Color MFPs prove capable and costly

HP Color LaserJet 9500mfp

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HP's Color LaserJet 9500mfp is simple to a fault. You can buy direct from HP, most features come standard, and you can install it yourself. But it offers fewer features than do the other color MFPs we tested, and it's slow.

The Color LaserJet 9500mfp includes two 500-sheet tabloid-size internal trays, a 100-sheet auxiliary tray, and an external 2,000-sheet letter-size feeder. You must choose one of three finisher options -- there's no built-in output tray. The c8088b finisher we tested can offset, staple, saddle stitch, and fold booklets.

The installation process is easy, but you'll need a co-worker to help you unpack the heavy, awkward components. You'll also need extra clearance for assembly because of the long, metal rods that run underneath the main unit from both external pieces.

The control panel is logical. You describe the original on one side of the monochrome LCD and enter settings for the output on the other side. Basic and Advanced tabs organize the options for each function.

This flatter menu design works only because the system lacks feature depth. It can't add page numbers to copies, you can't save a copy setup for reuse, nor can the control panel display a job queue. More complex features such as saddle stitching can be hard to figure out.

Useful management features include the ability to disable the scan-ahead feature: If the machine is embroiled in a long print job, walk-up users cannot scan their document until the print job is done. It can also pause between outputting jobs so that users can grab their pages from the stack. This MFP even allows you to test paper-path sensors and ensure the soft buttons on the LCD are aligned correctly.

The Color LaserJet 9500mfp offers good output quality but poky speed. Text printed at a measly 12 ppm and looked less saturated and crisp than we'd like. Color graphics crawled out at 3.4 ppm and showed somewhat rough transitions in areas of solid color. Photos looked a little flat. Copying yielded oversaturated but detailed duplicates, and copy speeds were among the slowest tested.

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HP's buy-direct model seems simple, but watch those option costs. The $13,399 price for our unit -- via HP's Web site -- includes an extra $400 for the finisher we tested; other finisher options cost less. The scan-to-PC software we tested costs $1,699 for a 10-seat license, or $5,499 for 50. Extending the standard one-year warranty to three years costs $4,599. Consumables are a bit pricey -- about 1.4 cents per page for black and 8.6 cents for color.

Lexmark X762e

Lexmark's X762e is smaller in both footprint and price than the other MFPs we tested, and it was nimbler in some of our speed tests. The drawbacks of downsizing appear in features, output quality, and design. For budget-minded, low- to midvolume offices, however, the X762e could be a good value. Just keep in mind that it's the only MFP in this roundup that doesn't handle tabloid-size paper.

The X762e printed text at a brisk 16.3 ppm and graphics at a pacesetting 4.8 ppm. Its 23.3-ppm copy speed with plain-text documents actually exceeds its spec by a hair. The X762e slowed somewhat copying graphics.