Common Features
Before purchasing any product, ask your dealer for a “side by side comparison” with the “old” product you use today. Then ask any other dealer you’re considering to do the same with every other product they propose. This will bring the differences between each model into clear focus.
Alternatively, the Buyers Lab bliQ website allows you to compare MFPs head to head. We’ll touch on a few of the common features in this section, but recommend that you look at our more extensive list before making a purchase.
Beyond low-end printers and copiers, almost all the products you look at should copy and print; many will also be able to scan. Don’t assume that just because a product has a feature, that this feature is well implemented or easy to use.
For example, not all 30 copy per minute (“CPM”) copiers produce at or close to their advertised speed. A 30 CPM device may produce much lower volumes when copying versus printing, for larger jobs vs. smaller jobs, for duplex (two sided) output vs. simplex.
Buyers Lab can help you choose the right machine by offering productivity data for many MFPs on the market today (ask your dealer for a BLI report, or purchase a subscription to bliQ). Make sure that the product you buy provides you with the speed you need for the types of jobs most important to you.
Beyond speed, most users should start their investigation on a few key questions:
1. What media types and sizes does the device print or copy on, and does it fit the requirements of your group?
2. How well does the product perform basic job management tasks?
3. How well does it connect to the wired world and how does it turn paper into electronic documents?
Media/Output
- How many paper sources are there and what is their capacity?
- Do you need a bypass tray, which can generally handle paper weights and types (e.g. envelopes) that can’t be fed through the main paper drawers?
- Do you need adjustable paper drawers to handle different sizes of paper, such as ledger (11" x 17") stock?
- Do you need your product to handle very heavy paper weights or overhead transparencies?
Make sure your product has a paper capacity that is large enough so it won’t run out of paper several times a day, and handles the media you need to print/copy to.
Job Management
Can several jobs be set up at once or even programmed into memory if they are done repetitively?
Can jobs be interrupted so another job can be completed before the original job is resumed?
- Is it easy to set up sets, go from one- to two-sided output, reduce/enlarge originals and output, or preview jobs to reduce waste (and can these jobs be programmed/remembered)?
- Does it offer accounting features for cost control and allocation?
- Does it offer toner saver modes and energy saver modes, default to duplex and have other environmental and cost-saving features?
The hard disk drive also has an impact on job management features. The drive lets users store digital documents directly on the MFP, which is especially convenient when storing documents that are printed or copied often, such as presentations and forms.
The higher the hard drive capacity, the more documents can be stored. Also make sure you have enough Random Access Memory (RAM) to process copy and print jobs without interruption. If you find the machine pausing too often when processing large or detailed copy jobs, chances are you need to upgrade the RAM.
Connections: Paperâ–ºElectronic
Many copier-based MFPs include a basic scanning capability. This lets users convert paper documents to electronic files that can be placed on their PC desktops, or to the machine’s hard disk, or sent to an e-mail, fax, or to a URL address (which allows people to access the document without having to download large files to their computers).
This is very useful for archiving, sharing and transmitting files, especially those that contain graphics, handwritten text or other non-text elements. Fax capability is also included with some MFPs (though it’s usually offered as an option). If you intend to use your MFP for a lot of scan-to-e-mail jobs, you’ll also want LDAP support. This allows the MFP to search the corporate intranet for specific e-mail addresses when users scan documents. Without LDAP capability, the device can only scan to addresses stored in its address book, or manually entered at the control panel by a user.
Ethernet connectivity is typically included. Some devices also offer USB connectivity, which lets users make prints of documents by plugging into a USB port on the machine. Wireless connectivity is sometimes available as an option.