Kyocera Mita FS-C5020N

We've liked the older Kyocera Mita FS-C5016N since we first saw it at the end of 2003. And it won our recent colour laser Labs thanks to frugal running costs and quality prints. The FS-C5020N is its replacement. It's actually the same unit, but comes with an extra 32MB RAM (128MB in total) and costs £166 less.

This makes the C5020N instantly likable. However, Kyocera Mita has changed the shape and cost of the toner cartridges. They still yield 8,000 pages, but the black now costs £54 and the colours £82 each, up from £43 and £66 respectively. The maintenance kit provides hardy consumables like the 200,000-page fuser and image drum, and still costs £439. Running costs have gone up slightly, mono prints now costing 0.89p per page while colour prints cost 3.97p. It's still the cheapest to run compared to the other printers in the Labs test, and mono costs lead the pack.

The increase in RAM gives consistently faster print times, and you can upgrade to 1GB if desired. Mono documents churn out at 14ppm, with our mixed mono/colour documents arriving at 15ppm. Our DTP Word document showed the biggest boost, hitting the output tray at12ppm instead of the C5016N's 8ppm.

These print speeds are particularly impressive considering their excellent quality. Text is - as you'd expect from a laser - perfect. But it's the rich and vibrant colour prints that impressed us, and images are perfectly acceptable for high-impact presentations or quality photos. Prints from the C5020N are some of the best we've seen for a laser.

The 500-sheet input tray minimises paper reloading, while the 100-page front feed is handy for special print jobs up to 70mm wide. The comprehensive print driver is easy to use and profiles can be created for regular complex prints. Coupled with this is the KM-Net software for remote management, including assigning colour print privileges.

Given that the C5020N is essentially a much cheaper C5016N with more RAM, it's no surprise that it goes on our A List. If you want a high-quality colour laser that won't eat your monthly print budget, this is the one. The WLAN unit is still pricey at £299 though, as is the duplexer at £215.