Canon LaserShot LBP-5000 review

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Verdict:

The LBP-5000fs slow mono printing means it isn't ideal for long text documents: the AcuLaser C1100 was three times faster on our Draft speed test. However, its low price and reasonable running costs make it a good choice if you want a cheap and rapid colour printer.

Review Date: 15 Mar 2007

Price when reviewed: £155

Supplier: http://www.amazon.co.uk

Reviewed By: Simon Handby

Our Rating 4 stars out of 5

User Rating

At just £155, Canon's LaserShot LBP-5000 is the cheapest colour laser printer we've ever reviewed.

Unlike most entry-level colour laser printers it's a single-pass device, but it produces mono or colour output at a maximum speed of only eight pages per minute (ppm).

The LBP-5000 is fairly compact, and arrives with its consumables fitted. The installation program is fast and painless, despite a warning that you can't stop it once it has started.

Though the LBP-5000fs rated print speed is modest, the printer came very close to it in our timed tests. In colour it comfortably outpaced even Epson's Aculaser C1100, which is the fastest of the four-pass printers in this group. We were quite impressed with the results, too. Black text had very crisp outlines and no visible stepping. We saw serrations in the vertical outline of large, blue headline text, though.

Colour accuracy was much better than we've seen from recent Canon colour lasers, but photos were a little cool and some prints looked distinctly blue. Colour graphics were very good, although in some solid colour fills we could make out the regular, grid-like pattern of the printerf dithering. It excelled at producing subtly different shades in colour photos and our presentation slides, but our black-and-white test photo showed unnaturally high levels of contrast.

The LBP-5000fs 250-sheet input cassette and single-sheet multipurpose feeder are both marked with the correct orientation for paper and envelopes. You have to insert single envelopes pretty far into the multipurpose slot, but they print immaculately. This is an easy printer to maintain, and it's inexpensive to run, particularly when printing in colour.

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