Digital Home Thoughts: Color Laser Printer Round-up

"Of all the units we worked with for this review, we came away most impressed when we didn't factor photo printing into our considerations. Though a couple of these printers did decent jobs at printing photographs (on plain and glossy paper), most of them don't really compare well with the kind of photo output you can get on a cheaper inkjet printer. That observation aside, we found that text output, speed, and cost per page for output is far better on a color laser than on an inkjet. In this area, we were particularly impressed with four units: the Dell 3110cn offers a great combination of speed, features, and cost, as does the Lexmark C534n. We'd rate these as great for SOHO situations where print volume and quality are both important. On the other hand, we liked the HP Color LaserJet 2600n and the Samsung CLP-600n for their graphics and text handling capabilities, even though they are decidedly on the slow side for laser based devices."

Being the value conscious consumer I am (ergo, I'm cheap), I traded out my color inkjet for a laser a couple of years back. You just can't beat lasers for the speed, quality, and cost per page. In the past, color lasers were really too expensive to be considered for home use, but great strides are now being made to bring color lasers in a reasonable prices. If you've been interested in a color laser, you may want to take a look at this comprehensive review to see some of the best currently available.