PREMIUM SEARCH Search by job title, geography and build a list of executive contacts
Not long ago, a color laser printer was as far out of the reach of most small businesses as a listing on the New York Stock Exchange. Top-flight printers were just too expensive.
But that has changed dramatically. Now you can get a fast and relatively simple color laser -- suitable for a small business or corporate work group -- for less than the cost of a good notebook computer. In addition, color lasers are now fast enough when printing black-only that you might as well just use them as your sole printer.
Recently, I looked at three very good printers: Hewlett-Packard Color LaserJet 4500, Lexmark Optra C710, and Xerox Phaser 750. Although all are available in versions that can be connected directly to a computer, you aren't going to want to do that. These are very large, often noisy machines similar to office copiers, and you certainly don't want one on your desk. All can easily be set up on an Ethernet network using Windows, Novell Netware, or Appletalk -- or any combination of these networking technologies.
PHASER FAN. Overall, the Xerox (formerly Tektronix) Phaser was my favorite of the lot. It's the most compact and offers the easiest physical setup (getting any of these machines into place is a two-person job that literally requires some heavy lifting). And it prints up to 16 pages per minute in black-only, 5 ppm in color.
The base network-ready Phaser 750N costs $2,295. The 750DP, which adds additional paper capacity and an automatic duplexer for printing on both sides of a sheet, goes for $3,595. The Phaser's duplexing function, while relatively slow, was the simplest and most reliable of the three. It's also the only duplex system without accessories that make the printer bulkier.
I rate the other two a toss-up, with Lexmark winning an edge on price. This printer also has an advantage in resolution, 1,200 x 1,200 dots per inch, vs. 600 x 600 for the HP, but this isn't a big difference in practice. The HP prints at 16 ppm black and 4 ppm color. The base 4500N costs $2,850 and the loaded 4500DN, with duplexer, goes for $3,949.
JAMMING PRINTER. The Lexmark was by far the hardest of the three to set up. Still, this is something you have to do only once. I also had lots of paper jams, which proved to be the result of a faulty duplexer. The problem disappeared when the duplex unit was replaced. This duplexer was the most cumbersome of the three but also the easiest to install. The base Optra C710n is a best-buy at $2,150; the deluxe C710dn is $3,450.
You might ask, why go with a laser at all? After all, the bulk of color printing today, both in homes and offices, is still done on ink-jet printers. For turning out the occasional color page, it's hard to argue against the job that a $300 ink jet can do.
But lasers do have advantages: They're designed for hard, steady work, and they really shine at producing multiple copies of documents, where you can take full advantage of their speed. With decent volume, the return on investment can be very good. Laser ink is much cheaper on a per-page basis than the expensive supplies used by ink jets, and duplexing can yield significant savings on both paper and trash disposal. With costs dropping, laser printers are worth a look.
Wildstrom is Technology & You columnist for Business Week. Follow his Flash Product Reviews, only on BW Online Edited by Douglas Harbrecht
Copyright 2000, by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
Printer-Friendly Version
