This monochrome laser printer is an almost-all-in-one
The Pantum M6702DW all-in-one printer has a lot in common with the single-function Pantum P3012DW we reviewed a few months ago. It hails from the same emerging Chinese company that has been offering printers since 2010 and that has built a strong presence in the market for budget monochrome lasers. The M6702DW delivered nearly identical performance in our tests while adding scan and copy features (but not faxing). Pantum’s printers don’t have official list prices, but the M6702DW is a thrifty $179.99 on Amazon at this writing ($40 more than the print-only P3012DW), making it worth a look from home or micro office workers with micro budgets. Easy Setup, With a Choice of Connections As with most mono laser printers, physical setup for the Pantum M6702DW is straightforward. Like its sibling, it keeps running costs down by using separate drum and toner components. Both are shipped inside the printer, in the same tray that normally holds them. To get started, you remove the tray from the printer; take out the toner cartridge and pull out the plastic tab that keeps toner from spilling during shipping; pull a protective sheet off the drum; snap the toner cartridge back into place; and replace the tray in the printer. Weighing 28.3 pounds and measuring 13.8 by 16.3 by 14.4 inches (HWD), the M6702DW is small enough to put on your desk, but its ample connection options—including Ethernet, USB, Wi-Fi, and Wi-Fi Direct, along with NFC support for mobile devices—let you put it elsewhere in your office. The tiltable control panel is to the left of the flatbed scanner, which is mounted over the printer output tray. A two-line LCD and control buttons let you move through the menus, as well as give copy and scan commands. When it comes to printing, the Pantum’s paper handling is more than sufficient for most home offices or for a personal printer in any size office. The lone paper drawer can hold 250 sheets of letter- or legal-size paper, and is supplemented by a single-page multipurpose tray for feeding an occasional piece of special-purpose media. The printer also offers automatic duplexing for printing two-sided documents. For scanning, by contrast, paper handling is limited to manually loading one sheet at a time on the 8.7-by-11.7-inch flatbed. With no automatic document feeder, it’s suitable for light-duty scanning only.
