Canon Color imageClass MF9280cdn

The Canon Color image Class MF9280Cdn ($2,295 list), a color MFP (multifunction printer) for workgroups and small offices, is a slightly improved version of the Canon Color image Class MF9220Cdn ($1,000 street, 3.5 stars). Although the additional features it offers will be helpful to some offices, at least one (two additional printer drivers) comes with a downside that may limit its usefulness, and it may be hard to justify the premium you'd pay over the cost of the MF9220Cdn.

The price difference between the models isn't virtually as great as the stated prices would indicate, as street prices are often substantially lower than list. A spot check of the prices offered by 5 e-tailors who stock both models indicates that the MF9280Cdn sells for about $450 more than the MF9220Cdn.     

             

What do you get for the extra $450? Two card slots, for one thing. The larger slot supports Compact Flash, which many printers eschew these days, and the smaller handles various formats including the SD, Micro Drive, and Memory Stick families (an adaptor is needed for mini-SD and Memory Stick Duo). The MF9280Cdn also ups the printer and copier's shared memory from 384MB to 768MB, and adds a 100-number address book to the MF9220Cdn's 200 one-touch speed-dial numbers.      

                     

Features:

The MF9280Cdn is a big and heavy MFP, weighing 94 pounds with cartridges in place and measuring 24.9 by 21.5 by 20.8 inches (HWD). Its large tilt-up front panel includes an alphanumeric keypad, a 4-way controller, and a 3.5-inch color LCD display. On one edge of the panel are two ports for USB thumb drives; on the other, the two memory card slots.

A 50-sheet duplexing automatic document feeder (ADF) lets users copy, scan, or fax both sides of multipage documents at up to legal size. A 250-sheet main paper tray and a 100-sheet multipurpose feeder are included, as well as an automatic duplexer for printing on both sides of a sheet of paper. An optional 500-sheet paper tray is also available, for $299 (direct). Speaking of paper handling, the MF9280Cdn has a rated duty cycle of 65,000 pages, which should be more than enough for most small offices.

About Dell 2350dn

If you're looking for a printer for modest to heavy-duty printing for your small office or workgroup, don't need color, and must have high-quality text, the Dell 2350dn ($299.99 direct) should be on your short list. Although it's slower than you would expect from its 40 page-per-minute (ppm) rating, it offers reasonable speed, high quality output across the board, and suitable paper capacity for a small office, making it a more than reasonable choice, particularly if you care more about output quality than speed.

Even if output quality isn't your primary need, you might still want to consider the 2350dn. Although it isn't a match otherwise for the Editors' Choice OKI B431dn ($349.99 direct, 4 stars), which is smaller, lighter, faster, and offers a bit higher paper capacity, it doesn't cost as much either. That should be enough to keep it in the running in any case.

Basics and Speed:
At 10.5 by 16.8 by 14.6 inches (HWD) and 31.2 pounds, the 2350dn is a touch too large and heavy to qualify as a personal printer. However, it actually takes up less desktop space than many inkjets, which means it shouldn't be hard to find room for even in a small office where space is tight.
The paper capacity is 300 sheets, divided into a 250-sheet drawer and 50-sheet multipurpose tray, so you can have two different types of paper loaded at once and change paper easily. For offices with more heavy-duty print needs, Dell sells a 550-sheet tray ($99.99 direct), for a total 850-sheet capacity. The printer also comes with a duplexer for printing on both sides of a page.

Output Quality and Other Issues:
The 2350dn's output quality is its strongest point. Text quality in our tests was just a touch below the absolute best I've seen. I'd call it suitable even for demanding desktop publishing applications. It's certainly good enough for any business use, even if you have an unusual need for small fonts.

Graphics quality was similarly just a touch below the very best for mono lasers, although that's not unusually high quality, since you can say the same for the vast majority of the competition. That makes the output good enough for any internal business use, up to and including PowerPoint handouts and the like. Photos are at the high end of the tight range where most mono lasers fall, making them easily good enough for printing Web pages with photos or a client or company newsletter.

Canon Pixma MX420 Wireless Inkjet Printer

The Canon Pixma MX420 Wireless Inkjet Office All-in-One ($149.99 direct) is the core model of the three new Canon business multifunction printers (MFPs) I've recently tested. It lacks the speed and output quality, and some of the frills, of the Editors' Choice Canon Pixma MX882 Inkjet Office All-in-One ($199.99 direct, 4.5 stars), but packs in more features than the Canon Pixma MX360 Inkjet Office All-In-One ($79.99 direct, 3.5 stars). It offers a good range of features at a reasonable price for a home-business proprietor, and can pull double-duty as a household MFP as well.

The MX420 prints, copies, scans, and also faxes. It can scan to e-mail, and fax either from your PC or your computer. A 30-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF) lets you scan, copy, or fax multi-page documents.

At 7.8 by 18.1 by 16.4 inches (HWD) and 19.3 pounds, it's lesser than the MX882, yet is similarly styled, shiny black with rounded corners.

Towards the top, the sides viewpoint upward to meet the ADF and input tray. This gives the front panel—which holds a 2.5-inch color LCD screen, alphanumeric fax keypad, and various function buttons—an upward tilt.

Below the panel and to the right of the output tray is a port for a USB key or PictBridge-enabled camera. Next to it is a door that protects three slots that fit a variety of memory-cards formats, including Compact Flash.

Speed and Output Quality:

we clocked the MX420 on the latest version of our business applications suite (as timed with QualityLogic's hardware and software), which combines graphics pages, text pages, and pages with mixed content, at 1.8 effective pages per minute (ppm). This matched the Pixma MX360's speed, and lagged the Canon Pixma MX882's 2.9 ppm. The Epson Stylus NX625 ($149 direct, 4 stars), also an Editors' Choice, zipped through the same tests at 4 ppm.

The MX420's text quality is typical of an inkjet MFP. The text is fine for general business use, though not good enough to use in documents like resumes with which you're trying to convey a professional appearance.