If you are on the hunt for a colour laser printer, then there is probably no better time than now. As Susan Silvius writes in her article in PC World, this is certainly a buyer's market for printers considering the range of printers available at affordable prices. Obviously, laser printers in the sub-$500 range are bound to have their limitations, but on the other side of the coin, printers that are priced at over $1000 offer an amazing feature set.

As to the key things to look for when buying a colour laser printer, Susan has provided quite a few useful tips in her article.  Here are some of the key points she advises printer buyers to look out for:

i. Printer engine speed, measured in pages per minute (ppm):  The faster the printer speed the better it is, at least from a productivity standpoint. However, it is important to remember that seldom do printers give more than 75% of the claimed PPM in real work-situations.

ii. Maximum duty cycle- this is the typical volume of pages that a printer can print per month, and is generally proportional to the price of the printer. Estimate your monthly printing requirements well to buy a printer with the right duty cycle.

iii.  Resolution -- Susan suggests that a resolution of 600-by-600 dpi should be more than good enough for most business needs.

iv. Cost of operation-- closely factor in the total cost of operation of the printer including the cost of consumables. This can be a significant cost item.

v. Paper capacity- see how much paper can be loaded on to the printer and what size/ type of paper. The more the capacity of the paper tray, lesser the time one has to spend in loading paper.

You can read more of Susan's article on tips to buy a laser printer here.