Canon i-SENSYS LBP2900B review

If the evidence of this supertest is anything to go by, mono laser printers are seldom synonymous with style.

Canon has gone for something slightly different with this one, but we weren't sure about the result. Maybe it's the squat boxiness. Maybe it's the silvery grey colour scheme. Maybe it's the transparent lid. Whatever it is, there's something about the i-SENSYS LBP 2900B that reminds us of a breadmaker.

Still, it feels reassuringly solid. The paper input tray, which slides out from the base, is particularly sturdy. Our only real grumble was that it isn't matched by a similarly well built output tray. Instead, there's a flimsy piece of plastic flapping about on the top. We much preferred the integrated output tray of the Samsung (right), which leaves sheets flat and supported, and less likely to curl up when they arrive fresh and warm from the print mechanism.

Another curious, if somewhat inconsequential, niggle is the fact that the printer's USB socket is buried nearly two inches deep in a very narrow recess, making it rather fiddly for larger adult hands to plug in the cable. This is something that'll get your goat each time you rearrange your desk.

Text output from the Canon was decent enough: a little lighter than that of the Samsung, but still dense enough to ensure even the finest strokes on characters remained unbroken. And if anything, we slightly preferred the quality of images produced by the LBP 2900B; at least, images produced at the everyday 600x600dpi setting. The Samsung can stretch to 1200x600dpi if you don't mind waiting for the extra detail.

Unfortunately, our enthusiasm for the Canon's output evaporated during the time we were left waiting to receive it. We assume Canon calculates its quoted 12 pages per minute output rate from the point at which the LBP 2900B actually starts to print its first page, ignoring the initial time taken for the printer to stir itself into action. In our tests, it took 40 seconds from cold for the first page to begin emerging, leading to an overall time of a minute and a half for our 10 page text document. That's more than twice as long as the Samsung, and slower than most inkjets.

It's a fair printer all round, but if speed is among your reasons for contemplating a mono laser, the Canon won't fit the bill.