Top 10 printers

From...

By PCWorld review staff

(IDG) -- Dramatic price changes shuffle our ranking of color laser printers.

The most noticeable shifts involve the Oki Data Oki C7200n -- which drops by $970 and becomes a best buy -- and the Minolta-QMS Magicolor 6100 DeskLaser, which increases by $304 and falls two places to the sixth spot.

This month we add the expensive Minolta-QMS Magicolor 6110 to our chart.

Geared to deliver high-quality color for graphics professionals, this printer includes 256MB of RAM and the ability to handle 13-by-19-inch documents. As you'd expect, a slew of expensive options accompanies this $4,499 unit.

Top 10 printers

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1. Oki Data Oki C7200n: The C7200n's speed should be welcome in an office that has an occasional need for color and a frequent need for ordinary text documents. We are hoping to see revised drivers or firmware that will improve the color quality.
2. Lexmark C720N: We recommend this printer without reservations for any work group or office that wants to print both color and text documents, but for a busy environment you should plan to buy the extra paper tray.
3. Minolta-QMS Magicolor 2200 GN: This model would be suitable for any office that needs a color laser and doesn't want to support both color and monochrome printers. The Magicolor 2200 GN's high print quality would also make it useful in a graphics department.
4. Lexmark Optra C710N: The fast text speed, good text quality, and simple usability mean the Optra C710N can fill the bill both for small offices with no tech support and bigger offices that need plenty of color printing.
5. Tektronix Phaser 750N by Xerox: The Phaser 750N offers middle-of-the-road text and graphics speeds, and produces slightly jagged text, but it delivers strong color graphics. Added benefits include a user-friendly control panel and a comprehensive online manual.
6. Minolta-QMS Magicolor 6100 DeskLaser: The Magicolor 6100 DeskLaser balances its weak performance with its large page size, so it would fit best in offices that need such large-format color printing.
7. Oki Data Oki C9200n: The C9200n makes sense in any office that can afford it and has a use for color, because the text performance and text quality are just as good as the monochrome laser it would replace.
8. Brother HL-2400CeN: The HL-2400CeN boasts fairly fast text speeds and creates crisp letters and rich, detailed graphics -- all for a low price. Graphics churn out more slowly, however. The printer's biggest drawback is a confusing control panel.
9. Xerox Phaser 860N: The fast color printing and free black ink may entice users who do a lot of printing, but other printers in the same price range provide more capabilities and less aggravation.
10. Minolta-QMS Magicolor 6110: At $4499, the 6110 is no impulse buy. However, if your office folks need to proof lots of graphics and your spreadsheet jockeys print pages that can profit from the larger page format, this printer could be extremely useful.