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Brother
The product:
Brother is making wireless laser printing faster and more affordable for small businesses with the release of its HL-5200 series of printers. Succeeding the Brother HL-5100 models, which we gave high marks, these new printers are rated to print faster at 30 pages per minute, and boast greater expandability. Each HL-5200 creates grayscale pages at 1,200 x 1,200dpi and can expand to hold up to 800 pages. The Brother HL-5280DW offers 802.11b/g Wi-Fi connectivity, built-in Ethernet, and a color LCD for US$349. The Brother HL-5240 base model in this four-item series costs US$229, comes with a modest 16MB of RAM, and holds 300 sheets of paper. For US$249 the HL-5250DN includes double-sided printing and wired networking with 32MB of RAM, while for US$50 more the HL-5250DNT holds 550 sheets of paper.
All models have been available for purchase since November except for the deluxe HL-5280DW, which hits stores this month.
Canon
The product:
At only US$89, the Canon Pixma MP150 should attract budget shoppers who need a photo printer, a copier, and a scanner to fit a small desk at home. Until now, comparable multifunctions have cost US$100 or more until vendors dropped the price just before releasing replacement models. Canon claims that this machine will roll out a 4 x 6-inch borderless photo in 55 seconds. We'll check out the MP150 soon in CNET's Labs and let you know how it works for us.
Because this model uses wee 2-picoliter ink droplets and Canon's new ChromaLife100 inks, we'll pay special attention to the caliber of its photo prints. This model succeeds the MP130, which we found easy to use, although it produced so-so scans. The new Canon Pixma MP150, unlike the Pixma MP170 released in August, doesn't have a screen to preview photos or slots for digital memory cards. Instead, you can connect a PictBridge camera or digital camcorder to a front slot on the MP150 to print pictures sans computer.
Konica Minolta
The product:
Konica Minolta announced several laser printers that promise to bundle more functions and speed at a smaller price for small businesses and households. The company's first color laser multifunction, at US$799, rivals comparable yet pricier models from Canon, Epson, HP, and Oki. The Windows-only Konica Minolta Magicolor 2480 MF prints, copies, scans, and faxes in color. It also includes a front USB port that connects to a PictBridge camera for direct photo printing.
Just be forewarned that while this feature is convenient for office dwellers who want to create ads, brochures, or casual prints of their work, archival photo printing is best left to inkjets or a photo lab. Konica Minolta claims print speeds of 20 pages per minute (ppm) in black and white and 5ppm for color. The 2480 MF scans documents as large as 8.5 to 14 inches and allows you to tweak images without using a PC. We'll check out this machine in CNET's Labs and let you know how it stands up to competitors in the young world of sub-US$1,000 color laser multifunctions.
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