The Dell Laser Printer 1720dn is an adequate laser printer if you're shopping for your home office. This unit fits right into a small-business environment, with support for network printing, output speeds of up to 30 pages per minute and an impressive duty cycle of up to 25,000 pages per month.

The 1720dn works well as a home printer, particularly if you have multiple computers, as so many homes do these days. You can connect the 1720dn directly to a single computer via USB or parallel port, or you can link it to a wired Ethernet network and share it with other computers without dedicating one computer as the host.

The 1720dn doesn't stop at great connectivity options, providing standard equipment that is only found as options on other laser printers in this price range. For starters, this model ships with a generous 32MB of memory (which can be upgraded to 160MB). This is more than most laser printers need, but with its duplex-printing support, the 1720dn puts the extra memory to good use. Duplex printing is a welcome feature, as it saves paper and helps you turn out professional-looking documents.

This laser printer includes a 250-sheet paper tray and a single-sheet multipurpose feeder for envelopes and special paper sizes. An optional 550-sheet paper tray is also available to either supplement the built-in paper tray or hold a second type of paper, such as colored stock or letterhead. If you purchase the extra tray, you won't need to stop to switch out paper stock.

Print quality is about what you'd expect from a mid-price monochrome laser printer. Thanks to the 1720dn's 1,200x1,200 dpi maximum resolution, text and line art generally show good detail and sharp edges, even with very small fonts. Unfortunately, like many midrange models, the quality of grayscale graphics is average at best, with some banding evident.

The Dell Laser Printer 1720dn is a good choice for home office and small business use that is heavy on text and light on graphics.


Pros: Fast printing, network-ready, duplex printing standard, good text output quality
Cons: Mediocre graphics printing

Warranty
1 year, limited