High-end MFDs 

Toshiba eStudio 230 

If you need a heavy-duty MFD that also supports A3 printing and copying, then check out the e-Studio 230. The unique thing about it is its modularity that allows you to add lots of functions to it as and when you need them. The sad part is that you have to shell out extra for every additional component. In fact, for a base price of Rs 195,000, you get a printer, copier,
and fax functions. You have to pay extra for scanning. Another optional, but unique feature of this unit is the number of finishing operations it supports. For instance, what do you do after printing a booklet? You will hunt for a stapler.The e-studio does this, including central saddle stitching and paper folding. Job separator trays facilitate easy organization of your documents. The eStudio 230 has a comprehensive LCD touch screen display panel that's very easy to use. Another useful feature is its embedded e-Filing system that allows you to save documents directly onto the eStudio 230 unit.
These saved documents can then be printed or even distributed. You can also password protect your documents. On the performance front, the MFD lives up to its rated print speed of 23 PPM. It gave faster graphics printing speeds than HP's 4345. It took only 17 secs to print a full-page monochrome graphic in best mode, while HP took 27 secs. Print quality was equally impressive. Copying speeds also lived up to its rated claim of 23 cps. While the e-Studio 230 has impressive performance specs and it lives up to them, they're lower than HP's 4345 MFP. 

RQS# E20 or SMS 130820 to 9811800601

HP LaserJet 4345mfp 

If you're looking for a heavy duty MFD, then this workhorse is a good choice. It has a duty cycle of 200,000 pages per month. Its rated print speed is 45 ppm, which it easily lived up to in our tests. It has an easy to use comprehensive touch screen LCD display, just like the e Studio, which allows you to operate the unit independent of a PC. It allows secure printing over the network, wherein it lets you create virtual mailboxes for every user. These are protected by a 4-digit PIN. 

So when a user fires a print command, it lands in his/her virtual mailbox. You can then walk up to the printer, enter his PIN and take the print. The printer has a 20 GB HDD for storage. It even has an option for Quick Copy prints, which stores your print jobs for later processing. A user can then fire these prints directly from the control panel at any time. The printer has excellent manageability features. It has an embedded Web server that enables one-to-one device management and remote diagnostics tasks. You can send e-mail alerts, do job tracking and accounting with this front end. It also allows you to view status information of the device, set tray loads and configurations, set network configurations, view and print internal pages and receive status notifications without even having to go to the control panel.

Lastly, the price tag of Rs 176,700 is the icing on the cake. A performance workhorse with great manageability features at this price tag is definitely worth considering, especially when you compare it to the e Studio price. Plus, the printer comes with a one-year onsite warranty as against Toshiba's three months or 50,000 copies. 

RQS# E21 or SMS 130821 to 9811800601