Top Color Laser Multifunction Printers

A Color Laser Multifunction Printer Is the Best Bet for Small Businesses

The best color laser multifunction printer is one that does everything well - and more. Like this color laser printer from Brother. It provides fast, quality printing (up to 21 ppm in both black and white and color). And, thanks to its built-in automatic duplexing, two-sided printing, scanning, faxing and copying. What else? Built-in networking and wireless capability. A USB Direct interface which lets you scan to and/or print directly from a USB flash memory drive. Scanning from a legal sized document glass. High speed faxing. And even a Toner Save feature which lets you save toner on day-to-day printing. It's hard to beat this multifunction printer's combination of features and price.

This color laser multifunction printer has most of the same features as my choice for the best color laser multifunction printer, the Brother MFC-9840CDW above; fast, quality printing (up to 21 ppm in both black and white and color), built-in automatic duplexing, two-sided printing, scanning, faxing and copying. Add to that direct USB interface, 128MB memory (expandable to 384MB), and a Hi-Speed USB 2.0 Ethernet 10/100Base-TX interface, and some nifty additional features such as scanning to USB, SMB, FTP, network and e-mail, an array of special copy functions and a long duty cycle (65000 pages per month). Why only second on the list then you ask? Price. But if you can get this one at $700 or below, it's a great deal.

Another question to ask yourself when buying a color laser multifunction is whether or not you actually need all four functions. This Brother DCP-9045CDN Color Laser Multifunction Printer, for instance, has all the functions and features of the other higher end color laser printers on this list – except for faxing. It's network ready, lets you print up to 21 pages per minute (ppm) in black or color, a flatbed scanner for bulky items, 17 copy per minute black or color copying, and features such as reduction and enlargement. It even has automatic two-sided printing/copying (duplexing) and a 50 page automatic document feeder (larger than many printers). So how important is faxing to you?

Lexmark's X560n Color Laser Multifunction Printer delivers on its promise of fast quality printing, faxing, scanning and copying but you'll want to compare its features and price carefully to others before you buy. This color laser printer prints and copies at up to 31 ppm in black and white and 20 ppm in color and advertises its "brilliant quality" color. As a small business owner, though, I like the concept here (high quality, easy-to-operate and maintain color printing, scanning and copying) but I feel like I'm taking an unwarranted hit by having to pay yet more for the optional duplexing feature or for a wireless networking card. A good choice for the small or home office if you can get it for a good price.

I really like this color laser multifunction printer's combination of features and price. The Lexmark X500n is the most inexpensive color laser multifunction printer reviewed on this page, but it still offers black and white printing and copying at up to 31 ppm, color printing and copying at up to eight ppm, flatbed scanning, and networking capability. What you don't get (besides duplexing) is fax capabilities. At this price point, that could be a trade-off worth making if you can also tolerate the slow color printing speed.

This is a good small or home office color laser multifunction printer. It comes network ready with built-in 10/100 Fast Ethernet for wireless networking. It also has color flatbed scanning, color copying, full fax features including up to 120 speed dials, USB connectivity, two standard paper trays, and quality color printing. The LaserJet 2840 prints and copies in black and white at 20 ppm. However, the color printing speed is only 4 ppm at best and there is no duplexing or color faxing.