Buying Guide: Small Office AIOs

Some people call them multi-function printers (MFPs). Others call them all-in-ones (AIOs)—our preferred term. By either name, theyre the cost- and space-saving solution for any office that needs a printer, copier, and some combination of a scanner, standalone fax machine, e-mail sender, and more. But with every manufacturer free to mix and match the features on this list, the trick is to pick the right mix for your office. And were here to help.

Start by considering whether or not you need color output. Dont make the mistake of looking just at your print output. Even if you never need to print anything in color, consider whether you can benefit from copying in color. Making color copies yourself is a lot cheaper than paying a copy shop to do it for you, which means the extra cost of color can quickly pay for itself.

If you need color, skip over the ink jet choices and go right to color lasers unless you are looking for a personal AIO for just one persons desktop, rather than a shared AIO for the office. Few ink jets can match even the slowest laser for speed—no matter what their ratings claim. And they simply dont print edges on text characters with the kind of crisp, professional look that you can expect from virtually any laser.

Two features youll almost certainly want on any office AIO are a network connection, to let you share the printer easily, and an automatic document feeder (ADF) to scan multipage documents for copying, faxing, or scanning to your PC or e-mail.

Depending on the kind of documents youre likely to scan, you might want to insist on a duplexing ADF, which can scan both sides of each page. And while were on the subject of duplexing, regardless of whether you need duplex scanning or not, also consider whether you need duplex printing. This will typically let you both print on both sides of the page and copy to both sides. Even better, AIOs with both duplex printing and duplex scanning will add copy options that let you create your choice of single- or double-sided copies from either single- or double-sided originals.

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