The Canon imageClass LBP6230dw ($169) is a personal monochrome laser printer that is both small enough to share a desk with, and capable enough to serve as a shared printer in a micro office. It delivers an attractive balance of speed, paper handling, and output quality plus the convenience of mobile printing and both Ethernet and Wi-Fi as connection options for a network. If you need an inexpensive, fast monochrome laser for either personal or shared use, make sure you put the LBP6230dw ($109.99 at Amazon) on your must-see list.

One potential issue for the printer is a relatively high running cost, at a claimed 4.1 cents per page. That's about a penny per page higher than the claimed cost for the Samsung Xpress M2825DW ($297.08 at Amazon) , which is our Editors' Choice monochrome laser for light-duty personal or micro-office use, and two cents per page higher than the running cost for the Brother HL-5450DN , which is our preferred pick for moderate to heavy-duty personal or micro-office use.

With a one-cent-per-page difference translating to 10 dollars per 1,000 pages, that's enough to make the total cost of ownership potentially far higher for the LBP6230dw than for the Samsung or Brother model. Depending on how many pages you expect to print, you may or may not consider that a problem.

Basics and Setup

The LBP6230dw offers the same paper handling as the Samsung M2825DW, with a 250-sheet input tray, a one-sheet manual feed, and a duplexer for automatic two-sided printing. This should easily be enough for most personal or micro-office use, but if you need more, you'll have to look elsewhere, since Canon doesn't offer any upgrade options. The Brother HL-5450DN, for example, offers similar paper handling, but with a 50-sheet multipurpose tray rather than the single-sheet manual feed.

Mobile printing support is also somewhat limited. You can print from Android and iOS phones and tablets, but only by connecting to the printer through a Wi-Fi access point on your network. That means the printer has to be connected to the network by Ethernet or Wi-Fi. With the Samsung M2825DW, in contrast, you can connect directly to the printer, which lets you print from a mobile device whether the printer is connected to a network or not.

Setup is standard fare. The LBP6230dw measures just 9.6 by 14.9 by 11.5 inches (HWD), making it easy to find room for, and its light enough, at 16 pounds 11 ounces, for one person to move into place. For my tests, I connected it using its Ethernet port and installed the drivers on a system running Windows Vista.

Speed and Output Quality

Canon rates the LBP6230dw at 16 pages per minute (ppm) printing in duplex, which is the default setting when you install the driver, and 26ppm in simplex (one-sided mode). In my tests, (using QualityLogic's hardware and software for timing), it came it at 10.8ppm for duplex printing and 13.2ppm for simplex, which translates to fast speed either way. Even the duplex speed is faster than the Samsung printer managed for simplex printing, at 9.9ppm, and it ties the Brother HL-5450DN's simplex speed.

See How We Test Printers

The printer's output quality isn't as impressive, but it's more than good enough for most business needs. Text quality is at the low end of the range that includes the vast majority of monochrome lasers. That's high enough quality for most purposes, as long as you don't have an unusual need for small font sizes.

Graphics and photo output is typical for a monochrome laser. For graphics, that translates to being good enough for any internal business need. Most people would also consider it good enough for PowerPoint handouts or the like. Photo quality is roughly on par with photos in newspapers.

If you expect to print enough pages for running cost to matter, be sure to look at both the Samsung M2825DW and the Brother HL-5450DN. Consider how much you'll print, and calculate the total cost of ownership—meaning the initial price plus the running cost—when you make the comparisons. Also be sure to consider whether you need the Brother printer's better paper handling. If running cost isn't an issue, however, and you don't need the Brother printer's additional paper handling, the Canon imageClass LBP6230dw delivers fast printing, along with a more-than-attractive balance of features. The combination can easily make it the right choice.

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