As far as laser printers go, Canon's i-SENSYS looks pretty stylish. With a curved front and two-toned cream chassis, it's a colour laser you'll want to sit proudly on your desk instead of underneath it. And measuring just 401mm wide, 452mm deep and 262mm tall, it doesn't demand much space.

Canon has opted for a minimalist approach in terms of controls, with just a single button to cancel print jobs sat on the top of the printer. This is joined by a series of LEDs that will alert you to events such as paper jams and low toner. The input tray slides out at the front of the printer and holds a maximum of 150 sheets. Alternatively, you can load single sheets via the feeder just above it.

Loading toner is no problem at all: you simply open the flap at the front and slide out the tray that holds all four cartridges. Round the back you'll find the power and USB sockets. There's no LAN port, nor can you upgrade it to include one at a later stage. If you're after network printing, you'll need to spend £30 extra up front and opt for the LBP5050n.

Canon quotes print speeds of 12ppm in mono and 8ppm in colour. Naturally, these quoted speeds don't include the time it takes to get the first print out. In our tests, the LBP5050 took just under 30 seconds to produce the first page, which isn't too bad. After that, Canon's quoted 12ppm proved to be spot on. It was the same story with colour prints: a 30 second wait for the first page, then 8ppm.

So-called 'starter' toner cartridges are often used to reduce a laser printer's initial purchase price, and the LBP5050 is no different with each of the four cartridges housing enough toner for just 800 pages.

When it comes to purchasing replacements - and it won't take you long if you're printing on a regular basis - Canon sells black toner at £57.50 (2,300 pages) and each of the three colour cartridges at £51.75 (1,500 pages). You'll find these around £10 cheaper if you shop around online. There aren't any other consumables, such as a fuser unit or imaging drum, to worry about replacing.

In terms of quality, text is clean and crisp, and in our test print it was perfectly readable down to 3 pt size. Meanwhile, colours are both bold and bright, although sometimes they did appear a little oversaturated. The LBP5050 made a decent fist of an A4 colour photo we threw at it, although getting closer than 30cm to the print revealed a total lack of fine detail and served as an instant reminder that lasers are still way behind inkjets when it comes to photo printing.

Verdict
At £199, the LBP5050 is one of the cheaper colour lasers on the market and its compact design makes it well suited to the home office. The toner is slightly more expensive than we'd like, although it's not uncommon for printers with low price tags to try to make extra money on consumables. Our only other gripe is that there's no option to add a network module at a later date, so you might want to consider spending the extra £30 and opting for the LBP5050n.

Company: Canon

Contact: 01737 220 000

Tags: laser printer toner canon universal serial bus printer ink cartridge hardware toner cartridge