Colour Laser Opinion - LexmarkC530dn/C530dn/HP2605dn/Brother HL-4040CN

[X10]

killersuzuki - I'd happily take one of the HP 2605N's off you if you don't need one!

[n_s_simpson]

Hi, Nick from PrinterBase here. Hope you don't mind me adding to this thread...

One thing I'd like to add about the Kyocera FS-C5015/5025/5030 machines are that they come with 2 years onsite warranty.

PLUS Kyocera give you 3 years warranty or 200,000 pages (100k on C5015) on the drum and developer unit, whichever occurs sooner so if a fault does occur they'll sort it.

I would personally recommend the C5025 or C5030 over the C5015 since the drum/developer warranty is better and also due to the better value toners it's much cheaper to run than even the C5015 (in fact the C5015 is around 26.5% dearer in colour and over 30% in mono.)

Yes, some printers will give better print quality but the Kyocera is more than acceptable for the majority of people. It all depends on the individual.

If print quality and impressive paper handling is important the Xerox Phaser 6180 gives excellent results for a cheap machine but make sure to buy the high yield toners to get reasonable running costs.

Oh, and as you probably already know the 2605 is quite expensive to run so most machines you buy as a replacement will be better.

If you need me or want print samples I'd be happy to help.

Hope this helps.

Nick

[X10]

Hey all,
I just wanted to give you all an update on my printer research.

After a long time researching printers, looking at samples and calculating toner and extras costs I finally made a decision.

I decided to go with the Lexmark C534N.

The Primary reasons for my choice were:
A) Shipped with cartridge capacity (The Lexmark C534N came with 6,000 pages for all 4 CMYK toners)
B) Cost of further toner cartridges (The Lexmark C534N has a 8,000 page black @£92 and 7,000 page CMY toners @£108)
C) Cost of printer, including final cashback & offers (The Lexmark C534N came with £150 cashback)

I was tempted by the Xerox Phaser 8560 as it's print quality was reasonably better, but the price went up a week ago by £50, and the initial wax cartridges it ships with only print 1,000 pages, so the initial cost of the machine is quite high.

Given the amount of printing I'll likely do over the course of the next 5 years, I think the Lexmark would win in the long run.

I appreciate everyone's input and help, and Nick's help at PrinterBase. I decided to use them in the end, instead of Printerland as Nick's counterpart there didn't really help all that much when I called them.

One word of warning on the Lexmark C534N - it's BIG. I certainly wasn't expecting that from the pictures and the dimensions (which I used in comparison to my little HP1100). It's actually one of the bigger end of colour laser printers (excluding any extra attachments), which is my only current gripe about it.

Will let you know how it prints in the real world (for me) when I manage to find a place in the room that I can fit it!!

X10

[X10]

Hello all.
Well, I thought I'd give a short run-down on the C534n now that I've been using it for a while.

I must say I'm dissapointed with it as a first colour laser purchase.

So to recap on previous comments:
1) It's pretty loud when printing & calibrating.
2) It's BIG, the largest of colour lasers I had looked at.
3) Toner is of the cheapest for the £300 range of colour laser printers.
4) It's fast, not done a real-world test from cold, but most reviews say it hits about 80% quoted speed.


New things I've discovered.
1) Selecting the Manual Feeder in the print dialogue box will not activate the printer to use the Manual Feeder, I have to select it from the Lexmark Printer Options program, quite annoying.
2) The software is HUGE (and unnecessary for the options you get with it) to match the printer size I guess.
3) The default PCL driver isn't that great, I was advised to download a new one from the Lexmark website.

EDIT
4) The paper tray actually sticks out the back of the printer, so you couldn't get this back of the printer to be flush with a wall if you wanted it to be - Very bad design.
5) Oddly, to add to that, the Power connecter is located on the back of the unit on the Right hand side, I guess given that you can't flush it with the wall, this is not so much of a problem. However, the Network & USB ports are located on the LEFT HAND SIDE of the printer, meaning you can't have that side of the printer against a wall either, and just adds to the mess of wires (why have wires on the back right and the left, why not just on one side!?)

END EDIT

Lastly, and most importantly:
6) Print quality isn't that good in either colour or black.

I have tried both text, graphics and images as well as a mixture of both, and it just doesn't print with the crispness or contrast on any of those that I was expecting from the reviews.

Now, I am making these comparisons, like for like to the ageing HP2605N, which I used at a workplace.
Black text is slightly more blurry, black images are a lot more blurry.
Colour text comes out best with the new PCL driver that I downloaded, and images are a little more sharp also using that driver compared to any other drivers.

However, try as I might, I cannot get the printer to print decent colour images. I've fiddled with contrast, brightness, RGB correction, print resolution, colour balance, all the options that are there, but I cannot get this printer to print A) What is on screen, or B) An equivalent quality image to the same document printed on the HP2605N.

The quality issue didn't seem apparent from the many samples I received, but I think if I was buying again I would definately send them some custom images/documents to print to have a proper comparison.

It's a shame as I'm now lumbered with a beast of a printer that has really dissapointed me.

I hope others find this post useful, if you have any other questions I would be happy to answer them.

X10

[Pob255]

Ok this will not be so much of an issue for you as you say you don't do a great deal of printing, but you colud also look at the Xerox Phaser
It's not a laser or an ink jet but a wax sublimation printer, what this means in the real world is that instead of ink or toner cartridges it uses little blocks of wax.
Each is shaped so you can only slot it into the correct colour hole and that is how you refil it, the wax comes in something like a yogurt pot, you peel off the lid take out the wax, lift up the top of the printer drop the wax block in the correct hole, close the top, done.
I recently got one of these for work (I work in a school) and so far I've been impressed by it
The print quality is good, the colours are strong and it has a slightly glossy finish (like a laser) but you do get dot speckeling (like you do on an ink jet)
The other big advantage is the cost and size of the wax, it's cheaper than laser toners and take up far less storage space. (like I said at the begining with your small amount of printing this might not be such a benefit)

[n_s_simpson]

Hi everyone,

Just to pick up on Pob255's recommendation regarding the Xerox machines.

Please be aware that currently only the Phaser 8560 and Phaser 8860 are solid ink printers.

All the other machines by Xerox are toner based laser/LED printers.

It's worth getting print samples if you haven't seen a wax printer before as it doesn't suite everyone. Let me know if you need these by phone - 0845 230 7234.

Also please be aware that there are a lot of deals on Xerox machines at the moment such as the Phaser 6180 @ £199 with £125 CashBack: http://www.printerbase.co.uk/acatalo...80.php?pos=top

Nick

[X10]

Just updated my 'review' post above with some other important information about the printer I missed adding last time.

[tusker]

I have been very happy with my Magicolor 2550, chosen mainly because of its photo printing capabilities. I suspect cheaper colour lasers are probably now available on a par with the 2550.