Dell Laser Printer 1720dn

For $150 or thereabouts, the 1720dn offers great capabilities for the cost: 1200x1200 resolution, up to 30 ppm output speed, a duty cycle of up to 25,000 pages per month and a small enough footprint to make itself at home in small and home office environments. Its dimensions are 15.59" x 13.58" x 10.0" (39.6cm x 34.5cm x 25.4cm) and it weighs just 25.1 lbs (11.4 kg). It's not bad-looking, either.

Another black monolith with paper tray below, manual feed slot at middle, the 1720dn isn't too bad looking, all-in-all.

The 1720dn comes with a 250-sheet primary drawer, but a 550 sheet optional input drawer is also available ($100). An imaging drum is available for those who want to print high-quality graphics or halftones. The unit comes equipped with 16 MB of RAM, along with a single-memory slot that can accommodate up to 128 MB of optional memory. An optional wireless adapter is available for this printer as well ($99).

Consumables for the 1720dn come in several varieties. In the return toner cartridge program (where users ship cartridges back when they're used up) 3,000 page standard black toner cartridge goes for $70 and a high-capacity 6,000 page cartridge goes for $170. Add $30 to the standard cartridge and $40 to the high-capacity cartridge if you don't elect the return program option.