Dell C1765nfw review

HP’s all-in-one printers have dominated the A-List Business Laser category recently, and for good reason – they offer superb value, quality, speed and features. Dell aims to break this stranglehold, offering a low-cost and speedy LED-based alternative.

Design leaves much to be desired, but this blocky all-in-one covers all the bases. You can print, copy, scan and fax, and connections comprise USB, Ethernet and 802.11bg Wi-Fi. Using the high-yield cartridges delivers a mono page for 2.5p and a full-colour page for 12.5p, which is on a par with other all-in-ones in this price range. Avoid the standard cartridges, though, as these push up costs to almost 5p for mono and 21.5p for colour.

We can’t fault output quality. The LED engine delivers sharp text and detailed mono photos. Colour output is impressive, too, with vibrant photos free of discernible banding.

Speed was a mixed bag. Our 24-page DTP document was delivered at the quoted 12ppm, but we couldn’t achieve the listed 15ppm, even for basic text prints (the printer remained steadfastly stuck at 12ppm).

Copy speed is less impressive. The printer’s ADF took a tedious 3mins 28secs to scan and copy a ten-page document, for a lowly average of 3ppm. Scan quality was high, however.

The printer’s weakest spot is usability: its control panel and tiny mono LCD panel are far less usable than the smart colour touchscreen on the A-Listed HP LaserJet Pro 200 Colour MFP M276n.

Dell can’t match HP’s superb web printing facilities either, such as its ePrintCenter and print app store.

The C1765nfw’s output quality is good, but it will take more than that to push HP off the A-List.