Labs

Dell's M5200n is the most expensive printer in this group, but it doesn't feel like it. Some of its plastics feel flimsy, and its 100-sheet multipurpose tray doesn't feel solid. It has suitably heavy-duty specifications for workgroup use, but its black plastics and sloping design don't make it look like a business product.

The M5200n was the hardest printer in the group to set up. Dell's installation program doesn't search for it on the network, and requires that you specify the printer's IP address.

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It isn't too difficult to assign one using the printer's control panel, or print off a report showing details of a DHCP lease, but even when armed with this information the setup process failed twice. It seemed the problem was caused by the proprietary print port created by the installation software. We manually added a custom TCP/IP print port with the M5200n's address and assigned this to the printer, which immediately sprang into life. We experienced no further problems, but our troubleshooting took more than 30 minutes.

Despite having the fastest engine speed in our group, several printers were quicker than the M5200n in our tests. Samsung's ML-3561N managed to outpace it when printing text. Print quality was acceptable at 600dpi, but switching to 1,200dpi output halved the engine's speed.

This printer was the slowest in the group when printing from sleep mode. Its print engine made a regular clunking noise, which only abated as paper passed through it. This was particularly noticeable when printing envelopes, although these were at least crease-free and correctly aligned.