Expanding its lineup of industry-leading laser devices, Lexmark International, Inc. (NYSE: LXK) today announced a new monochrome laser multifunction product (MFP), the Lexmark X204n, which has the smallest footprint in its class*. Designed especially for the desktop, this monochrome laser MFP meets the needs of customers who seek professional, business-class output, but face the challenge of smaller working environments or conserving desk space.

"Although it has a small footprint, the X204n provides both the technological innovation and reliability that Lexmark's customers have come to expect from our products and services," said Marty Canning, Lexmark vice president and president of its Printing Solutions and Services Division. "This desktop-friendly MFP is easy-to-use, packed full of features and will help any user or small workgroup drive efficiency and move their productivity ahead."

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One of the big problems with printers today isn’t that they print too slowly or that they can’t print images. The big problem is the cost of the printer and ink. Often you can replace your whole printer for the price you pay for new ink cartridges alone. I once owned a printer that cost about $50 to replace the ink tanks.

Epson has announced a new line of all-in-one printers called the NX series that offers nice features at low prices. All of the printers will copy, scan, and print. The line all use Epson DURABrite inks as well. The line includes the NX115, NX215, NX415, and NX515 models.

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It wasn’t long ago when copier dealers were peddling MFPs with a sales pitch still focused on speed and price. If a dealer wanted to jazz up the sales pitch, they might highlight the new affordability of color output and the inclusion of fax capability. The afterthought of these sales pitches was, almost invariably, the seemingly obligatory, “Oh yeah, and it scans, too.”

So, that was then. Fast-forward to today, and you can see that there has been a near 180-degree shift in thinking. Unlike just a few years ago when copier dealers were still selling MFPs based on the output capabilities of copy, print, and fax, savvy dealers today are beginning to understand the value of document imaging. Those that do are capturing greater sales by bringing the scanning functionality of these devices to the forefront. Is this bad news for traditional scanning VARs? Only for those that continue to ignore the popularity of the MFP.

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Canon has received the prestigious Multifunctional Printers (MFP) Line of the Year Award from Buyers Laboratory Inc. (BLI), a testing and intelligence body in the imaging industry, for its imageRUNNER and imageRUNNER COLOR multifunction printers.

Canon has also won four End of Year Pick Awards for its MFPs.

The MFP Line of the Year Award is given to products that meet the strict standards of BLI and pass the rigorous two-month laboratory evaluation. The biannual “Pick” awards, meanwhile, recognize outstanding product performances in specific categories.

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HP's Photosmart D7560 color inkjet printer is one of the better inkjet printers we've tested. It offers pleasing print quality and features galore, making it an excellent choice for the home user and amateur photographer.

Not surprisingly, the approx. $159 (as of 4/2209) Photosmart D7560 excelled at printing color output on HP-brand photo paper, showing natural, though slightly yellow, images. On plain paper, the same photos and graphics exhibited some graininess and dark colors, but text samples looked nicely black and uncommonly crisp. Print speeds were average or better for all but one test.

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HP's Photosmart D5460 inkjet printer is a bargain that you can brag about. Though it's a bare-bones printer in most respects, it has a few standout features that any photo enthusiast would love to have.

In lab tests, the Photosmart D5460 pushed paper quickly, managing a swift 11.4 pages per minute when printing text-only pages and 3.4 ppm when printing graphics. The main input tray holds just 125 sheets (lower than average), however, and it doesn't accept legal-size media.

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The Canon Pixma MX330 is a printer with print, scan, copy, and fax capabilities. It was the more affordable of two Office Jet models released by Canon last February.

Canon Pixma MX330At first glance, it will look very much like the Canon Pixma MP620, except that it is done in opposite colors. It is an average-sized printer, and will not make that big of a difference if it is placed in a small office. It can, however, perform most office-related tasks, albeit at a smaller scale compared with most heavy-duty office printers.

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The Oki Printing Solutions MC560 color LED multifunction printer (similar to a color laser MFP) has inexpensive toner and generates great-looking text pages. Even so, this huge model has too high a sticker price ($999 as of April 6, 2009) and needs too much special attention to be worth your while.

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If you can afford it, this fast, full-featured multifunction inkjet printer will suit any small business or home office.

Considering the price (C$400 as of 4/15/09), the Canon Pixma MX7600 color inkjet multifunction printer had better be good--and it is. It offers plentiful features, fast performance, and vivid output, making it a great choice for small businesses and home offices.

In our tests, the Pixma MX7600 printed black text on plain paper at an above-average rate of 9.8 pages per minute (ppm). It was also fast in generating graphics--managing 3.7 ppm, for instance, in printing a small photo on plain paper. The quality was consistently high regardless of the kind of paper we used (although on plain paper, color images had a slight orange cast). Copies of a text sample closely resembled the original. Scans of text and photos looked slightly fuzzy but otherwise accurate. HP's OfficeJet Pro L7680 All-in-One is a lot faster, but its output quality isn't quite as good.

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Ecopreneurist has been testing out the HP Officejet Pro 8500, a brand new wireless printer from HP. This is one of the first jet printers we have seen that provides photo quality output. Given that this printer is significantly cheaper than laser printers, this “All-In-One” machine might just be the perfect solution for small businesses.

Now by “All-In-One,” we refer to four key functions that are part and parcel of every small business: printing, scanning, faxing, and copying. This means saving up to 50% of the energy used to do all of these jobs individually.

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One of the utlimate goals of office productivity gurus was to put a printer on every desk in the work place. While that notion may be practical, it isn't very cost effective.

But if there is one unit out there that could fit that bill it's the Brother MFC-990cw A4 all-in-one inkjet printer. This unit's form factor is compact (468 x 375 x 180mm), stylish (two-tone piano black finish) and functional.

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The HP Color LaserJet CM2320nf color laser multifunction printer would be a good choice for a small office with a light workload. This $599 (as of April 6, 2009) MFP is compact and well designed, but its black toner is particularly expensive.

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We don't often review printers and multifunctions in the £2,000-£3,000 price range, but OKI's MC860dn has a couple of interesting features which make it particularly attractive for the workgroup market. As well as having OKI's trademark LED print engines, it can print up to A3 and comes as standard with both duplex print and duplex scanning.

Given that this is an A3 machine, it's not that big. Although it would be happier sitting on one of OKI's optional cabinet and stand accessories than on a desktop, it's not going to take up half your office, as some of its competitors might. It doesn't have a particularly integrated look, with a substantial A3 scanner mounted on two columns and looking fairly obviously like a laser printer and scanner brought together from other production lines.

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InfoPrint Solutions, a Ricoh-IBM company, has released two new monochrome multifunction laser printers: the 1940 and the 1930.

The InfoPrint 1940 MFP is a 3-in-1 device (print, scan and copy) featuring a first page out in 6.5 seconds, print speeds up to 40 pages per minute (ppm), a maximum monthly usage up to 80,000 pages, a 7” color touch screen panel, a 50-sheet ADF and built-in duplexing.

The InfoPrint 1930 MFP is also a 4-in-1 device offering the same basic features as the 1940 including print speeds, duty cycle, touch screen, ADF and duplexing.

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We have already shared with you the launch of budget-friendly printers from Xerox. We will now dig a little deeper into one of these new printers: the Xerox Phaser 6128MFP Color Laser Printer.

Xerox Phaser 6128 MFP The Xerox Phaser 6128 MFP is designed for use by small workgroups. While previous models from Xerox were single function monochromatic printers, this new line keeps up with small business needs by adding color as well as multi-function capabilities for a reasonable price.

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What's in a name? Is a printer that also scans, copies, and faxes, an MFP—a multifunction printer—or an AIO—an all-in-one printer? It's starting to look like the "AIO" marketing label is pushing aside the stodgy-sounding "MFP." The Lexmark X7675 AIO bundles the aforementioned capabilities plus wireless networking and support for myriad memory cards into an inkjet-based printer.

Besides packing a lot of features into a compact package, the X7675 also weighs in at a recession-friendly price point. Listing at $199, the Lexmark can be found at some major e-tailers for as little as $119

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Lexmark on Thursday introduced nine new monochrome laser multifunction products (MFPs) designed for small and medium workgroups. The printers belong to three different series: the X264dn, X360, and X460.

The Lexmark X264dn and X360 Series, designed for small workgroups, are network-ready devices that feature an intuitive operator panel. According to the company, the X264dn and X360 produce results with up to 1,200 by 1,200 dpi print quality, as well as superior scan resolution with the 24-bit color CCD scanner. A 50-sheet automatic document feeder can scan two-sided documents and an optional paper drawer expands capacity up to 850 sheets.

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If you need to print on paper bigger than A4, your choices of printer are severely reduced. If you need colour and can only afford an inkjet, they’re smaller still, and if you’d like an all-in-one, you’re down to half a dozen possibilities. Make that seven - Brother now has its MFC-5890CN, coming in at a touch over £150.

There are more uses for A3 print than you might think. As well as proofing larger documents, you can, for example, print posters and spreads for folding down to A4 newsletters. Brother must have done its market research, as it’s introduced two new A3 inkjet all-in-ones to its range. The MFC-6490CW does A3 print, scan and copy, but the MFC-5890CN is a halfway house, with A3 print, but only an A4 scanner.

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Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc. (Konica Minolta), a leading provider of advanced imaging and networking technologies for the desktop to the print shop, today launched the bizhub® C652/C552 Series of color multifunctional products (MFPs -- print, copy, fax, and scan all in one system). The bizhub C652 and bizhub C552 systems produce affordable and attention-grabbing color when customers require it most while adding exceptional black-and-white documents. Both systems can fit into any mid-to-large workgroup or business environment in addition to light production environments.

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A multifunction printer for a good size workgroup has to be robust and able to cope with a heavy duty cycle. Konica Minolta's Magicolor 4695F is designed for this market and its spec sheet, at least, seems to offer all that's needed.

At 55kg, the Magicolor 4695 is a substantial machine, with a very large footprint. Given the rest of its specification, it's hard to see why it has to be this big and heavy. It's styled like a photocopier, which fits with Minolta's background as an office equipment maker. As well as the size of the machine itself, its output tray extends from the left-hand side and a multipurpose feed, of an additional 100 sheets of special media, folds down from the right.

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Not the best known name in all-in-one printers, Kodak now has a range of four machine. They all use the same print engine, but are differentiated by different levels of bell and whistlery. Among the claims Kodak makes for all of them is photo prints for just 7p each - cheaper than any other inkjet.
Kodak ESP 7

The ESP 7 is the fourth release in Kodak’s ESP range of all-in-ones and sits below the top-of-the-range ESP9, while still offering some of its sibling's best features. It’s intended for the home, lacking as it does an automatic document feeder (ADF) and a fax facility

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In today’s challenging economic times, stretching the dollar is just as important as carefully managing how wide the purse strings need to be opened and how much money should be spent. It is with this realization in mind that HP developed three new product lines designed specifically to cater to the small business demographic, in an effort to provide them with the appropriate support for their printing needs and tide them over through this turbulent economy.

HP OfficeJet Pro 8500 All-in-OneFor small companies with high-quality printing needs, HP offers inkjet printing with laser-like quality colored prints and speeds through the HP OfficeJet Pro 8500 all in one series. The top of the line printer series can offer all these at only half the cost per page and consuming only half the energy when compared with laser printers.

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All-in-one printers now vastly outsell their single-function equivalents and when you can get a multifunction device including an Automatic Document Feeder (ADF) for only just over £100, you can easily see why. Canon's PIXMA MX330 is aimed at the home and small-business markets, but not necessarily at keen amateur photographers.

In its new round of all-in-ones, Canon has redesigned the ADF so that the new, low profile version is integral with the raised top surface of the machine. This is a very neat solution and when the machine is folded up, not in use, it looks clean and modern.

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(Worldwide Computer Products News Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Ricoh Americas Corporation, a provider of digital office equipment, announced on Thursday (19 March) the addition of four new products: the Aficio SP C231SF/SP C232SF colour multifunction

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Brother International Corporation today announced three new laser printers (HL-5300 Series from $199 to $299*) and two new laser all-in-ones (MFC-8000 Series from $399 to $499*), each including key enhancements over the current model it replaces. Each model provides small to medium businesses with fast print speeds (up to 32ppm), automatic duplex printing and optional high-yield replacement toner cartridges. All new models will be available beginning in April 2009.

With these new machines, Brother shows its ongoing commitment to delivering the ideal combination of performance features and a great overall value to small office and business users. In addition, Brother continues to support Wi-Fi users by offering step models in their line-up that include a built-in wireless network interface.

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