Canon i-SENSYS LBP6650dn review

Speed is one of the prime differentiators between mono laser printers, particularly when you're considering price. Anything above 20ppm normally attracts a premium and when you get to 30ppm you’re normally looking at a purchase price of several hundred pounds. Canon's i-SENSYS LBP6650dn might break this mould, though, as it's available for well under £200 and, at least on paper, breaks the 30ppm barrier.


This is a neatly styled and unimposing laser printer, which can be positioned on the desk without hogging the whole desktop, or sat on a separate stand, if you want to share it easily among several people.

The flat top of the machine supports a reasonable control panel, with a four-way navigation ring and three separate buttons, including direct selection of the three possible paper sources. There's a black-on-white, backlit, 16-character LCD cocked up at an angle behind these, so it's easily readable.


The three paper sources are a 500-sheet main tray, a 50-sheet, fold-down, multi-purpose tray above this and an optional, second 250-sheet one which can sit underneath. This is about what you'd expect for a workgroup printer.


At the back are sockets for USB and Ethernet, the two data connections provided on the printer, and the power switch is at the bottom front of the right-hand side panel, making it convenient to use.

Physical setup is very easy, as Canon provides a single, integrated drum and toner cartridge, which slots in from the front, once you've dropped down the front panel. Software includes a Canon native driver and one for PCL 5/6, and supports both Windows and OS X, though there's no mention of drivers for Linux.