Ten... colour laser printers

HP LaserJet Pro CP1025

This is HP’s entry-level colour laser printer. It’s classy black and white lines and simple, but adequate control panel give it a good look as a personal desktop machine. A 150-sheet paper tray is the only feed source and a single USB socket is the only data connection. It uses a carousel print mechanism, which slows down colour print to around 3.3ppm, though it can still manage 13ppm printing black. Text and graphics prints are sharp and bright. The killer is again the running costs, with a black page coming out at 4.1p and a colour one costing 17.8p. Both are high, but the colour cost in particular is a big deterrent.

Kyocera Mita FS-C5250DN

A workgroup laser printer, even a colour one, should handle more than 250-sheets and this one can handle 550 sheets as standard, with optional trays giving up to 1,500. The control panel has over-modest buttons, making jobs like USB drive file selection a little awkward. USB and Ethernet are standard, though wireless is only an option. As you’d expect at this price, it’s a quick machine, measured at 21ppm black, 15ppm colour and 12ppm duplex; duplex is standard. Print quality on text and business graphics is good, but photos can be a bit fuzzy round the edges. Page costs are very economical, at 1.4p for black and 7.6p for colour.