Mono laser printers still have their place in the office or in a SOHO environment. They are the reliable and necessary workgroup workhorses and until (or indeed if) we ever reach the oft talked about but seemingly no closer to reality "paperless office," they aren't looking to make an exit any time soon.

If you haven't looked at colour laser printers in a while though, you may be surprised at how relatively low the prices and how full the feature sets are these days; you can realistically buy a full colour laser printer that is networkable and that does duplex printing for under $500. What's more, the resulting full colour presentations, prints, graphics and charts won't look much different than the prints you get at a retail business service printing shop.

Colour is a simple way to help reinforce your message in printed products. Whether it's an otherwise drab wall of black and white text made more accessible with a colour graphic element like the ever popular pie chart or an illustrative picture to drive the point home, colour makes business documents more accessible and more likely to be read. Printing company letterhead in full colour can make an all important impact on clients. For the SOHO and independent business owners, creating your own stationary saves money and makes the outfit look that much more professional.

With the cost of high quality colour laser printers dropping to landmark lows and with print quality at all time highs, the time has never been better to make the investment.

All of the printers tested In the Lab this month come in under $500 and performed solidly, offering at least reasonably fast prints, sharp black and white printing and high quality colour. Details on each of the five colour laser printers tested follows.

Next: Lexmark C532n

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