Just because a printer is cheap to buy off the shelf doesn't mean it's going to save you money in the long term. We look at the real costs of network laser printers.
No matter how much you spend upfront on a printer, running and maintaining it will most likely end up more expensive over its lifetime. For businesses, finding the printer that offers best long-term value for money is not an easy proposition. Most printer vendors will give you total cost of ownership figures, showing how their printer ends up cheaper than the others. But it's relatively easy to skew these figures—so how can you tell?
In this review we examine fast printers suitable for all but the heaviest printing requirements, with an upfront cost around AU$5000. For this sort of money we found most of the printers were capable of printing 30 to 40 pages per minute. This should be fast enough to cater to 50 staff members sending jobs to it all day long. Unlike colour printers, replacing monochrome toners is relatively inexpensive. Toners also vary in life somewhat.
Features
None of the printers we received shipped with a hard disk, but they can all be fitted with one. Fitting a hard disk to the printer is appropriate if you frequently print the same documents, because they can be stored on the hard disk and printed on demand without having to send the same document over the network.
An interesting recent development is the ability to set private print jobs. This means the printer will store the document and not print it until you enter the correct code on the printer's keypad—very useful for confidential documents. Some printers are now also allowing you to send documents via e-mail, and most can be administered and have the firmware updated remotely. We are used to seeing these features in high-end copiers, but they are increasingly showing up in printers as well. Many of the printers can effectively be turned into copiers or multifunction devices by buying and plugging in the appropriate extras. Many of the vendors also offer additional paper trays, output bins, duplexers, and other paper handling and finishing accessories.
Except for the Brother, all the printers we received shipped with an internal 10/100Mbps Ethernet card, which will enable you to connect your printer via TCP, IPX/SPX, NetBEUI, EtherTalk, NDS Support, IPP, and SNMP. You will also find most printers fitted with bi-directional parallel ports, serial, and USB ports.
Speed and Output Quality
The printers we tested were all fast enough to handle up to 50 or so staff members. Although some vendor figures are less reliable, the rated print speed is usually spot on. Once we discounted how long it took to print the first page, we were able to exactly match the vendors' claims.
An output resolution of 600 x 600dpi is fairly standard for these printers, and is suitable for the vast majority of business uses. Some of the printers we tested were capable of 1200dpi or higher.
Software
All the printers typically shipped with PCL and Postscript drivers. You can usually find updates on the vendors' respective Web sites. Most printers will allow you to view the configuration details by typing in the IP address from a Web browser. This will allow you to view all the standard control panel details such as: paper remaining, toner remaining, uptime, RAM installed, serial numbers, software versions, options installed (HDD, duplex unit). You can also check to see what jobs have been executed.
Most vendors ship the printers with remote management software that allows you to manage multiple printers from a single desktop PC. Some vendors, like Ricoh, include software that can manage printers from other vendors as well as their own.
The printers
In this roundup we evaluated seven monochrome laser printers from the leading manufacturers. Prices varied from AU$2000 to almost AU$7000. Even if the printer looks too pricey for your budget, it's worth considering the leasing services that many vendors now offer. These plans cover parts, labour, and consumables, and you are only charged a flat cost per page.
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