From personal printers to home office colour, we put 12 lasers through their paces. Some are lightning fast; others produce dazzling colour. Some are tiny, and some are surprisingly cost-effective.

When it comes to getting real work done, there’s still nothing to compete with a laser printer’s combination of quality, speed and economy. We tell you how to choose a busines laser, plus review 3 examples.

Well-equipped and quite quick, but the quality is patchy

An uncompromising monochrome laser that gets the job done with speed and precision.

Very much a case of average performance for an average price

A versatile, high-quality printer with a wide range of features

Quick, cheap to run and an abundance of features – a worthy award winner

Very cheap to run, but poor print quality badly lets the side down

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Fast colour output, great network tools and reasonable print quality

Small and cheap, but it’s costly to run and quality isn’t the best

Slick print quality and faultless speed, but lacking on the features front

Lightning quick, top-quality prints and the running costs are as low as the price tag

Painfully slow with colour, and the quality disappoints

Top-notch print quality makes this a contender, but it isn’t fast

We test nine devices, from the simplest printers to versatile multifunction devices that print, scan, copy and fax

A fast printer let down by high running costs and few features