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-------------------------------------------------------------- This story was printed from CNET Asia. --------------------------------------------------------------
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Printers at CES 2006
By CNET staff
09/01/2006 URL: http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/printers/0,39051182,39303650,00.htm
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.
Lexmark
The product:
Lexmark has businesses in mind for its latest inkjet multifunction. The Lexmark X7350 Office All-In-One includes text and photo printing, faxing, and scanning. Its photocopier accepts 50 sheets of paper at a time so that you don't have to feed each page one by one. The X7350 includes a PictBridge port to print pictures from a capable digital camera, but there's no color display for previewing the photos. This machine, in stores next month, is similar to the Lexmark X7170, which we found a good value despite slow speeds and middling output quality.
Business all-in-ones such as this Lexmark are popular with people who work from home and look to save office space and funds. While you can find inkjet models for US$200 or less, laser multifunctions have remained closer to the US$300 range until Samsung announced its US$200 laser SCX-4200 printer and scanner combo.
Samsung
The product:
Samsung is radically shrinking the size and price of multifunction laser printing. The US$199 Samsung SCX-4200 laser printer and scanner could make comparable inkjet machines less attractive for small-business workers, cubicle dwellers, and college students. Laser printers print faster and are less costly to maintain than inkjets, but budget users have traditionally ignored lasers due to the high price tag. Samsung says that the SCX-4200 will print a speedy 19 pages per minute and scan in color or black and white at 2,400dpi. The 250-page paper capacity is generous for a device at this price.
While the lack of faxing, the 600dpi print resolution, and the 8MB of RAM are less impressive, this model should suffice for small office or student use. Last year, Dell brought the size and price of laser printing to a new low with its US$99 Laser Printer 1100, but we preferred the Samsung ML-2010. We're curious to see if the Samsung SCX-4200 can produce similar quality output in CNET Labs' tests. This multifunction will be available in March for users of Windows 98 or higher, as well as for several flavors of Linux.
The product:
Samsung, which already makes some decent, affordable black and white laser printers, unwrapped what it bills as the smallest color laser printer ever. At US$299 and standing just 10 inches tall, the Samsung CLP-300 indeed looks like a compact and convenient model. But it holds only 150 sheets of paper, which might frustrate people who print in bulk. The CLP-300 prints 2,400 x 60dpi at a vendor-estimated 17 pages per minute; we expect to evaluate the quality and speed in CNET's Labs. The host-based system relies on the brain of your Windows and Linux PCs to churn out jobs. Instead of the usually clunky toner cartridges, the small toner bottles set this machine apart from rivals. Wired networking is optional.
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