The media card slots and the extensive image software make the 2840 attractive for offices that print lots of photos, but its slowness and mediocre image quality will incline many prospective buyers to steer clear.

HP's LaserJet 4345mfp squeezes the complexity out of buying, maintaining, and using a corporate printer/copier/scanner. It delivers fast performance and good image quality, and it works with a useful assortment of HP paper-handling hardware and workgroup document-management software. Copier aficionados might notice a few missing high-end features, but the 4345mfp provides everything most offices need.

Fuji Xerox's Phaser 8560MFP has a multitude of features to aid small office productivity. With the addition of a competent built-in Web server, this multifunction is a good addition to the office.

The WorkCentre C2424 is a full-featured colour laser multifunction printer that can handle the traffic of a big office, but it produces mediocre output.

The CM3530fs is a decent candidate for small to medium offices, offering good remote administration options and an integrated print server.

The bizhub c200 feels like it was cobbled together out of spare parts, and gives the feel of an unfinished multifunction which never made it past primary testing. With slow printing at low quality and an unusable Web interface, this machine just isn’t sufficient to meet the needs of a medium-sized business.

There is little difference in functionality or capability between the bizhub 421 and 501, so the price difference clearly favours the bizhub 421. Unless every ounce of performance matters, the bizhub 421 is a more reasonable purchase.

Konica Minolta’s bizhub 501 provides adequate functionality for the medium-sized office with fast print speeds and decent remote administration capability. This multifunction is let down by mono scanning, however.