Lab

Mono laser printers

Let's admit it: it's hard to get excited about laser printers. Inkjets, sure - with their glossy, colourful, photo-quality prints, they can't help turning heads. But think about lasers and you probably picture a grey box that sits in a corner churning out boring business documents all day long. Not only is it dull, but it costs hundreds of pounds, while inkjets just get cheaper and cheaper.

But hold on. Inkjets may have appealing price tags, but after a few hundred pages - or maybe only a few dozen photos - you'll need to replace the ink cartridges, which don't come cheap. And while top-end lasers can be expensive, personal models have been falling in price - right down into two figures. Once you've got a laser up and running, it'll keep plugging along for thousands of pages before demanding a new toner cartridge.

So while the upfront investment may be greater, when it comes to running costs a laser printer can put inkjets to shame. If you print more than a few pages a week, it's actually a pretty smart choice - even if you already have an inkjet.

Lasers in this price range are black-and-white only, so you won't be able to run off your holiday snaps. But colour lasers aren't great for photos anyway, and mono models are ideal for text-heavy documents. A good laser will give you perfectly crisp characters every time, while inkjet text can be smudgy and uneven by comparison. When it comes to longer documents, the speeds achieved by even lesser lasers leave inkjets in the dust.

Stationery stars

And there's more. While that corporate heritage may not be sexy, it means lasers are generally built to survive the rigours of the office and equipped with useful grown-up features such as double-sided (duplex) printing. True, budget models sometimes compromise in these areas, but that still leaves them ahead of most inkjets. Although none of the printers on test was equipped with an Ethernet port, several are available with networking as an option, allowing you to plug them into a router and share them with all the computers in your home or office.

So, even if you've never considered a laser before, it's well worth considering today's affordable models. But which is the right one for you? You won't be surprised to learn that not all personal laser printers are created equal. Some manufacturers really deliver on the technology's potential; others, as Borat might say, not so much. This month we put seven contenders through their paces, comparing print speed, output quality, features and, naturally, value for money. Pick the right one and you'll get fast, high-quality mono printing for a long time to come, and you'll be quids in too.