Printers for small businesses or individual users often demonstrate a limited range of features, which in turn makes it difficult to really inspire creative printing and all too often, a reasonable purchase price means a compromise on printing quality. The Oki C5600 certainly dispels such notions with a duty cycle of around 60,000 pages, it will suit workgroups, as well as small businesses and it has an array of impressive features to keep you printing all your documents in-house.

Many people over time have become enthusiastic champions of the style of this LED style of printer Oki have engineered. The printer takes four Oki 5600 toner in cyan, magenta, yellow and black and they come in sensible quantities in light of the type of usage this machine is likely to receive. The black comes in 6,000 page yield, understanding the majority of owners of this Okidata 5600 machine are likely to want to print more documents in monochrome. The colour toners are then weighted in 2,000 page yield capacity each. This all helps to keep the running costs exactly where you need them.

Oki have set-up software solutions which are intuitive and useful for both general users and administrators alike. There are a number of web management tools which are aimed to help an administrator including items that help you to monitor cost implications with toners and remotely manage printer issues. These features are laid out in a way which is logical and user friendly.

The print quality of this machine is superior in comparison to other models around and will give you a visual array of perfect imagery time after time. Black and white text is completely clear and never suffers from bleed or pixilation irrespective of how small the text is taken down to. This is quite a feat for what is effectively a lower-end printer and can be attributed to smart technology and engineering inside the actual machine. With most printers, this kind of review already would be enough to convince most people to give it a go but the next point is a real boon. The print speeds are 32 pages per minute for black and white and 20 pages per minute for colour, which will make sure you, have both speed and stunning clarity when printing.

Going back to the internal engineering of this printer; it is worth reiterating the intelligent calibration of both the 200 MHz processor and 64MB of memory. There are a plethora of extra features you can add to the printer at a later date. An additional paper tray, giving an extra 530 sheets, more memory and a duplex unit for double-sided printing, if you find you have a business requirement for this at a later date.

Printer Overview:

• Printer Type: Colour LED Laser
• Duty Cycle: 60,000 pages/month
• Dimensions (h x w x d): 339.5 x 435 x 563.5 mm
• Memory: 64 MB upgradeable to 320 MB
• Print Resolution: ProQ2400 Multi-level technology 1200 x 600 dpi
• Print Speed (Colour): 20 pages per minute
• Connectivity: High Speed USB 2.0 and 10/100-TX Ethernet
• Paper Capacity: 400 sheets – 930 sheets

The Oki C5300N is a machine designed to slot into home user and workgroup environments, whilst offering surprisingly good additional features.  This printer is quick, small and yet offers a visual smorgasbord of delight.  The documents produced on it, will look professional and allow for a wide range of project documents, flyers and brochures to be produced on it, with ease.

The printer only supports one capacity of Oki toner, which happens to give 5,000 pages at 5% coverage.  Aside from buying Oki 5300 toner, you will also need to buy a drum, fuser and belt for the life of the machine.  These have longer life spans than the toners but are something to consider when working out the running costs on this machine.  The Okidata C5300 toner you will receive with this printer from the factory, are only 1,500 pages at 5% coverage.  If you have upgraded your machine from an Oki C5150 but still have this model in the office, you will be pleased to know the Oki C5150 toner does fit into the Oki C5300 printer.

As with most printers, this is very easy to set-up on to a network environment, as well as for any home user who might be looking to get a printer up and running for the first time.  The printer is equipped with drivers for both PC and Mac environments, so it makes it a perfect choice for those people who are creative at home and use Photoshop or Illustrator.  The connectivity for this printer is USB(2.0) 10/100-TX Ethernet, IBM-Centro CEN36 IEEE 1284 Nibble and ECP.

With print speeds of 20 pages per minute for monochrome and 12 pages per minute for colour, this printer will keep up with even the fastest paced business deadline.  The resolution is 600 x 1200 dpi and this allows the quality of print to appear in a clean, sharp and colourful way.

This is a printer able to a range of options including software tools such as PrintSuperVision, Print Control software, Auto Colour Balance and Toner Save Mode.  All of these things allow the user to make the most of how their printer runs and is especially useful in a networked environment, where administrators often need more control for budgetary reasons.  The Oki C5300N is an amazing printer for the price point and will allow most users to feel they have made the right purchase.

Printer Overview

• Printer Type: Colour Laser
• Duty Cycle: 50,000 pages per month
• Dimensions: 342 x 400 x 528 mm
• Memory: 64 – 320MB (optional 64MB, 128MB, 256MB DIMMs)
• Print Resolution: 600 x 1200 dpi
• Print Speed (Colour):  12 pages per minute
• Connectivity: USB(2.0) 10/100-TX Ethernet, IBM-Centro CEN36 IEEE 1284 Nibble and ECP.
• Paper Capacity: 600 – 2100 sheets- input

The HP Color LaserJet CP4525 is a large printer with a monthly duty of 120,000 pages and is especially suited to large workgroups who find their time heavily invested in creating volumes of documentation.  This is a fast printer and it can also be optimised to meet the business needs via the addition of either memory or paper trays.  Make sure you check the different versions before you purchase a model as there is a great disparity between the models.  The base model does not include double-sided printing as standard.

 HP toner for this machine is fantastic value for money, as it is available in black in either 8,500 page or whopping 17,000 page capacities.  These make running an office simple, as there is less toner changing and hassle when people are in the middle of a busy print run.  HP CP4525 toner for the three colours is available in an 11,000 page capacity.  As this is a machine likely to see heavy usage, buying Laser CP4525 toner in a bundle pack will help reduce costs even further.  The HP C4525dn version takes HP C4525dn toner, which is identical with all versions of this printer.

The HP Color LaserJet CP4525 is designed to work in both high end colour studios, with Mac drivers available, as well as any PC environment.  The printer will arrive to your office network ready and can be made extremely security conscious.  Purchase the HP Secure High Performance EIO Hard Disk to add in a Kensington-style lock to any sensitive data the company may hold.  On the top of the range model the connection ports are as follows: Hi-Speed USB 2.0 port, RJ-45 (10/100/1000Base-TX), EIO slot and an embedded hard disk.

This is the printer for you if you want to get printing, with print speeds of 40 pages per minute and a brilliant level of output.  Turn to this machine for all those large textual documents and you will receive bright and clear text and then use it to produce project charts and brochures and obtain the same level of excellent clarity.  The resolution on this printer is 1200 x 1200 dpi and is definitely helpful in creating decent documents.

The main selling point of this printer is its memory capability.  It is possible to take it from a standard 512 MB all the way up to a gigabyte.  There are also several paper trays to be added at a later date and the processing power is a cool 800 MHz.

Printer Overview

• Printer Type: Colour Laser
• Duty Cycle: 120,000 pages per month
• Dimensions: (WxDxH): CP4525n: 540 x 522 x 420 mm; CP4525dn: 540 x 522 x 420 mm; CP4525xh: 662 x 651 x 964 mm
• Memory: CP4525n: 512 MB; CP4525dn: 512 MB; CP4525xh: 1 G
• Print Resolution: Up to 1200 x 1200 dpi
• Print Speed (Colour):  40 pages per minute
• Connectivity: CP4525n: Hi-Speed USB 2.0 port, RJ-45 port (10/100/1000Base-TX), EIO slot; CP4525dn: Hi-Speed USB 2.0 port, RJ-45 port (10/100/1000Base-TX), EIO slot;CP4525xh: Hi-Speed USB 2.0 port, RJ-45 (10/100/1000Base-TX), EIO slot, Embedded hard disk
• Paper Capacity: 600 – 2100 sheets- input

For those people after a really cool budget desktop printer, then the HP LaserJet Pro CP1025NW is going to fill those boots.  This printer is aimed at individual users but could at a pinch work in a shared environment, as it has the capability to be used that way.  Measuring 400 x 399 x 223 mm, it will come as no surprise the duty cycle on this printer is only 15,000 pages.  This printer can be acquired for less than a £100 but the software features are fantastic.  HP ToolboxFX will automatically install during the set-up process but it is possible to set up SNP alerts and HP Web JetAdmin if needed.  As this printer only weighs 29.4lbs it can comfortably sit on the desktop without any issue at all.

The printer does take both HP toner and drums.  The HP CP1025 toner capacities are 1200 pages for the black, then 1000 pages for the cyan, magenta and yellow.  These toners can also be found under the HPM175 toner categories when searching on-line to buy it.  The paper capacity is 150 sheets, with an output of 50 sheets.

Setting up this printer will be a user-friendly experience with the installation CD helping the user to find the correct drivers for their hardware.  The printer will work with both PC and Mac software and offers USB 2.0 connection.  For those people looking to place this onto a network, there is an Ethernet 10/100 port too.  It is possible for administrators to set up a password protected network embedded web server if they desire.

The printing speeds are very reasonable, with 17 pages per minute for black and white printing and 4 pages per minute for colour.  The image output is clear and colourful, no doubt helped by the 600 x 600 dpi, and enhanced HP ImageREt 2400.  The HP Creative Studio for Business also links in with this printer, so make the most of it by designing and creating flyers and brochures.

The reason this printer probably works so efficiently is down to the 400 MHz processor and 64 MB of memory.  Someone at HP has definitely thought long and hard about how an inexpensive laser printer can bring so much joy to a person’s desktop!

Printer Overview

• Printer Type: Colour Laser
• Duty Cycle: 15,000 pages/month
• Dimensions (h x w x d): 400 x 399 x 223mm weight: 29.4lb
• Memory: 64 MB
• Print Resolution: 600 x 600 dpi
• Print Speed (Colour): 4 pages per minute
• Connectivity: USB 2.0  Ethernet 10/100 Base-TX.
• Paper Capacity: 150 sheets

The HP Color LaserJet CP3505 is suitable for a range of customers and would fit into medium sized offices and smaller workgroups.  The duty cycle is 65,000 pages and the exceptional output is not limited to just the fast print speeds but the print quality is delightful too.  This printer is one to consider if you would like to bring more design work in-house and cut out the costly expense of using an external print business.  The versatility of this machine may also be attractive and with desirable HP CP3505 toner quantities, this printer will keep running effectively for a while.

The machine is very easy to set-up with the HP toner arriving already preinstalled at the factory.  This is definitely a selling point for those customers who find the whole idea of working out where the toners should go (incidently they are located above the multipurpose tray!), all a bit baffling.  The replacement LaserJet CP3505 toner comes in a useful 6,000 page yield and this is definitely large enough to keep most frenetic offices busy.  The standard paper capacity is 300 sheets and this can be increased to 800 sheets in total by adding an additional 500 sheet paper tray.  The toners for this machine are identical to HP 3600 toner and HP 3800 toner.

Administrators will love this printer  as it comes Network ready, along with an embedded Ethernet print server and has USB, EIO or Ethernet cabling options. The printer also has a decent installation CD along with booklet details if needed.  The Web JetAdmin software function is where this really starts to become attractive to the poor soul looking after the printer in a busy office, as it is incredibly simple to use and will troubleshoot the issue within minutes.

The superb print quality is as a result of the 1200 x 600 dpi and this gives a clean page with decent colour replication across the whole image.  The printing speeds are identical whether printing in colour or black and white, and will give the user the confidence to tackle marketing projects in-house.  The printer works with both PC’s and Macs, so it will be confidently used by graphic designers and secretaries alike.

For those offices who have roaming staff, this printer once again steps up to the plate and offers two flash card slots for people to either add in other hardware or put a font cards.  The processor speed is 450 MHz and the memory is 384 MB with an ability to go up to 1024 MB.

Printer Overview
Printer Type: Colour Laser
Duty Cycle: 65,000 pages per month
Dimensions: (WxDxH): 16.25 by 20.07 by 16.9 in.Weight: 59.6 lbs
Memory: 384 MB – 1024 MB
Print Resolution: 1200 x 600 dpi
Print Speed (Colour):  22 pages per minute
Connectivity: USB 2.0, EIO, Ethernet
Paper Capacity: 300 sheets – 800 sheets- input, 250 sheets – output

Recommended Uses

The Oki C3400 LED colour laser printer is aimed at small offices or home businesses who want very fast printing and low start up costs. Print features are first rate on the Oki C3400. First page out timings are 13 seconds colour and 9 seconds black and white. The printer then continues to produce printing at the following rates: 16 pages per minute for colour and 20 pages per minute for excellent quality black and white. A high choice of media are also supported including, plain paper, labels, envelopes, card stock, bond paper and banners, with sizes ranging from 3 in x 5 in to 8.5 in x 47.2 in.

Consideration should be given to the nature of the type of work demanded of the Oki C3400 as the paper tray capacity is only 250 sheets, with no option of an additional tray. If the business demands are likely to increase, this may not be the correct printer to choose as frequent paper reloading will be required. It should also be noted the Oki C3400 does not offer the functionality of automatic duplexing (double-sided printing).

Overall Specifications

Network ready functionality comes as standard with the printer, allowing easy and further connectivity between groups of workers in the future. The standard memory capacity is 32mb but this does have the ability to be expanded to 288mb if a heavy workgroup load is necessary.

Overall, the Oki C3400 is the printer of choice for small businesses and individuals who require first-rate prints for corporate presentations and projects. The print speed efficiency and initial low purchase price negate the lack of expansion options and make the Oki C3400 a desirable consideration.

Specification Overview:

• Print Speed: Monochrome – 20ppm/Colour – 16ppm
• Memory: 32mb, expandable to 288mb
• Resolution: 1200dpi x 600dpi
• Paper Capacity: Input – 250 sheets
• Connectivity: USB, Ethernet 10Base – T/100Base – TX
• Duty Cycle: 35,000 images/month

The Xerox Phaser 8200 truly satisfies the print geek in us.  It uses environmentally friendly Xerox ink sticks, which give a truly gob smacking finish on the page.  They are also incredibly easy to install and use, and the best part is, they leave no residue to clear out or plastic casing to dispose of.  The monthly duty cycle of 65,000 pages, will keep even the most avid print users in work and Xerox have also bundled in software products to allow you to tweak and pull your work about until you are happy with it.

The Xerox 8200 ink for this machine looks just like wax crayon melted into specifically shaped blocks.  This are designed to slot into the printer with ease and require no other user intervention.  The blocks can be purchased in a variety of ways, giving the user options especially if they know they use one colour more than another ie if a company logo is predominantly blue, the cyan will run out faster and it would make sense to buy a five pack of this.  If overall colour usage is low, then opting for the packs of twos makes sense.  The black Phaser 8200 ink comes in either packs of 10 or fives.  Please remember the ink for the Phaser 8550 is shaped differently to the ink for this machine and if you own over wax block using machines, do not try and ram them in, as it will be a costly mistake.

The printer is incredibly easy to install and will work with the majority of software found on Macs and PCs and will run off Ethernet, Parallal or USB cables, depending on your set-up.

People are raving about the print production on these printers and it is certainly unique, with the wax blocks giving a distinctive shiny finish on the page.  The printing speeds are 16 pages per minute and the resolution is 1200 dpi.

This printer does offer a few options; the memory can be increased from 64 MB to 256 MB using both 64 MB and 128 MB cards.  The processor speed is 300 MHz, helping the printer to run smoothly and there are options of transparencies trays, legal paper trays and additional 500 sheet paper trays.

Printer Overview
Printer Type: Colour Solid Ink
Duty Cycle: 65,000 pages per month
Dimensions (w x d x h): 17 in x 23.5 in  x 15.3 in  weight: 79 lb
Memory: 64 MB – 256 MB
Print Resolution: 1200 dpi
Print Speed (Colour): 16 pages per minute
Connectivity: 10/100BaseTX Ethernet, Bi-directional Parallel, USB
Paper Capacity: 200 – 1200 sheets

The HP Color LaserJet 3500n will work advantageously in a small office or for workgroups, as it offers a monthly duty cycle of 45,000 pages.  Most offices need a reliable printer that is able to grow with the business and this printer certainly fills those requirements.  The print quality is good enough to take on most colour printing within the office and the initial price point will not discourage even the most fussy accounts department.  As this printer is so well put together, it can take really intensive usage and still be working just as well, many years later.

This is an electro-photographic printer and when this is combined with LaserJet 3500 toner, the results on the page are worth looking at.  The only consumable items you will need to order for the lifetime of this printer are HP toner, which makes this printer incredibly trouble-free to maintain.  The toners offer one capacity, which are 6,000 pages for the black and then the cyan, magenta and yellow offer 4,000 pages.  HP 3500 toner and HP 3550 toner are actually the same toner, which may be useful to know for those people who have multiple machines.

Handily, this printer will work with both PC and Mac software and if you put the installation CD into the device, the printers will automatically be found for you, allowing you to be print ready without any complications.  The connectivity is a USB 2.0 cable and it is possible to purchase an external print server for networking possibilities.

The 2400 dpi resolution allows this printer to give the surprisingly above average output it achieves and the printing speeds of 12 pages per minute for both colour and monochrome, also make this a timeless printer.  It can handle transparencies, labels, cards and envelopes as well as the normal paper stock.

There are software enhancements with this machine which are extremely useful, giving you status updates and tools for managing alerts when they happen.  The 350 MHz processor and 64 MB of memory allow this printer to function with ease.  It is possible to turn this machine into a duplexing model but this does have to happen manually.

Printer Overview
Printer Type: Colour Laser
Duty Cycle: 45,000 pages per month
Dimensions: (WxDxH): 500 x 447 x 467 mm.Weight: 32.5kgs
Memory: 64MB
Print Resolution: 2400 dpi
Print Speed (Colour):  12 pages per minute
Connectivity: USB 2.0
Paper Capacity: 350 sheets – 850 sheets- input, 175 sheets – output

Here we have a small multifunctional machine, very capable of surprises.  The print quality is impressive and duplexing is added in as standard.  The monthly duty cycle is 35,000 pages per month, making it a great addition to an office especially if copying or scanning feature heavily as a daily task.  The other features on this machine are equally as handy with great copying and scanning features and tools to make running and accounting for this printer, very straightforward.

Sometimes it can be a troublesome task changing Brother toner but this machine does not provide any issues on that front.  When you purchase a new set of Brother DCP 9045 toner after the starter toners have finished, it is worth considering buying a set of bundled compatible toners.  The yields on Brother 9045 toner are either 1,500 pages or 4,000 pages.  There are four toners to buy in cyan, magenta, yellow and black.   Brother 9040 toner will also fit this machine, if you bought any other Brother printers for your office and wish to make toner ordering uncomplicated. If you need to add more paper to the standard capacity of 300 sheets, then purchase the additional 500 sheet paper tray.  This takes this printing up to a large 800 sheet machine and ideal for those people who are using this on longer print runs.

The printer is fully loaded with drivers and tools from the installation CD allowing you to get up and running in a jiffy.  The connection ports are either Hi-speed USB 2.0 or 10/100 Base TX.  The USB also connects a flash card to the printer, giving users on the go, further options.

Twenty pages per minute for this printer is surprisingly fast for a multifunction machine and the print resolution is 2400 x 600 dpi, producing professional looking work.  Copying and scanning can also be told to print double-sided and the device will copy up to 99 pages at once.  This printer can also produce surprising media by using the poster printing option.

Combine this multifunction device in a large office with another printer and you will definitely have all your needs covered.  The processing speed is 300 MHz and the memory can be taken up to a very useful 640 MB.  Overall, this is a straight-forward to use machine and one which will certainly help productivity.

Printer Overview

• Printer Type: Electrophotographic (Single Pass Laser)
• Duty Cycle: 35,000 pages/month
• Dimensions (w x d x h):  530 x 539 x 520 mm / 37.8kg
• Memory: 128 MB – 640 MB
• Print Resolution: 2400 x 600 dpi
• Print Speed (Colour): 20 pages per minute
• Connectivity: USB 2.0; Ethernet 10/100BaseT
• Paper Capacity: 300 – 800 sheets input; 150 sheets output

Xerox clearly build their printers so people fall in love with them and then spread the word about how good their products are.  The Xerox Phaser 6200 is no different and once again trumps many of the other competing products around it, with an excellent price point, fantastic usability and brilliant software features.  It is also very flexible when it comes to paper capacity.  The duty cycle is 60,000 pages a month and this makes it perfect for workgroups and small to medium businesses.

 Xerox Phaser 6200 toner is available in two capacities with 3,000 page yields and 8,000 page yields.  This once again demonstrates how this printer can work for many different environments and certainly helps whoever is in charge of ordering toner.  Phaser 6200 toner on this printer is very easy to install and change and comes in the usual four colours of cyan, magenta, yellow and black.  As with all Xerox toner, it is worth considering buying compatible toner, as this gives any offices further cost savings and benefits. This printer can be turned into a monochrome printer if you run out of colours, using the run black feature. The printer comes equipped with a standard paper capacity of 600 sheets but this can be increased to 1,600 sheets with the inclusion of a 1000 sheet high capacity feeder.

The printer will work on the following software platforms:  Mac, PC and Linux, whilst all models from the 6200N upwards are network ready as standard.  Getting started is hugely intuitive with an easy to read LCD panel and clear instructions along the way.  Once again, on all the models from the 6200N upwards, administrators will also receive handy tools such as E-mail alerts, embedded print server and job accounting.

The printing quality is above average and the print speeds are 16 pages per minute for both colour and black and white printing.  The following services are available when using this machine: Watermarking, N-up printing, cover pages, separation sheets and custom page sizes.  The printer also has the ability to learn when and how you use the printer via the Intelligent ready feature.  The resolution is 2400 dpi and this helps give the printer the extra edge.

There are a wide range of tools including usage analysis tools, performance tools and accounting options for those people who need to tell the business how much the printer is costing on a monthly basis.  The processing speed is 500 MHz and the memory is 128 MB, showing this printer would be able to cope with the large print jobs the paper capacity suggests it can handle.

Printer Overview

• Printer Type: Colour Laser
• Duty Cycle: 60, 000 pages per month
• Dimensions: (WxDxH): 17.3 in. (439 mm), 23.2 in. (590 mm), 17.5 in. (445 mm) weight: 80 lb. (36 kg)
• Memory: 64MB – 512MB
• Print Resolution: 600 x 600 dpi – 2400 dpi
• Print Speed (Colour): 16 pages per minute
• Connectivity: USB 1.1, 10/100Base TX Ethernet, Parallel
• Paper Capacity: 600 sheets – 1,600 sheets – input, 250 sheets – output