An A3 colour printer with a good turn of speed, quality colour output and low running costs.

Fast colour output, great network tools and reasonable print quality

Good print speed, high expansion potential and quality colour output makes the C9650n a great total printing machine.

A compact workgroup laser suited to high-volume colour and mono printing, but delivering average photo quality

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

Superb quality, packed with features and cheap to run. A worthy alternative to the Kyocera.

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

The C5600n handles colour-related tasks well and at a price that makes it affordable for small businesses.

One of the most impressive printers we received, it features plenty of well-thought out and logical technical features. One of only a handful of printers we tested that had an LCD for displaying print information and settings, the B4300 has eight single press buttons allowing you to view menu options, change values and cancel print jobs.

Clearly finishing first in the colour laser category, the C5100 is the pinnacle of affordable laser printing. Big and bulky, it doesn’t have a small footprint though, so be prepared to give up some of your workspace for it.

The LBP-2410’s real strength clearly lay in its speed, as opposed to its print quality. It was the third fastest printer overall, but fell in the shadow of the Labs Winner OKI C5100 for printing times and TCO over both low and high monthly duty cycles.

Finishing second overall in our roundup the Epson EPL-6100 was edged out of first place by the HP 1300 and the OKI C5100, with its incredible range of features. However, this is not to say that the Epson EPL-6100 doesn’t have a wide range of functions. On the contrary, it boasts some innovative design and logical technological functions. Its large 250 page input tray makes it ideal for bulk printing, although it shares the same much smaller volume 100 page output tray capacities as both the Lexmark E321 and Minolta-QMS PagePro 1200W models.

The second most expensive printer to purchase, Epson’s C900 outlay cost is quite high given its fairly low quality results; as a consequence, this printer’s value rating suffers. Saving face, it managed to finish fourth overall for the speed portion of our testing. Surprisingly, for a printer of this cost, it is another unit to lack integrated network connectivity, although it is available as an expansion option.

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We put a selection of high-capacity office printers to the test. We analyse what printer is best for your workplace and what dosn't work.

Impressive print quality, a good turn of speed and decent features, but it simply costs too much to own.

Yet another solid HP laser, but it’s beaten by ?rivals in virtually every key area.

It isn’t cheap, but plenty of features and top quality propel this printer to the top of the pile

Face detection and motion analysis thrown in.

We originally debated whether or not to include a multifunction unit in this roundup as we feared it would not have been an apples with apples comparison, or that the print quality could not compare with the other printers on test. Given the performance of the SCX-4216F though, we were proven wrong.