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Epson’s Aculaser CX21NF is a large and heavy workgroup colour laser, and the most expensive printer here. High-yield toners make it cheap to run, and with a 500-sheet paper tray and a 45,000-page duty cycle, it can serve the needs of a small office or a one-man operation with heavy printing requirements easily. The installation disc doesn’t work properly under Vista, but you can explore it to find and install the drivers. Alternatively, you can download the latest versions from Epson’s website. Buttons on the front allow you to switch between copy, scan, fax and maintenance modes. This system is clear and easy to use, but we would have liked the option to make copies by pressing a single button. Changing toner cartridges can be tricky if you want to remove them before the end of their lifespan. Only one cartridge can be reached at a time and you’ll have to use the built-in menus to rotate the one you want into reach. The CX21NF printed our mixed-colour document at a steady 4.8ppm. Print quality was excellent. Colour charts and illustrations were rich, solid and intense, without a visible grain. Photo-quality images were smoothly shaded with realistic reproduction of skin tones and natural colours. Mono text was of a high quality and printed at 22.1ppm; the fastest of the three colour laser printers here. The 600dpi scanner captured fine detail well, and low-resolution document scans produced sharp and legible text. Some photos were a little dark, but Epson’s powerful scanner driver provides all the tools to make any corrections you require. Photocopies were also a little dark, but this was easily corrected.
The CX21NF has an incredibly low mono cost of 1.1p and mixed-colour costs of just 5.6p, making this one of the most economical printers around. Its TCO for three years of medium use is just £1,359. Combined with outstanding print quality and fast print speeds, the CX21NF earns its Best Buy award, although users who need an automatic duplexer should look at Lexmark’s X544dn.
