Dell Mono Multifunction Printer - B1163w

Pros Prints, scans, copies. Small size. Wi-Fi. Reasonably high-quality output across the board.

Cons No fax. No automatic document feeder. No duplexer (for two-sided printing) even as an option. Low paper capacity. Bottom Line Meant as a personal MFP, the Dell Mono Multifunction Printer - B1163w is also suitable for a micro office for light-duty printing and still lighter-duty scanning and copying.

By M. David Stone

Significantly less expensive than the Dell B1165nfw Mono Laser Multifunction Printer, the Dell Mono Multifunction Printer - B1163w delivers most of the same MFP features, but without faxing or an automatic document feeder (ADF) for scanning. The lack of an ADF limits its copying and scanning to extremely light-duty use. If you don't copy or scan very often, that may be enough.

Much like the B1165nfw, the B1163w is meant primarily as a personal MFP. At 9.8 by 15.3 by 10.8 inches (HWD), it has a smaller footprint than most inkjets, which makes it small enough to share a desk with as a personal printer in any size office. On the other hand, in addition to USB as a connection choice, it also offers Wi-Fi, which makes it easy to use as a shared printer in a micro office for light-duty printing and lighter-duty scanning and copying.

Like more and more printers today, the B1163w also supports an assortment of mobile printing features, including Google Cloud Print for printing over the Internet and both AirPrint and Dell's own app for Android devices for printing over a Wi-Fi connection. It doesn't support Wi-Fi Direct, however, which means you can use the mobile print features only if you have a Wi-Fi access point on your network and you've set the printer up using its Wi-Fi connection.

Paper Handling
One of the key issues that makes the B1163w primarily a personal printer is its limited paper handling, with a 150-sheet capacity and no duplexer available even as an option. The 150-sheet tray, with no upgrades available, means that if you print more than about 30 pages per day, refilling the tray can turn into an annoying chore.

Having a single tray, without even a manual feed to supplement it, also means that to print on a different paper stock you have to swap out the paper in the tray, which can turn into an annoyance as well. That said, the B1163w's capacity and paper handling in general should be sufficient for most personal use as well as for sharing the printer for light-duty use by micro office standards.

For scanning and copying, the printer offers only a letter-size flatbed without an automatic document feeder. As I've already suggested, that limits it to extremely light-duty scanning and copying, even by personal MFP standards.

Setup and Speed
One advantage of the low paper capacity is that it helps keep the size of the printer down, with the small size serving as another feature that helps define the B1163w as a personal printer. Not only is it small enough to sit on your desk without towering over you, it weighs only 14.7 pounds, making it easy for one person to move into place.

Setup is absolutely typical. For my tests, I connected the printer by USB cable, and installed the drivers on a Windows Vista system.

Dell rates the printer engine at 21 pages per minute (ppm), which is the speed you should see when printing text or other files that need little to no processing. On our business applications suite I timed it at 7.6 ppm (using QualityLogic's hardware and software for timing), which is an acceptable speed for the price, but not fast enough to count as a strong point. It's essentially tied with the B1165nfw and only a tad slower than the Editors' Choice Panasonic KX-MB2000, at 8.0 ppm, but it's significantly slower than the Canon imageClass MF3010, at 10.3 ppm.

Output Quality
The B1163w's output quality is arguably its strongest point, with text, graphics, and photo output all falling at the high end of the range that includes the vast majority of mono lasers. Text and graphics aren't quite suitable for serious desktop publishing applications, but both are good enough for virtually any business need. For graphics, that includes PowerPoint handouts and the like.

Photo quality is roughly equivalent to the high end of what you would expect from a black and white photo in a newspaper. It's certainly more than good enough to print recognizable images from Web pages or similar source material with photos.

If you need an MFP that can scan or copy multipage documents on a regular basis, you'll obviously want to look for one that includes an ADF, with Dell's own B1165nfw Mono Laser Multifunction Printer a good place to start. If you need to copy and scan only short documents, however, and not even many of those, you can probably do without an ADF. If so, the Dell Mono Multifunction Printer - B1163w offers a potentially attractive balance of acceptable speed, high-quality output, and paper handling suitable for either personal use or light-duty use as a shared printer in a micro office.

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Samsung Printer ProXpress M4020ND

Pros Duplexer, 250-sheet paper drawer, and 50-sheet multipurpose tray standard. 820-sheet maximum.

Cons Output quality at the low end of the typical range for mono lasers across the board. Bottom Line The Samsung Printer ProXpress M4020ND can serve nicely as a medium to heavy-duty monochrome laser printer by micro and small office standards.

By M. David Stone

Basically a heavier-duty version of the Samsung Printer ProXpress M3320ND that I recently reviewed, the Samsung Printer ProXpress M4020ND offers similar output quality and features, but with somewhat better paper handling and a higher monthly duty cycle. The combination makes it a particularly good fit for a micro or small office with heavy-duty print needs.

When I reviewed the M3320ND, I pointed out that although its one-sheet manual feed is useful, it's a wimpy alternative to a multipurpose tray. The M4020ND solves that problem by including a 50-sheet multipurpose tray standard, along with its 250-sheet paper drawer and built-in duplexer (for printing on both sides of the page). That should be enough for most small offices, but if you need more, you can also add a 520-sheet second drawer ($200 street) for a total 820-sheet capacity.

The second key difference between the two is that the M4020ND's maximum monthly duty cycle, at 100,000 pages per month, is twice the 50,000 pages the M3320ND is rated for. Keep in mind that maximum duty cycles are far higher than recommend maximums. Also, as with any printer, if you hit the maximum every month it probably won't last all that many months. The point here is that the M4020ND is designed to print a lot more pages per month than the M3320ND without breaking.

Beyond these differences, the two printers offer almost identical features, including printing though the cloud, with built-in support for Google Cloud Print, and printing from mobile devices connecting to a Wi-Fi access point on your network, using either AirPrint or Samsung's own mobile print app.

Setup and Speed
Setting up the M4020ND is identical to setting up the M3320ND, which makes setup absolutely standard for a mono laser. Here too, Ethernet and USB are the only connection choices. For my tests, I used Ethernet to connect to a network and printed from a system running Windows Vista.

Samsung rates the M4020ND at 42 pages per minute (ppm), which should be close to the speed you'll see when printing text or other output that needs little to no processing. With pages that include graphics, photos, or other information that needs processing, however, the speed is much slower and not much different than you'll see with the M3320ND's 35-ppm engine.

On our business applications suite (timed with QualityLogic's hardware and software), I clocked the M4020ND at a respectable, but not impressive, 11.5 ppm, which counts as a tie with the M3320ND, at 11.3 ppm. It's also just a touch faster than the Editors' Choice Brother HL-6180DW, at 10.7 ppm, but significantly slower than the Editors' Choice Dell B2360dn, at 15.0 ppm.

Output Quality
Output quality for M4020ND is in much the same category as the speed: acceptable for most business needs, but not impressive. Text quality is within the range that includes the vast majority of mono lasers, but at the low end of the range. It's not quite good enough for demanding desktop publishing applications, but it's easily good enough for anything short of that.

Graphics quality falls at a slightly lower level than most mono lasers. It's good enough for internal business use, but whether you consider it acceptable for PowerPoint handouts or the like will depend on how critical an eye you have. Photo quality is good enough to print recognizable images from photos in Web pages, but I wouldn't use it for anything more demanding than that.

Given its competition, the Samsung Printer ProXpress M4020ND doesn't offer quite enough to be Editors' Choice. The Dell B2360dn delivers faster speed, while the Brother HL-6180DW delivers better paper handling and slightly better output quality. That said, the Samsung printer is also a little faster than the Brother printer, and it offers a little better output quality overall than the Dell printer. The combination makes it a more than reasonable choice. If you need a workhorse mono printer for heavy-duty use by micro or small office standards, the Samsung Printer ProXpress M4020ND should be in the running.

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Samsung Printer ProXpress M3320ND

Pros Duplexer and 250-sheet paper capacity standard, 770-sheet maximum. Single-sheet manual feed. Ethernet.

Cons No multipurpose tray. Bottom Line The Samsung Printer ProXpress M3320ND doesn't offer any notable strengths, but it's a potentially good fit as a basic mono laser for a micro or small office.

By M. David Stone

The Samsung Printer ProXpress M3320ND mono laser is the sort of printer that doesn't stand out in any way, but delivers a level of speed, output quality, and paper handling that lets it easily do the job it is meant for. That job is primarily to fill the shared-printer slot in a micro or small office with light- to medium-duty print needs, although the printer's small size also makes it suitable for heavy-duty personal use.

The one potential issue for the M3320ND is that its direct competition includes the Editors' Choice Brother HL-5450DN. Usually with close competitors like these there are obvious tradeoffs, with one printer offering faster speed, say, and the other offering better output quality or better paper handling. With these two models, however, the M3320ND comes in tied or a close second in every important area. So although it's a perfectly reasonable pick, there's no stand-out feature that would make a compelling argument to choose it over the Brother HL-5450DN.

The biggest difference between the two printers is in their paper handling. Both offer a 250-sheet drawer and a built-in duplexer (for printing on both sides of the page) standard. The M3320ND also include a one-sheet manual feed. You can count that as a useful convenience, since it lets you print on a different paper stock without having to swap out the paper in the main tray, but it's wimpy compared with the Brother printer's 50-sheet multipurpose tray.

If you need more input capacity for the M3320ND, you can add a 520-sheet second drawer ($200 street), for a total of 770 sheets. Here again, however, Brother goes a little further, with a 500-sheet optional tray that boosts the capacity to 800 sheets. And that total still includes the multipurpose tray. Brother also sells a related model, the Brother HL-5470DW, which includes both the multipurpose tray and second drawer as standard, adds some other features as well, and costs less than the Brother HL-5450DN plus its optional second drawer.

Setup and Speed
Setting up the M3320ND is absolutely standard, with Ethernet and USB as the only connection choices. If you connect it to a network, you can also print to it through the cloud, thanks to its built-in support for Google Cloud Print. You can also print from a mobile device though a Wi-Fi access point on your network, using AirPrint or Samsung's own mobile printing app. For my tests, I used a network connection and installed the drivers on a system running Windows Vista.

The engine rating for the M3320ND is 35 pages per minute (ppm), which is the speed you should see when printing text pages with little to no formatting. On our business applications suite (timed with QualityLogic's hardware and software), it came in at 11.3 ppm, which counts as a respectable speed for its price and engine rating. It's also essentially tied with both the Brother HL-5450DN, at 10.8 ppm, and the HL-5470DW, at 10.7 ppm. (A 0.5 ppm difference isn't statistically significant in this speed range.)

Output Quality
The M3320ND's output quality is best described as acceptable for most business use, but well short of impressive. Text quality is at the low end of the range that includes the vast majority of mono lasers. You shouldn't have any complaints about it for day-to-day business use, but it's not suitable for more demanding applications, like high-quality desktop publishing.

Graphics output is a step below the level where most mono lasers fall, which translates to being good enough for any internal business need. If you don't have too critical an eye, you may also consider it acceptable for PowerPoint handouts or the like. Photo quality is dead on par for a mono laser. That makes it suitable if you need to print recognizable images from photos in Web pages but not for anything more demanding than that.

The Samsung Printer ProXpress M3320ND is a perfectly capable mono laser printer that can easily be a good fit for a micro or small office. It's not quite a match for the Brother HL-5450DN, it's tied with it for speed, and it comes in a close second for output quality and paper handling. That certainly makes it a credible choice. If you can find it at a sufficiently lower price than the Brother printer, it might even be your preferred choice.

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HP Officejet 7610 Wide Format e-All-in-One Printer

Pros Prints up to supertabloid size (13 by 19 inches). Scans up to tabloid size (11 by 17). Faxes. Copies. Direct email sender.

Cons Only one paper tray means you can't keep letter- and tabloid-size paper loaded at the same time. Bottom Line The HP Officejet 7610 Wide Format e-All-in-One Printer inkjet MFP can print on paper at up to supertabloid size, but with only one paper tray, you may need another printer for letter-size paper.

By M. David Stone

If you're in the market for an inexpensive multifunction printer (MFP) that can handle tabloid (11- by 17-inch) or even supertabloid (13- by 19-inch) paper, add the HP Officejet 7610 Wide Format e-All-in-One Printer to your list of possibilities. It can handle tabloid size not just for printing, but for scanning too. It's also affordable enough for a micro or home office, and a potentially good fit if you need the tabloid-size capability.

Like some other printers in its category, including the Brother MFC-J6510DW, the 7610 offers only a single paper tray, which means you can't load letter and tabloid-size paper at the same time. That makes it best suited as a second printer, to supplement a letter-size model you already own.

If you don't already have a letter-size printer, it will probably be cheaper to get a tabloid-size printer like the Editors' Choice Brother MFC-J6710DW with two paper trays. If you've already invested in a letter-size printer, however, getting a single-tray tabloid-size printer like the 7610 can be the less expensive alternative.

Basics
Basic MFP features for 7610 include printing and faxing from, as well as scanning to, a PC, including over a network, and working as a standalone copier, fax machine, and direct email sender. (Oddly, HP doesn't officially claim that the printer supports faxing over a network, but it worked in my tests.) The printer can also print from and scan to a USB key, and it offers a variety of mobile print features, including the ability to print through the cloud, print through a Wi-Fi connection using a Wi-Fi access point on your network, and print directly to the printer using HP's equivalent of Wi-Fi Direct.

Paper handling for printing is a bit of a mixed bag. The single tray, with no upgrade options, is an obvious limitation, but if you don't have to swap the paper out very often, the 250-sheet capacity is easily enough for most small or home offices. The lack of a duplexer (for two-sided printing) may also be an issue. But if you need a duplexer, you have the option to add one ($49.95 direct). For scanning, the 35-sheet ADF is limited to simplex (single-sided) scans only, and to a maximum of legal-size paper. However, the flatbed can handle paper up to 11.7 by 17.0 inches.

Setup, Speed, and Output Quality
Setting up the printer is absolutely standard. For my tests, I connected it to a wired network and installed the drivers on a Windows Vista system.

The 7610's Print speed is best described as acceptable, but no more than that. I timed it on our business applications suite (using QualityLogic's hardware and software for timing) at only 3.5 pages per minute (ppm). That makes a bit slower than the Brother MFC-J6510DW and MFC-J6710DW, which both came in at 4.1 ppm. It's also a lot slower than the Editors' Choice Brother MFC-J4710DW, at 5.7 ppm.

The good news for the 7610 is that it scores a lot better on output quality than on speed. Text quality in my tests was just short of the best available from an inkjet MFP, making it easily good enough for almost any use. Graphics output was at the low end of par for an inkjet, making it good enough for any internal business need. Depending on how critical an eye you have, you may also consider it suitable for PowerPoint handouts or the like. Photo output was as good as you would expect from typical drugstore prints, making it true photo quality by definition.

As I've already pointed out, if you're looking for a single printer for both legal- and letter-size printing, you'll probably be better off with a model like the Brother MFC-J6710DW or the Brother MFC-J4710DW, both of which offer two paper trays. However, the MFC-J6710DW is more expensive than the 7610, and the MFC-J4710DW limits its scanning to a maximum of letter-size paper.

If you need to both print and scan at up to tabloid size, and even up to supertabloid size for printing, the HP Officejet 7610 Wide Format e-All-in-One Printer can be a more than reasonable pick. It can also be a cost-effective option, as a second printer for tabloid-size printing and scanning. However, one last issue that demands mention is that phone and email tech support is limited to one year. If you need support beyond that, you have pay for it. You'll want to factor that into your decision as well.

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Dell Color Multifunction Printer - C5765dn

Pros Fast. Very low running costs. Ample standard and optional paper capacity. Slightly above-par graphics. Duplexing ADF. Scans to searchable PDF. PCL and PostScript drivers. Good paper handling capabilities.

Cons Very high purchase price. Sub-par text quality. Fax is not standard. Bottom Line The Dell Color Multifunction Printer - C5765dn, a heavy-duty MFP, is rich in features, and a very low cost per page helps mitigate its hefty sticker price.

By Tony Hoffman

The Dell Color Multifunction Printer - C5765dn is an imposing multifunction printer (MFP) for larger workgroups or other situations requiring a heavy-duty MFP with color capabilities and some nice workflow features. Its 110-page duplexing automatic document feeder scans both sides of a document, and it can scan to searchable PDF. Its hefty purchase price is mitigated by its unusually low running costs, so in the long run a business can recoup the difference and may even save money over lower-priced MFPs.

The Dell C5765dn prints, copies, and scans. (An optional fax kit is available for $249.) You can print from or scan to a USB thumb drive; scan to e-mail, a PC or network folder or an FTP site. A nice touch is that it has built-in OCR so it can scan to searchable PDF format.

The Dell C5765dn measures 24.8 by 22 by 21.1 inches (HWD) and weighs 123 pounds, so you'll need at least two (and preferably 3) people to move it into place. That front panel houses a 7-inch color touch LCD, an alphanumeric keypad for both faxing and password-protected printing, and a handful of other buttons. The 110-sheet ADF is a duplexing model, capable of scanning two-sided documents.

The C5765dn has a standard paper capacity of 700 sheets, split between a 550-sheet main tray and a 150-sheet multipurpose tray. It has an automatic duplexer for printing on both sides of a sheet of paper. Its 110,000-page maximum duty cycle pegs it for high-volume printing.

Optional 550-sheet ($199.99) and 1,100-sheet ($379.99) trays are available; the maximum paper capacity is 2,350 sheets. A finisher tray costs $899.99. The C5765dn can print on paper at up to legal size; if you need tabloid-size color printing, Dell offers the otherwise similar C7765dn ($7,499 list).

The printer ships with PCL and PostScript drivers. The PCL driver installs by default; PostScript, which comes on a separate disk, needs to be installed separately. It has an automatic duplexer for printing on both sides of a sheet of paper; the machine, as we have seen with several other recent Dell printers (as well as printers from Canon and Xerox), comes with duplex printing as the default.

USB and Ethernet (including Gigabit Ethernet) connectivity are standard. I tested the machine on a wired network with drivers installed on a PC running Windows Vista.

Printing Speed
On our business applications suite, as timed with QualityLogic's hardware and software, the Dell C5765dn—rated at 47 ppm for both monochrome and color printing—tested at an effective 11 pages per minute (ppm) in its default (duplex) mode, which we use for its official timing. That's a good speed for a color laser and in line with its rated speed, which is based on printing text documents without graphics or photos—our test suite includes text pages, graphics pages, and pages with mixed content. We timed the Editors' Choice Dell C3765dnf Color Laser Printer, rated at 23 pages per minute for both monochrome and color printing, at 8.2 ppm, and the HP LaserJet Enterprise color flow MFP M575c , rated at 31 pages per minute, at 8.3 ppm. When I switched to simplex mode, the C5765dn was a bit faster still, at 11.8 ppm.

Output Quality
Overall output quality was average for a color laser, with below-par text, slightly above-par graphics, and average photo quality. For a laser, even sub-par text quality is good enough for typical business uses.

With graphics, colors were for the most part bright and well saturated. Some illustrations showed mild banding, and in others, dithering in the form of graininess was apparent. Quality is good enough for PowerPoint handouts.

Several photos showed traces of banding. Dithering (graininess) was apparent in some prints. Though detail was generally good, one print showed significant loss of detail in dark areas. Whether the photo quality is good enough for use in client newsletters depends on how picky you are.

Running Cost
There is generally an inverse relationship between the price of a printer and its running costs, and the Dell C5765dn is a prime example of that. Its stratospheric sticker price is offset by very low costs of 1 cent per monochrome page and 6.6 cents per color page. The HP M575c's running costs are considerably higher at 1.8 and 13 cents for black and white and color, respectively, while the Editors' Choice Dell C3765dnf's costs per page are 1.5 and 10 cents. The HP Officejet Pro X576dw MFP , an inkjet with laser-like capabilities, has running costs of 1.3 and 6.8 cents for monochrome and color.

The HP M575c includes similar workflow features to the C5765dn, including a duplexing ADF and embedded OCR, which lets you scan to various document formats including searchable PDF. It has much higher running costs than the C5765dn, but a considerably lower sticker price (though it's still expensive compared with most color laser MFPs).

The C5765dn prints at higher volume and a lower cost per page than the Editors' Choice Dell C3765dnf Color Laser Printer, which has a good set of MFP features though it can't match those of its larger sibling. It does, however, come with fax as a standard feature.

For businesses able to make the massive investment that its price commands, the Dell C5765dn Color Laser Printer offers good speed, decent output quality, and a good set of MFP and workflow features. It's capable of heavy-duty printing, and has good standard and optional paper capacity. Its very low running costs allow businesses with high print volumes to recoup the price difference between it and most lower-priced MFPs over time, and even save money in the long run. The C5765dn has most any MFP feature a busy workgroup would want—except for fax capabilities, for which you have to pay extra.

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