The Canon Color imageClass MF729Cdw ($599) is a color laser multifunction printer (MFP) that provides a good set of features for a small or micro office, or small workgroup. It has decent speed and output quality, though with better text than graphics, and a wide range of connectivity choices. It's a particularly good choice if your business requires PostScript printing.

Design and Features
The MF729Cdw can print, copy, scan, and fax both single- and double-sided documents, and print from a USB thumb drive or a mobile device. It can also scan to a USB thumb drive, a network folder, or a PC, and can work as a standalone fax machine or send faxes from a PC.

Measuring 18.9 by 17 by 19.2 inches (HWD) and weighing 63 pounds without cartridges or 68 pounds with the toner cartridges in place, you will have to place the MF729Cdw on a table or bench of its own. Its front panel sports an alphanumeric keypad for entering fax numbers and other information, a 3.5-inch color touch screen, and buttons identified by both words and icons, including Home, Back, Color (scan), Black (scan), and Stop. A spot on the panel labeled NFC lets you print from compatible mobile device placed in close proximity to it. The front panel points upwards and doesn't tilt forward, so you don't want to place the printer on too high a surface or the panel may be hard to read. The port for the USB thumb drive is on the front of the printer to the right of the output tray, just below the front panel.

In addition to a letter-size flatbed, the MF729Cdw includes a 50-sheet duplexing automatic document feeder (ADF) that lets you copy, scan, or fax both sides of multipage documents at up to legal size. It first scans one side of a document, flips it over, and then scans the other side. A 250-sheet main paper tray and a 50-sheet multipurpose feeder are standard, as is an automatic duplexer for printing on both sides of a sheet of paper. In fact, the printer is set by default to two-sided printing, a paper-saving move that we've been seeing on many laser printers from major manufacturers recently. An optional second 250-sheet paper tray ($199) is available from Canon.

The MF729Cdw has Ethernet, USB, and 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi connectivity. In addition, it can connect directly to a compatible mobile device using either Wi-Fi Direct or NFC. Mobile protocols and services supported include Apple AirPrint, Mopria Print Service, Canon Print Business, and Google Cloud Print.

The printer comes with a Canon host-based (UFR II) driver, plus PCL5c, PCL6, and PostScript 3 drivers. Some businesses rely on PostScript printing, and for them a PostScript driver is essential. The extra drivers are the only significant difference between the MF729Cdw and the Canon Color imageClass MF726Cdn. If it comes down to a choice between the two, go with the MF729Cdw if you need to print in PostScript. If not, you can save some money with the Canon MF726Cdw.

The OKI MC362w, our Editors' Choice color multifunction printer for a small or micro office, also includes PCL and PostScript drivers. The OKI MC362w and the MF729Cdw have similar feature sets. The OKI MC362w has a slightly larger paper capacity, while the MF729Cdw offers direct, peer-to-peer mobile printing via Wi-Fi Direct or NFC, and it also has higher color costs. The MF729Cdw has better photo quality, while the OKI MC362w has better graphics quality, and for most businesses, graphics are more important than photos.

Performance
Rated at 10 pages per minute (ppm) in its default duplex mode, the MF729Cdw printed our business applications suite (as timed with QualityLogic's hardware and software) at 5.1ppm, a good clip for its rated speed if not its price, and unsurprisingly, almost the same speed as its near-twin, the Canon MF726Cdn (5ppm). In ad-hoc testing in simplex mode, the MF729Cdw was somewhat faster (6.4ppm) than when printing in duplex. Rated speeds are based on text-only printing, while our test suite includes text documents, graphics documents, and documents with mixed content. The OKI MC362w turned in a speed of 5.9ppm, while the Brother MFC-L8850CDW, rated at 32ppm, zipped through our tests at 8.6ppm.

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Output Quality and Costs
Overall output quality in testing was average for a color laser, with slightly above-par text, graphics that were a bit subpar, and average photos. The MF729Cdw's text should be fine for any business use, except those requiring very small fonts.

With graphics, colors are bright and well saturated for the most part. The test pages had more than their share of mostly minor problems. One graphic meant to show a steady gradation in tone between different zones showed almost no differentiation. In a couple of diagrams, thin, colored lines were nearly lost. One illustration showed a slight misregistration, a misalignment between two graphic elements. The graphics should be okay for most internal business use, but I'd hesitate to use them for formal reports, let alone PowerPoint handouts. Photos should be fine for printing out webpages or for company newsletters.

Running costs for the MF729Cdw, based on Canon's prices and yield figures for toner and other consumables, are 2.9 cents per monochrome page and 16.7 cents per color page. The MF729Cdw's color cost, in particular, is a bit on the high side. The OKI MC362w's running costs are 2.8 cents per monochrome page and 13.9 cents per color page.

Conclusion
With the Canon Color imageClass MF729Cdw, you get a color laser MFP with solid speed and a good range of mobile-printing features. Its higher color costs and slightly subpar graphics leave it a bit short of the Editors' Choice OKI MC362w overall, but it's still a fine choice, especially if your business needs to print PostScript files and/or relies on mobile printing.