Color Laser Printer Review

Laser printer or inkjet?

We split our report on laser printers into two reports. This report covers color laser printers; our other report covers monochrome laser printers, which don't print in color but cost less, are faster and usually have better text quality. If you want a laser printer that can also copy, fax and scan documents, see our report on multifunction printers.

Reviewers unanimously agree that inkjet printers are much better at printing photos than laser printers. While a laser printer can print photos that are good enough for business use in newsletters or brochures, their strength is in printing better text and color graphics than an inkjet, and doing so at much faster speeds. In addition, laser printers are much better for batch jobs and have much higher duty cycles than inkjet printers.

If you plan to use an inkjet for photos and don't really need color printing from a laser printer, consider a monochrome laser printer. They cost as little as $100, yet they offer much better text quality and speed, lower per-page costs and higher duty cycles than an inkjet printer.

Home users may be surprised by the large size of color laser printers. Although they are smaller than they used to be, color laser printers use four toner cartridges and take up much more space than monochrome laser printers or inkjet printers. The bulky printers won't sit inconspicuously on the corner of a shelf. And most are heavy, so they'll be hard to move around as well.

PCMag.com has the best reviews of color laser printers meant for mainstream use. Reviews are balanced, comparative and thorough. Writer M. David Stone reviews color laser printers with such regularity that he has the best frame of reference. PC World also has very useful coverage. Review copy lacks much comparison or evaluative explanation, but full objective and subjective test results are published. Sister magazine PC Advisor has the best subcategory ratings, including one for build quality, a factor that's ignored in most other reviews of color laser printers. CNET also includes some coverage of color laser printers.

Other sites have comparable reviews of individual printer models, but they test color laser printers too infrequently. This group includes Tom's Hardware, as well as CRN, Consumer Guide and Computer Shopper. We have downgraded a few sites in this group for their lack of recent color laser reviews. On the other hand, sites such as Trusted Reviews and IT Reviews have tested newer models, but their reviews are not always comprehensive enough. Consumer Reports regularly reviews printers, but their latest roundup includes only monochrome laser models.