Head To Head: 71 Printers

The newest laser, ink-jet, dot-matrix, and color printers vie for top honors in our applications-based rankings

Scott Higgs and Chandrika Mysore

The printer market continues to be one of the most competitive segments of the computer industry, thanks to an almost constant supply of new models and falling prices. This Lab Report, our third on printers in the last year, tracks these changes with evaluations of 71 laser, ink-jet, dot-matrix, and color printers. Thirty-eight of those printers weren't available when we compiled our last printer Lab Report (see "176 Printers Face Off," November 1993 BYTE). Among the new models is Apple's LaserWriter Select 360, a 10-page-per-minute laser printer with exceptional print quality. Also new are lasers from Alps and Genicom, built around a 10-ppm, 600-dpi engine from Brother that's teamed with a 20-MHz Motorola 68030 processor. These are among the fastest midrange lasers we tested: Genicom's Model 7610 won our General Business rankings, while the Alps LSX 1000 and Brother's HL-10h (a similar configuration that was ranked in November's report) placed as close runners-up in that category.

New designs and lower costs account for different winners in some categories. For example, Canon's recently introduced BJC-600 now ranks as the ink-jet printer with the best print quality, supplanting the Epson Stylus 800, November's winner. But some past winners still reign: Hewlett-Packard's LaserJet 4 Si remains the top printer for workgroups (as in all three printer reports), and the Compaq PageMarq 20 still leads for CAD and DTP (for an update on Compaq's plans to support this printer, see "As We Went to Press..." on page 166).

Compared to the printers we tested in our last report, prices have fallen in each segment of the market. The avera ge cost has dropped from $1000 to $700 for PCL-only lasers rated at 4 ppm. Ink-jet prices overall now average about 10 percent lower than for comparable models in the November report.

In all, we tested 31 general-business printers (10 ppm or less), eight workgroup lasers (12 ppm or faster, with Ethernet support), and six CAD and desktop publishing lasers (able to handle 11- by 17-inch paper). We also ranked eight draft-quality printers (ink-jets under $1000) and 11 general-purpose color printers (ink-jet, thermal-wax-transfer, and dye-sublimation printers costing no more than $5000). Finally, we evaluated 10 large-format dot-matrix printers designed for high-volume print jobs.

How to use this guide

We used our standard suite of PC- and Macintosh-based printer tests to choose printers with the best speed and output quality for six key business applications.

We summarize test details about the winners and important runners-up in each of the categories, using charts like the one shown here.

Combined engine and processor speed when running our test files, measured in ppm. Higher numbers indicate faster performance.

Vendor's rating for engine or print-head speed; does not include printer processing time.

A composite rating for text and graphics output quality; based on a 10-point scale, with higher numbers indicating better print quality.

Retail price; may include optional memory to conform to our testing specifications (see "How We Tested").

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Illustration: What to Look For in a Printer Color Ink-Jet PRINT HEAD For affordable color printing and output that's appropriate for business reports, ink-jets perform well. Choose thermal-transfer printers for higher-quality color with intense colors and subtle dithering. Laser ENGINE Low-cost lasers typically rely on 300-dpi engines rated at from 4-6 ppm. Output quality from these engines is acceptable for business correspondence, especially if you primarily print text and little graphics. For better quality, choose a printer with a 600-dpi engine. PROCESSOR Select lasers with a fast RISC processor (the most common we saw were from Intel, AMD, or Weitek). Fast processing is essential for printing graphics and PostScript. TONER CARTRIDGE The printers that are easiest to service are those with an integrated toner cartridge and drum. PAPER INPUT TRAY Capacities of 100 pages or less are adequate for lasers used by one person or a small workgroup, but consider optional paper trays and total capacities of 1000 sheets or more for large networks and high-volume word processing applications. FONT SLOT If you plan to use a variety of fonts, make sure the printer offers one or more built-in slots that easily accept font cartridges. PAPER PATH Choose printers with a straight-through paper path if you print envelopes and heavy stock. The curved path (depicted here) is typical for standard size and weight paper.