Color Laser Printers Reviews

We split our report on laser printers into two reports. This report covers color laser printers; our other report covers monochrome laser printers , which don't print in color, but cost less, are faster and usually have better text quality. If you want a laser printer that can also copy, fax and scan documents, see our report on multifunction printers .

Reviewers unanimously agree that inkjet printers are much better at printing photos than laser printers. While a laser printer can print photos that are good enough for business use in newsletters or brochures, their purpose is printing better text and color graphics than an inkjet, and doing so at much faster speeds. In addition, laser printers are much better for batch jobs and have much higher duty cycles than inkjet printers.

If you plan to use an inkjet for photos, and don't really need color printing from a laser printer, consider a monochrome laser printer. They cost as little as $100, yet they offer much better text quality and speed, lower per-page costs and higher duty cycles than an inkjet printer.

The best color laser printer reviews show reproductions of actual size and enlarged prints from multiple laser printers, which lets readers compare output quality in a visual way. A roundup of four printers by Tom's Hardware is the only recent review that gives readers that tool. Other reviews rely on description to convey output quality.

While none of the reviews of the CLP-300 are exceptionally negative, the sum of reviewer criticisms indicates that this printer puts too much toner on paper. Text does not look as crisp or fine as it does from most laser printers; it will look more like inkjet output. Images look less distinct than with output from other printers and edges may not be as sharply defined.

Home users may be surprised by the size of color laser printers. Although they are smaller than they used to be, color laser printers use four toner cartridges and take up much more space than monochrome laser printers or inkjet printers. The bulky printers won't sit inconspicuously on the corner of a shelf and most are heavy.  ... Continued

Our Consensus Report shows how many times products are top-ranked by reviewers included in our
All The Reviews Reviewed chart.

Most of HP’s color laser printers receive mixed reviews, but a number of printers are top-rated by just one reviewer. The HP Color LaserJet 2600n was a reviewer favorite in its youth in 2005, but judging from a 2007 review by Tom’s Hardware, it has been surpassed in speed and cost-of-use by newer printers. Even so, it’s a good budget pick.

The Ricoh Aficio CL3500N also tops several reviews, but receives less favorable reviews as well. Xerox Phaser color laser printers consistently receive favorable reviews. They use different technology than other brands and reviewers often regard output quality as better. However, reliability history is a question mark.

So in the end, no model emerges as an absolute consensus favorite in reviews, but several color laser printers have strong recommendations from at least a couple of reviewers. At least one of those models fits into low, medium and high price ranges.