ad-hoc testing using simplex mode.

Output Quality
Overall output quality was a touch below par. The MFC-9340CDW’s text quality was typical of laser-class printers, which is to say it’s very good. It’s suitable for any business uses short of those requiring very small fonts.

Graphics quality was on the low side of average for a color laser. Though colors were generally bold and well saturated, some darker backgrounds looked slightly faded or blotchy. I noticed traces of banding (a regular pattern of faint striations) in many of the illustrations. The printer had some trouble maintaining distinctions between similar shades of colors, with little differentiation between them. Graphics are suitable for basic PowerPoint handouts, though perhaps not to clients you’re seeking to impress.

Photo quality was slightly sub-par for a laser-class printer. Several prints showed mild tinting. Dithering (graininess) was evident in a few of the prints, and there was a loss of detail in some bright areas.

The Editors’ Choice Dell 2155cn provides good speed and better output quality than the MFC-9340CDW, though it only supports simplex scanning and lacks an auto-duplexer as well. The Canon Color imageClass MF8580Cdw has both of those items—and an even larger-capacity (50-sheet) duplexing ADF, plus better output quality than the MFC-9340 (though not the 2155cn).

The addition of a duplexing ADF makes the Brother MFC-9340CDW stand out among the three recently launched Brother MFPs. Its speed and output quality are solid if unspectacular, and it has a good feature set and range of connectivity choices. It’s best for a small or home office that does mostly text printing but has occasional need for color for casual or in-house use.

original article

Brother MFC-9130CW MFP

BY TONY HOFFMAN

The Brother MFC-9130CW$349.99 at OfficeMax is the junior of three LED-based multifunction printers (MFPs) that the company recently introduced , offering a sparser feature set than the Brother MFC-9330CDW$349.99 at OfficeMax orBrother MFC-9340CDW at a slightly lower price. If duplex (two-sided) printing, copying, scanning, or faxing—or printing directly from a USB key—isn’t important to your small or home office, it can save you some money over the other two MFPs.

The MFC-9130CW can print, copy, scan, and fax. It lets you fax either from your computer (PC Fax), or as a standalone unit without needing a computer. a USB thumb drive. It includes a 35-page automatic document feeder (ADF) for unattended copying, scanning, or faxing of multi-page documents of up to legal size. Unlike the MFC-9340CDW, it doesn’t support duplex scanning, copying, or faxing; although you can still scan two-sided documents, you’d have to feed it side by side, a page at a time.

 

The Brother MFC-9130CW is two-toned (off-white and gray) MFP is boxy except for a swept-back front panel, which includes a 3.7-inch color touch screen. The backlit numerical keypad to the right of the touch screen only appears when you press Fax or other functions that require data entry. The only physical button visible is the Start/Stop button.

The MFC-9130CW uses LEDs in place of lasers as a light source. LED printers are generally smaller than the equivalent laser printers, and this model is no exception: It’s reasonably compact at 16.1 by 16.1 by 19 inches (HWD) and weighing 49.6 pounds.

Paper capacity is 250 sheets, plus a one-page manual feed slot. Unlike the Brother MFC-9330CDW and Brother MFC-9340CDW, it lacks an automatic duplexer for printing on both sides of a sheet of paper. The driver provides on-screen guidance for manual duplexing.

The MFC-9130CW connects to a PC via a USB cable, or to a network via Ethernet or WiFi. It supports Wi-Fi direct, which allows for direct printing between compatible devices without the need to go through a WiFi network. It’s compatible with Apple AirPrint, Brother iPrint&Scan, Google Cloud Print, and Cortado WorkPlace for printing from mobile devices. I tested it over an Ethernet connection, with the drivers installed on a computer running Windows Vista.

HP LaserJet Pro 500 Color MFP M570dn

Printing Speed
I timed the Brother MFC-9130CW, rated at 19 pages per minute for both color and monochrome printing, on our business applications suite (as timed with QualityLogic‘s hardware and software) at 6.5 effective pages per minute (ppm), a decent speed for its price and rated speed. It was a little faster even than the Brother MFC-9340CDW, rated at 23 ppm, which tested at 5.8 ppm, and just slower than the Brother MFC-9330CDW, rated at 23 ppm, which I timed at 6.8 ppm. The Editors’ Choice Dell 2155cn $439.99 at Dell, rated at 24 ppm for both color and monochrome, was a touch slower, at an effective 5.9 ppm. The Ricoh Aficio SP C240SF$410.26 at pcRUSH.com, though rated at only 16 pages per minute for both color and mono, nearly matched the MFC-9130CW, at an effective 6.3 ppm.

Output Quality
Overall output quality for the MFC-9130CW was a touch below par. Text quality was right on par for laser-class printer, which is to say very good. It’s fine for any business use short of ones that require very small fonts, such as demanding desktop publishing applications.

Graphics quality was par for a color laser. Colors were generally well saturated; some dark backgrounds looked a bit blotchy. There was mild banding (a regular pattern of faint striations) in many of the illustrations. It did not do well in showing a gradient between darker and lighter tones, as the printed output showed little difference between them. Graphics are fine for in-house business use, including PowerPoint handouts, though I’d be hesitant to pass them to clients I was seeking to impress.

Photo quality was below par for a laser. Prints were on the light side, with some colors muted. A monochrome photo showed a slight tint. Several prints showed mild banding. Posterization (an abrupt shift in color where it should be gradual) was evident in one photo that tends to bring it out. Quality is fine for printing out images from Web pages or files, but that’s about all.

The MFC-9130CW costs a bit less than the two other MFPs that Brother released at the same time, the MFC-9330CDW and MFC-9340CDW, and it has a more modest feature set. In particular, it lacks the ability to automatically print, scan, copy, or fax two-sided documents, and eschews a port for a USB thumb drive. Its output quality, though comparable to its two “brothers”, falls short of that of the Editors’ Choice Dell 2155cn.

In short, the Brother MFC-9130CW has decent speed for a small-office, laser-class MFP. Its relatively low price comes at the expense of some features like duplexing. Its text quality is fine for nearly any business use. Graphics and photo quality, though fine for most in-house use, are short of what we look for in a printer suitable for outputting basic marketing materials and the like. It’s a good, cost-effective MFP for an office with an occasional need for color printing, provided that high-quality color output isn’t paramount.

original article