Konica Minolta Magicolor 5550 review

Compared to portable – well, luggable – photo printers like the PictureMate 240, the Minolta is a behemoth. The hulking chassis holds not inkjet photo-printing kit but an office-ready laser, and its forte is bulk rather than beauty. 

In fact, Konica claim it’s good for up to 120,000 pages a month, which leaves every other printer in this top 10 for dead. 

Quantity doesn’t mean low quality

Unsurprisingly for an office machine, text output is very good, but it’s surprisingly good at producing colour prints too. 

While laser toner and plain paper mean that proper photo prints aren’t an option, graphics on plain A4 look extremely impressive – and Pictbridge support means you can print straight from a USB stick, camera or CF card via the built-in slot. 

It can pump images out at quite a rate, too, making it ideal for small business or a home office – if said office needs to produce that much paper.  

No wireless for this brute

While it’s designed to added to a company network, with built in wired network ports (wireless needs a third-party accessory), there’s still good old USB to connect it to a single PC if required. 

You could also do with a hefty table to put it on, and possibly something to hide its vast black-and-cream bulk behind. But at least you won’t have to worry about noise: while hardly whisper-quiet, it’s a good deal more subtle than the clanking, calcified number down at your office.