A mono laser printer for sharing on a home network
Canon’s LBP6230dw costs about £35 more than the most basic black-and-white (mono) laser printers, but in this case it’s money well spent. It claims a top speed of 25 pages per minute (ppm), which isn’t bad, but we’re more impressed by the fact you can share it over a wired or wireless network connection, and that it prints automatically on both sides of a sheet of paper (duplex printing).
The paper input tray, which has a transparent lid to keep dust out, also acts as a single-page bypass feed. This means you don’t need to unload the input tray first if you want to print on an envelope or headed paper. The paper output tray is basic though, and can leave printed pages in an untidy pile. Replacement toner costs about £44 and lasts for around 2,100 pages - a cost per page of roughly 2.1p, which is expensive for a laser.
The printing process was quick in our tests, delivering a first page in nine seconds, and a total of 20 pages in 56 seconds - a fast average of 21.4ppm. Printing graphics was equally quick, while duplex printing produced 20 sides on 10 sheets in one minute 26 seconds. It’s a quiet operator and its barely audible fans stopped a few seconds after printing ceased. Both text and graphics results were excellent, although some photos looked artificial, with too much contrast.
High running costs mean we wouldn’t recommend this printer for heavy-duty use, but it’s still a good buy for occasional printing at home due to its impressive features, quality and speed.
VERDICT: Fast and flexible, this is a great mono printer for light duty in a home or small office.
SPECIFICATIONS
2400x600dpi maximum print resolution • 20ppm mono quoted speeds • USB • WI-FI • One-year warranty