The Dell Color Cloud Multifunction Printer H625cdw ($399.99) is an excellent pick as a medium- to heavy-duty color multifunction printer (MFP) for a small or micro office. It offers a good set of MFP features, solid speed, above-average overall output quality (with particularly good graphics), and a wide range of connectivity choices, including easy access to cloud-based services, even when the H625cdw isn't connected to a computer. The H625cdw offers great value for its price, and is our Editors' Choice.

Design and Features
Physically, the H625cdw is nearly identical to two other recent Dell color laser MFPs, the Dell Color Cloud Multifunction Printer H825cdw and the Dell Smart Color Multifunction Printer S2825cdn. The matte-black H625cdw measures 19.7 by 16.9 by 19.8 inches (HWD), making it too large to share a desk with, and weighs 70 pounds, so moving it into place is a two-person job. Above the output tray is a letter-size flatbed, as well as a 50-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF) that supports single-pass, two-sided scanning. On the left pylon that holds the flatbed and ADF is a port for a USB thumb drive.

In front of the ADF is the front panel, with a 4.3-inch color touch screen, an alphanumeric keypad, and buttons, including Home, Log In/Log Out, Info, Job Status, Wi-Fi, Copy, and several fax-related controls. The contents of the touch screen's Home page are customizable, but by default it includes a tile that takes you to Dell Document Hub, which allows easy access to multiple cloud storage sites from which to print documents or to save documents to, even when the H625cdw is not connected to a computer. Supported cloud services include Box, Dropbox, Evernote, Google Drive, OneDrive, Salesforce (Business, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer editions), and SharePoint Online 2013.

Dell Document Hub's Basic free service supports scanning to or printing from the cloud-based services, while the Premium service (which at present is free) supports scanning documents to searchable PDF or editable Microsoft Office formats, and business cards to vCard format.

The H625cdw has a standard 250-sheet tray plus a 50-sheet multipurpose feeder, and comes with an auto-duplexer for printing on both sides of a sheet of paper. One optional 550-sheet tray ($185.99) can be added, for a maximum input capacity of 850 sheets.

Connectivity is a strong point for the H625cdw. In addition to Ethernet and USB, it includes 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, plus Wi-Fi Direct and NFC, each of which allows a direct, peer-to-peer connection with a compatible mobile device. It comes with both PCL and PostScript drivers.

Performance
I tested the H625cdw over an Ethernet connection with its drivers installed on a printer running Windows Vista. I timed the MFP, which is rated at 16 pages per minute (ppm) for duplex scanning and 25ppm for simplex scanning, at 6.5ppm in its default duplex mode in printing out our business applications suite (using QualityLogic's hardware and software for timing). This essentially ties it with the Dell H825cdw (rated at 19ppm duplex and 30ppm simplex), which scored 6.6ppm, and the Dell S2825cdn, with the same rated and tested speeds as the Dell H825cdw. I timed the Canon Color imageClass MF726Cdw, rated at 10ppm in duplex, at a 5.1ppm clip in that mode.

Although we do our official timings in a printer's default printing mode (simplex or duplex), in ad-hoc testing, I also timed the H625cdw in simplex mode at 7.4ppm. Once again, this is essentially the same speed as the Dell H825cdw and the Dell S2825cdn, both of which I timed at 7.5ppm. The OKI MC362w, another top pick, tested at 5.9ppm in its default simplex mode.

Output Quality
As is the case with speed, the H625cdw's output quality is very similar to that of both the Dell H825dw and the Dell S2825cdn in our testing, with average text quality, above-par graphics quality, and photo quality a tad subpar. Text quality is average for a laser printer, but that is still good enough for any business uses except ones that require very small fonts.

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Graphics are just short of top tier for a color laser. Colors were rich and well saturated in testing. The only issues I noticed were decidedly minor. Very thin, colored lines, though visible, were not as obvious as we've seen with some other printers, and one background looked slightly mottled.

Most of our test photo prints approached true photo quality, at least when viewed at arm's length, though a couple fell short. One showed substantial dithering (graininess), and there was some loss of detail in bright areas in another. Taken together, text and graphics should be fine for marketing handouts and trifold brochures. Photo quality is somewhat hit-or-miss; while some prints should be suitable for marketing materials, others may not be.

Conclusion
The Dell Color Cloud Multifunction Printer H625cdw offers a strong set of MFP features, good speed, output quality that suitable for at least basic marketing materials, and a wide range of connectivity choices, including several wireless printing modes. It sells for a reasonable price for its capabilities. It's faster, has better output quality, and has a wider range of mobile printing choices (including Wi-Fi Direct and NFC) than the OKI MC362w. It's a standout pick as a color MFP for medium- to heavy-duty printing in a small or micro office and is our Editors' Choice.