Budget Color Laser Printers

Best entry-level color laser printers

The cheapest color laser printers are available for a few hundred dollars, about the same price as a mid-range inkjet or monochrome laser printer, and they blend the speed and sharpness of the latter with the color options of the former. However, reviews make clear that budget-priced color laser printers compromise on speed and quality when compared with more expensive color printers. Entry-level models are slower and do not produce the best prints. They also tend to have less memory, smaller paper trays and lower duty cycles. "Duty cycle" is a term used by manufacturers to specify the maximum number of pages per month the printer can handle. Exceeding the duty cycle often voids your warranty.

We found that Dell printers are among the best-reviewed low-cost color laser printers (under about $500). The Dell Color Laser Printer 1320c (*Est. $300) is the cheapest of those critiqued, but a network adapter is available as an optional upgrade (*est. $50). It is currently fourth on PC World's "Top 10 Color Laser Printers" chart, and Computer Shopper also rates it highly. PCMag.com's M. David Stone says the Dell 1320c has "the best combination of speed and quality yet for the price." However, in reviews at the U.K. version of Computer Shopper and at CNET, editors are not as impressed.

One reason the Dell Color Laser 1320c gets lukewarm enthusiasm from some reviewers is that this printer is rather short on features. It has 600 dots-per-inch (dpi) resolution, 64 MB of RAM and a 35,000-page duty cycle. It has a single 250-sheet paper tray, but no other paper-feeding options. It cannot be upgraded.

For a few dollars more, the Dell Color Laser 2130cn (*Est. $350) comes network-ready, and boasts a slightly higher duty cycle of 40,000 pages per month. It is also rated by Dell as faster than the 1320c, approaching 20 and 16 pages per minute in black and color, respectively. PC World reviewer Susan Silvius finds these speeds a little generous but concludes that it nevertheless has a "solid" performance in tests. She does, however, criticize the high costs associated with the 2130cn, whose replacement cartridges aren't very competitively priced even if consumers buy the best-value high-yield cartridges and "significantly worse" for standard cartridges. Simon Crisp at Personal Computer World finds the Dell 2130cn's output good but the speed unspectacular.

Speed is a constant trade-off in low-cost laser printers, and the Dell models appear to be no worse than the competition. The Dell Color Laser 2130cn has 600 dpi resolution, like its brand-mate the 1320c, but is a much better value for the price. It comes standard with 256 MB of RAM and a 250-sheet paper tray, upgradeable to 1,280 MB and 500 sheets, respectively. It can also be fitted with an optional duplexer (*est. $150), which allows you to print automatically on both sides of the paper.

The Brother HL-4040CN (*Est. $300) has some impressive features, but reviewers are ambivalent about this older budget model. PC World's Melissa Riofrio has high praise for the HL-4040CN's documentation and software. She and others note that setting the machine on "fine" mode (which enhances the printer's 600 dpi resolution to 2400 dpi) makes a big difference in print quality. Felisa Yang of CNET likes the HL-4040CN's tilting, backlit LCD screen. There is a front USB port for connecting USB drives or PictBridge-enabled cameras for computer-free printing, another feature usually reserved for inkjets.

Generally, though, the Brother HL-4040CN's design and performance keep it from being a reviewer favorite. Melissa Riofrio points out some awkward features, like counterintuitive controls. In addition, she astutely notes that if you put the wrong color toner into a bay the printer will not detect the error; in fact, it will still print, resulting in a "bizarrely colored page" in her test. Cost of new toner is average but unexceptional, and print quality is variable. CNET's review cites slow text printing, and Simon Williams of Trusted Reviews also notes that the HL-4040CN cannot be upgraded with a duplexer or extra paper tray. Personal Computer World reports slight curling at the edges for all printouts.

The Samsung CLP-315 (*Est. $200) is the latest in Samsung's 300 line of budget color lasers, and it gets a fair amount of attention in recent reviews. Its glossy black contours, like those of other current Samsung laser printers, earn it praise from reviewers as one of the more stylish-looking color laser printers on the market. It is also very small and light for a color laser printer, measuring 15.3 inches by 12.3 inches by 9.6 inches and weighing only 24.3 pounds.

However, features and performance are consistently reported as mediocre by those who put the CLP-315 to the test. PC Advisor, CNET, Trusted Reviews, IT Reviews and About.com all have reservations in recommending this model, citing very slow print speeds, middling output quality and costly toner cartridge replacements.