Laser Tag Affordability has finally caught up with performance in laser printers. Does that make you "it"?

Twenty minutes. That's how long it took to get going--fromopening the box until we were printing a test sheet from theSamsung ML-1651N networkable laser printer. Not too shabby. You canexpect to get a good degree of user-friendliness when dealing withmost of the lasers on the market, even when you take the extra stepof tying them into your network. Congratulations, you're onewire away from sharing a printer.

The days of working in an office that looks like an inkjet ranchor spending a Bill Gatesian ransom on a laser printer are gone.Growing businesses can now choose from a herd of affordablemonochrome lasers to meet their workgroup printing needs. Benefitsof going this route include low consumables costs, fast printoutsand robust duty cycles. One disadvantage is lack of color, butthat's still not a requirement for most business printing. Forthe sake of comparison, the one exception in this (rticle is theXerox Phaser 8200. We'll give you more on that later. No matterwhat, a good laser will look like Charles Atlas compared to youraverage inkjet.

As with your choice of computer, you'll want to choose aprinter that meets you at the intersection of budget andperformance. For example, the $1,580 (all prices street) HPLaserJet 4100N has a maximum duty cycle of 150,000 pages per monthand a top speed of 25 pages per minute (ppm). Need more speed? Youcan get the same duty cycle and 35 ppm out of the MINOLTA-QMSPagePro 9100 N for the slightly more attractive price of $1,499.Remember, duty cycles and ppm numbers are like gas mileage-actualperformance and output quality can depend on how hard you driveyour machine. Other specs to look out for are processor speed andmemory. Just as with that PC sitting under your desk, a higherprocessor speed and more memory help boost performance. The amountof RAM, in particular, is an issue when the printer has to keeptrack of multiple print jobs coming in. The MINOLTA-QMS PagePro9100 N comes standard with 64MB of memory and can be upgraded to512MB if you need more.

The printers in our chart all slip in under the $2,000 pricepoint. It's easy to go higher if your business requires fasterprinting times or heavier duty cycles. Most growing workgroups willdo just fine with one of these. For small workgroup applicationswhen price is pressing, you can look into models like the $450Samsung ML-1651N. A small footprint also makes a difference intight workspaces.

There's more to laser printing than just lasers. The XeroxPhaser 8200, for instance, uses solid ink, and the Oki Data OKIPAGE24n uses Digital LED technology to achieve laser-quality prints.These three methods of printing don't necessarily offer anydifference in quality; they're just different. Unless you havea strong preference one way or another, purchase according to priceand features. For example, the Phaser 8200 offers a fairly fastsub-$2,000 alternative if you need color occasionally. It does havethe one trade-off, however, of slower print time.

There's a wide-open world of workgroup printing technologyout there, and the mostly midrange machines in our chart are a goodplace to jump in. Entrepreneurs with more sophisticated printingneeds can explore the realms of high-volume color printers thatvault well over the two-grand mark.

Wireless print servers are hitting the scene as well.Hewlett-Packard, for one, offers the $300 WP110 external printserver for Wi-Fi networks. Expect to see more untethered printingoptions aimed at growing businesses and their wireless workgroups.Wires or no wires, it's all about networking.

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Ready to start putting your printing needs and your budget on theappropriate sides of the scale?