Multi-Function Devices Buying Guide

• What is a multi-function device?
• Before you start looking around
• Downsides
• What to expect
• Other important considerations:
• Extra features
• Questions to ask / considerations

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What is a multi-function device?

A multi-function device (MFD) -- sometimes called a multi-function printer -- copies, prints, scans, and faxes all from one physical unit. Most MFDs should allow you to carry out more than one of these tasks simultaneously. As either laser or inkjet printers, MFDs will print photos and a variety of other document types. Some print in colour while others only print in black and white. They all have various features and networking options and range hugely in price from just over $100 right up to $1000. Quality is fairly similar across the price range, although the high-end devices tend to be faster, have colour printing, and also more networking and office functionality.

In the home, you would look at an MFD to save upfront cost and space if you plan to carry out a combination of faxing, scanning, printing (both photos and documents) and copying on a regular basis. As more households acquire broadband connections and transform into "digital homes", scanning will play a bigger role, requiring residents to seek a combination of printers and scanners in order to print and share their photos and documents. With their own memory, MFDs have the ability to store documents and send them straight to e-mail, becoming intercommunication portals. When looking for more than one device, an MFD is a tempting option.

It's ideal for business and enterprise to look to MFDs as a way to increase productivity, streamline tasks and potentially decrease their costs (for example, only leasing one unit instead of three.)

As you are effectively buying three or more devices in one, there are many factors to consider in purchasing an MFD. This guide will help you think about different features you may want in a device, and suggest some important considerations to cover before making your purchase.

Before you start looking around

When hunting around for an MFD for the home or the office, ask yourself what sort of functionality you require. Maybe you don't need a fax machine? Maybe a card reader is not required? Maybe you don't need a network adapter? Asking yourself these sorts of questions will narrow down your search for a machine and will also allow you to save money by not purchasing an extravagant device.

It is also a good idea, before you start looking, to estimate the maximum number of pages per month that you need to print, and buy a printer that can handle that workload. As a rough guide, for home offices 10,000 pages per month is more than sufficient, and small offices up to 20,000 pages per month. Printers that are networked and shared will need to have the capability to produce 50,000 pages or more per month, depending on the size of the network.

Also, consider whether you want an inkjet or a laser device. Inkjets will be cheaper and do a better job on photos but lasers are generally faster and have better overall print quality, making them the logical choice for business.

Downsides

There are several commonly perceived downsides to multi-function Devices. At the top of this list is quality. Many feel that although an MFD can perform multi tasks, the quality of those tasks is compromised. Vendors assure that the technology has evolved to the point where this is no longer the case. halfvalue testing has indicated that most MFDs (especially laser ones) match or nearly match standalone devices in terms of print speed, but print and scan quality can vary. While some MFDs match standalones in quality and speed, others don't, but overall the performance gap has narrowed.

Security becomes more of a concern when the machine is widely networked and used to scan and store documents that are sensitive to business. These concerns though are mostly hang-ups from the past as the technology has improved vastly in the last five years and security features and standards have been enhanced.

The third major downside to a MFD is the vulnerability of having all your eggs in one basket. If one part stops working, you can lose the other functions too. While it's true that if the printer breaks, you will generally not be able to photocopy, most MFDs are designed so that you will still be able to scan. In addition, most devices aimed at business "phone home" when there is a fault, bringing the service guys knocking at your door before you even realise there's a problem. But this isn't always the case so it's important to check what the service arrangements for your device are. Most devices also e-mail you if anything is broken or running low (ink, toner, paper, staples etc) so you can fix it, and/or redirect tasks to other devices, before it escalates into a bigger issue.

A note on speed: Speed, being the main weapon in the marketing war among vendors, is often one of the first specs you will see in any advertisement for a device. This war has unfortunately escalated so far that it has yielded utterly meaningless rated print speeds. Vendors frequently cite ratings based on printing only the simplest text documents, or printing in draft mode, and many don't even include the time it takes for the PC to send a job to the printer. To further confuse the issue, laser and inkjet speeds are measured and quoted differently. In any case, claimed speeds are frequently two, three, or more times the speeds you'll see in real-world printing.

Speed is an issue in an office environment -- especially if there are peak printing times where you need to meet deadlines, such as monthly reports. If speed is important to you, don't just go on what the advertising material tells you. Either test the device yourself or read independent reviews and make sure you ask the vendor how the speed specification has been determined. Ask whether the specification includes the time it takes the PC to send a job to the printer, or the time it takes the printer to read a memory card.

Although speed (especially for photo printing) has become a lot faster in the last year, there is still substantial difference between devices. Despite what vendors may claim, you could rarely expect to print a full-colour A4 photograph in less than five to 10min with most devices taking around 10-15min. Don't be surprised, however, if you have to wait for up to half an hour for some of the cheaper or older models.

It's also handy to look for a device with a number of modes for speed versatile document printing - eg, extra fast, fast, normal, fine, extra fine.

A final note about speed is that you can normally expect it to be compromised when you are networking the device, when it is carrying out more than one task simultaneously or there is a descreening feature on the scanner. (See note on descreening below)

What to expect

What to expect from an MFD printer

Note: these are real figures based on halfvalue testing. Print time includes the time from when the print command is first given until the print job is completed. Scan time includes the time it takes to preview as well as scan. Tested printer speeds are done on optimal vendor-specified settings.

Laser:
 

• Claimed speeds: 18-22ppm monochrome
• Tested speeds: 15.1-16.9ppm text
• Tested speeds: 2.4-8ppm greyscale graphics

Inkjet:
 

• Claimed Speeds: 18-22ppm monochrome
• Tested speeds: 4.7-7.7ppm text
• Claimed Speeds: 12-14ppm in colour, standard mode
• Tested speed: 0.9-1.4ppm colour graphic

What to expect from an MFD scanner

Laser:
 

• Maximum Optical scan resolution: 600x600dpi-600x2400dpi
• Scan colour bit depth (external): 24bit
• Scan speed 100dpi colour: 18-40 secs
• Scan speed 300dpi black and white: 13-33 secs

Inkjet:
 

• Maximum Optical scan resolution: 600x2400dpi-1200x2400dpi
• Scan colour bit depth (external): 24x28bit
• Scan speed 100dpi colour: 15-28sec
• Scan speed 300dpi black and white: 21-35sec

What to expect from an MFD copier

Laser:
 

• Black and white copy speed: 4.7-6ppm

Inkjet:
 

• Black and white copy speed: 2.1-3.6ppm

What to expect from an MFD fax

Laser:
 

• Rated fax speed: 33.6Kbps
• Maximum fax resolution: 300-1200dpi
• Fax memory (pages): up to 900

Inkjet:
 

• Rated fax speed: 33.6Kbps
• Maximum fax resolution: 200dpi
• Fax memory (pages): 200

Other important considerations

Other issues you might like to examine include noise, cost, connectivity and ease of use. Some of these issues will be more important to you than others.

If you are planning to buy an inkjet MFD, you may also want to look for a model that has separate ink cartridges for each colour. Inkjet running costs can get quite high, especially if regular photo printing is required and separate ink cartridges will allow you to replace ink on a per colour basis. Depending on your usage, this could turn out to be a little cheaper, but more about this later.

Other things to consider are paper handling capacity and automatic document feeders. A machine with a large paper tray or even dual paper trays will allow you to print a larger amount of documents without worrying about constantly re-filling the trays. An automatic document feeder is usually found on machines that have a fax-modem built in, and allows for multi-page documents to be photocopied or scanned without having to place each sheet in the scanner flatbed individually. These features are more pertinent to machines that will be situated in offices.

Likewise, speed will be an issue in an office environment where more than a couple of users share the same machine.

Find out how much the claimed speed is reduced when two tasks are happening at the same time. That is, for example, when the device is printing and faxing simultaneously.

Noise can also be a factor when using one of these machines, but the good news is that their mechanisms are getting quieter, especially on more expensive models.

Noise

Noise may be a factor if you are in a home or small office environment.

Smooth roller, paper feed and paper eject mechanisms contribute to a device with lower noise emission. In addition, some devices will have ink tanks that instead of being fitted to a moving print head are fitted to the actual body of the machine. Ink is transferred from the ink tanks to the moving print head via a tube system. This keeps the print head's weight to a minimum, which reduces noise and vibration caused by the side-to-side motion of the print head. Although devices with this feature might be quieter overall, this is not necessarily the case if the paper feed mechanisms, rollers and even the print head, are all still noisy. Some devices will make annoying beeping sounds as "messages" for different tasks being completed, and if this "feature" cannot be turned off, it will be a contribution to the general noise emission from the device.

Other than considering these points, it is hard to determine how noisy a device is without trialling it yourself or reading independent reviews first.

Ease of use

Ease of use will probably be an important consideration, especially if the device is to be used by a number of people with varying technical skills. Ease of use can be somewhat up to personal preference in terms of where you like control buttons to be placed, how large you require them to be and where you like them to be arranged. Shortcut buttons can definitely help in using the machine quickly, but too many can actually be confusing.

It's a good idea to make sure that there are rising hinges on the scanner lid, or that it is removable, so that you can copy from thick books. Also, if you plan to copy from books make sure that the control buttons are located in such a way that they do not accidentally get pressed if half a book is hanging down over them.

Devices with integrated memory card readers on the front of the unit win points for ease of use if you plan to print photos. A large and clear LCD panel is also a helpful feature making it easier to navigate the control panel and also view photos and documents from your memory card or other storage device.

Many MFDs are now designed to be easy to use as standalone devices without the need to be plugged in to the PC. This is useful if you want flexibility, portability, ease of use and quick set up.

The accompanying software interface on the PC will vary in terms of user friendliness and efficiency. Look for a point and click interface which allows as many tasks as possible. At the very least, it should enable you to easily manage documents, scan, print, copy and fax.

Connectivity

You will find that multi-function devices will often offer some degree of multi-connectivity. Obviously, the more connection options available, the more flexibility you have in how you use the device. Check that the device you purchase suits your specific needs. For example, if your camera supports PictBridge, make sure the device does too. If you want to network the device, check the number and type of ports (eg, Ethernet, USB, wireless) the device will support.

Often devices will have either PictBridge or built in memory card -- some will have both for extra versatility. Media card slots should accept a combination of Compact Flash, Smart Media, Memory Stick, MemoryStickPro, Secure Digital and xD Picture Card formats.

If you want to print wirelessly you will have to make sure there is a built-in wireless network adapter in addition to a 10/100 Ethernet port and that it will work on existing 802.11b or 802.11g networks.

You may want to read and write to a number of formats including Zip drives, CD/DVD burners, and USB flash drives.

Check that the device has the option of adding adapters for additional ports if they are not supported. Some devices for example, will supply a Bluetooth adapter so that you can print from mobile devices and PDAs.

A final point on connectivity is that you may want to check the location of the ports, and the subsequent likelihood of cables being disconnected by accident.

Security

This will only be an issue for high volume devices that are to be used in business environments. The more widely networked the machine is, the higher the security threat to information and assets.

If buying a MFD for the office, try to find one that addresses all the different possible security issues including illegal access, theft, spoofing, falsification, computer viruses, and operation mistakes.

Security standards and features you might look for include:

• ISO15408: This is an International Security Standard that evaluates IT security of a product or system. It includes security functions and service.
• BS7799: Another international standard which evaluates a company's information security management system to various levels.
• ISMS: Information Security Management Systems Standard -- another internationally recognised standard that verifies the company/vendor has systems in place to protect client information and is providing a secure infrastructure/product.
• Authentication features: You may want a number of password-protected authentications including: Standard Windows authentication and LDAP authentication. Lightweight Directory Access Protocol is a software protocol for enabling anyone to locate organisations, individuals, and other resources such as files and devices in a network.
• Encryption: This might be SNMP encryption or encryption of the address book or at the driver level or a combination of all.
• Data overwrite facility: Overwriting of data means replacing previously stored data on a drive or disk with a predetermined pattern of meaningless information. This is an accepted and effective means of rendering data unrecoverable but the process must be correctly understood and carefully implemented. If data is "successfully" overwritten even a single time, it can be considered as unrecoverable for all practical purposes.

Footprint size

This is probably a somewhat obvious point, as space saving is probably one of the major reasons to consider buying an MFD, but looking at the dimensions of a device may help you narrow down your options. One aspect that saves space is having input and output paper trays located in the bottom of the unit, which does away with the need for long-reaching paper-support flaps.

Warranty

Warranties are always a good sign of a trustworthy vendor -- you should expect a minimum of one year. Some companies will offer additional extensions of up to three years on warranties.

Resolution

Inkjet printers generally have a maximum colour resolution of 2400x1200dpi; newer models boast up to 4800x1200dpi. But even if you plan to print a full-colour 8-by-10 photograph, you're unlikely to see any improvement once you get above 1200x1200dpi, which any inkjet on the market can achieve. In addition, many printers use software to interpolate an image and to smooth out patches of colour, fill in gaps, and sharpen more-detailed sections. The type of toner that a particular laser device uses will also affect the image quality -- the smaller and more uniform the toner particles are, the better and sharper the image. Such enhancements can affect print quality as much as the printer's resolution.

The best way to determine print quality is not to just to look at the resolution specs, but to print out a sample and judge for yourself.

Costs

The bulk of MFDs generally range between $200 and $700, though prices drop fairly quickly. An important consideration is also the cost of ink and per page cost for the device. Laser printers will sometimes be slightly more expensive than inkjet printers, but cost per page will generally be cheaper.

The biggest ongoing cost for inkjets is the cost of the ink cartridges. Vendors generally charge $40 to $70 for multi-colour cartridges (with three to five colours) and $25 to $60 for a separate black cartridge. You would expect to pay around $20 to $30 for individual coloured inks, of which you would need three to five depending on your printer. Usually, the cheaper a cartridge is, the less ink it holds. Yields range from about 300 to 800 pages per cartridge. halfvalue's tests of individual cartridges show that a page of black text can cost from 1-7 cents, and a page of colour, 6-18 cents. Many vendors offer higher-capacity cartridges which although are more expensive contain twice the amount of ink, so they cost less per page.

Toner cartridges will generally cost between $100 and $350 each, but yield over 5000-6000 pages.

As mentioned, some vendors sell models with individual cartridges for each colour instead of one cartridge for all three colours. This is claimed to save you money because you'll save small amounts of ink by replacing cartridges one at a time. In reality, the individual cartridges cost a few dollars more, so per page, the cost can end up about the same, depending on your usage. If you plan to use one colour more than any other, opting for individual cartridges will save you money.

A cost for businesses using MFDs to factor in is downtime. Check the kind of support available for the device, for example, it might "call home" when there is a problem which will make repair time much faster. Also check whether it's possible for one part to continue working if another goes down (eg, will the printer still work if the scanner is having problems). You can also save some dollars if it's possible to upgrade each component of the MFD individually.

Ideally, businesses should be able to save money by buying multi-function devices, though it is important to do your sums and buy the appropriate device to ensure this will be the case. An example of a way business might save cost is to buy a colour MFD (either laser or inkjet) to print and distribute colour documents in-house instead of outsourcing them.

Extra features

OCR: Optical character recognition (OCR) software is sometimes supplied with the machine. This allows you to scan in documents to extract the text for editing. One of the biggest challenges for OCR software is whether it can accurately pick up the characters "r" and "rr" and not confuse them as "t" or "n". A good feature that is sometimes available with OCR software is an interface which allows you to directly compare the scanned text to the original document side-by-side to find any errors.

ADF: An Automatic Document Feeder (ADF) is convenient if you need to frequently fax, copy or scan multi-page documents and don't want to individually feed each sheet. Most ADFs should be able to handle at least 30 pages.

Printing onto CD/DVD surfaces: Some devices on the market will enable this, usually using a special disc-holding tray, which is handy if you want to make CDs and DVDs.

Printing on other surface/media: Other media may include overhead transparencies, labels, stickers, envelopes etc.

Dual paper trays and two paper paths, or an option to add more trays: This feature might be useful for extra capacity in office situations or where large documents need to be printed regularly. Most devices tend to have capacity for 100-150 pieces of paper at any one time in the input tray; with two trays, this capacity is doubled.

Support for different paper sizes and types: 4x6in photo paper, A4, A3 etc and glossy/semi-gloss, matt etc.

Descreening function: This allows you to take out patterns that can be evident when scanning magazine or book images.

Print from an index sheet: If the device has a memory card reader, you may be able to print from an index sheet straight from you memory card. You can then mark the photos that you want to print, scan them back to the device and it will print your selected photographs. This is handy for ease-of-use when printing a number of photos and saves the need to individually select each photo through the PC or control panel.

Scan 3D images (physical objects) with relatively good accuracy.

Scanning directly to a number of different formats eg, PDF/JPEF/TIFF/WORD.

Digitally sending documents or to scan direct to e-mail or particular folders on your PC/network.

Scanning film or slides: This can be handy for photographic enthusiasts though you will invariably lose image quality, and often pick up dust, which will result in a grainy appearance.

Questions to ask / considerations

• How do you plan to use the device? What features are most important? For example, do you plan to distribute documents often? If so, you should make sure that you can easily scan directly to e-mail and folders in a variety of formats. Do you want to print photos? If so, you will probably look to an inkjet device over a laser and one that has photo-editing software bundled with it. Do you plan to network the device? These are the sorts of things to consider first, before you even begin to look around.
• How many sheets can the input tray hold?
• How many sheets can be held in the output area? (While many devices will let you have 100 or more sheets in the input tray, you may only be able to have 10 or 20 in the output tray.)
• How much space will it take up?
• Connectivity: make sure the unit has all the connectivity options that you need -- eg, USB ports, Ethernet, Bluetooth etc.
• Card readers: can it read a variety of media, or just one type?
• Driver/accompanying software: You may want to check the interface and functionality of the driver and supporting software. Is it limiting in the amount of control it enables you? Does it have all the functionality you desire? For example, can you print long documents in reverse order? Can you set up user accounts/profiles for the device and limit access to particular features? Can it identify different images on the same page and automatically scan them into separate files? How easy is it to change default the settings? Can you scan to multiple destinations? How much memory will it take up? Some scanners use very basic TWAIN drivers which do not allow much to be changed and don't allow you to descreen the image, but these can often be more "user friendly" as a result.
• How much memory does the printer have? A printer with more memory can handle more print jobs at one time and can often get through a work queue faster. This is especially important if a printer is shared among multiple users on a network, and where the device is almost a server in the network. You may want to store documents there for future printing. If you do plan to use your device in this way, the security features that come with the device become more important.
• What service support is provided?
• What applications will it support? Not all MFDs will work with Linux or Adobe applications for instance.
• Will the MFD work with multiple OS platforms - eg, Windows, OS X, Linux etc?
• Is the device future-proof? That is, where you are now may not be where you will be in a few years, and will the device enable future applications?

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