Konica Minolta laser multifunction: more for less

Konica Minolta announced several laser printers that promise to bundle more functions and speed at a smaller price for small businesses and households. The company's first color laser multifunction, at $799, rivals comparable yet pricier models from . The Windows-only Konica Minolta Magicolor 2480 MF prints, copies, scans, and faxes in color. It also includes a front USB port that connects to a PictBridge camera for direct photo printing. Just be forewarned that while this feature is convenient for office dwellers who want to create ads, brochures, or casual prints of their work, archival photo printing is best left to inkjets or a photo lab. Konica Minolta claims print speeds of 20 pages per minute (ppm) in black and white and 5ppm for color. The 2480 MF scans documents as large as 8.5 to 14 inches and allows you to tweak images without using a PC. We'll check out this machine in CNET's Labs and let you know how it stands up to competitors in the young world of sub-$1,000 color laser multifunctions.