OKI MB280

OKI MB280

The OKI MB280 from OKI Data Americas comes up against the old adage "timing is everything." A couple of years ago, it would have been an attractive choice at its $300 (street) price. Small and light enough to serve in a micro or home office or as a personal multi-function printer (MFP) in any size office, it offers all the features most people need in a mono laser MFP. Even today, it's a reasonable choice if you look just at the features. Unfortunately, it's a little pricey for what it delivers. The good news first: The MB280 can print and fax from, as well as scan to, a PC, and it can work as a standalone copier and fax machine. It offers a reasonably high input capacity, at 250 sheets, and the scanner includes a 50-page automatic document feeder (ADF) to handle multipage documents. The ADF also lets you scan legal-size pages, which are too big to fit on the flatbed. (If you don't need an ADF or fax capability, you might want to look at the $250 MB260, which lacks those two features but is otherwise identical to the MB280 according to OKI Data.) There's no duplexer and no additional paper handling options available for the printer, but that's not unusual for a low-cost mono laser MFP. More important, 250 sheets should be ample capacity for a personal printer or even a shared printer in most micro offices.