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The Color Laser Printer Guide: Vendor & Product Profiles
Entire Contents © 2006 Prog
ressiv
e Business Publications. Copying of Pages Prohibited.To Order: 800 247 2185 or www.betterbuys.com 15
s
tarts with 160MB of memory, the 9500hdn comes with
288MB. Both printers can be upgraded to 384MB. These
p
rinters have good color tools, including automatic color
calibration as well as color-matching software.
It is on paper handling that the two machines really dif-
fer from each other. The less expensive 9500n starts with
a 100-sheet multipurpose tray, along with two 500-sheet
paper trays. That’s a total of 1,100 sheets, and there are
no options. On the output side, there is a 100-sheet face-
up (bypass) tray and a 500-sheet face-down tray.
Duplexing is optional.
The 9500hdn, on the other hand, has far more capacity.
In addition to the basic 1,100 sheets, you get a 2,000-
sheet high-capacity feeder (not available even as an
option for the 9500n). That’s a total of 3,100 sheets.
Duplexing, as we have noted, is standard.
It’s on the output side, however, that it gets even more
interesting for the 9500hdn. In addition to the basic 600-
sheet output capacity, there are three strong upgrades.
One is a 3,000-sheet offset catch tray. The second is a
3,000-sheet finisher with 50-sheet stapling. The third
option is a booklet maker with saddlestitcher, one of the
few models with booklet makers in this guide. That’s an
impressi
ve trio, making the 9500hdn the only model in
this guide that can hold its own in a corporate repro and
publishing center alongside more expensive color copiers.
Cost per page is moder
ate, at 9.0¢ in color, 1.8¢ in
black-and-white.
As far as competition goes, we have to differentiate
between the tw
o models. The Color LaserJet 9500n has a
h
igher price and inferior features compared to excellent
machines from Lexmark, Ricoh, Xerox, and others. It is
not competitive mostly because of its high price. At a
street price of $6,799, we have the same concerns regard-
ing the Color LaserJet 9500hdn, except that its booklet
maker and 3,000-sheet offset catch tray are options that
give you capabilities you can’t get from many other print-
ers in this guide.
The bottom line is the models have excellent image
quality and an impressive duty cycle, but the price you
pay for these seems out of line with the current market.
Chart entries — page 82
IBM
Boulder
, CO
800 358 6661
www.printers.ibm.com
Vendor Profile
IBM isn’t a major player in the desktop color laser print-
er market, although it’s worth saying that Big Blue does
sell large, expensive production color machines that we
don’t cover in this guide.
Several years ago, IBM upgraded its monochrome laser
printer line by adopting machines made by Lexmark. It
has also adopted a n
umber of ne
wer Le
xmar
k color print-
er
s. Unlike Lexmark, IBM does not sell each variation in
the family as a separate product. Instead, it normally sells
a base model and treats the variations as options. IBM
sells its versions at a small premium over the Lexmark
originals
.
There is usually a time lag between Lexmark releases
and those of IBM.
Product Profiles
IBM Infoprint Color 1334
8ppm full color
30ppm b
lac
k & w
hite
Note: Same Machine as the Lexmark C510n, which is
now discontinued. This machine prints at 8ppm color,
and 30ppm b
lac
k-and-white. It comes with PostScript
and Ethernet standard. There are 250 sheets of standard
paper input, with a 530-sheet drawer available. The street
price is $813.
Hewlett-Packard Color LaserJet 9500
Consumables costs at-a-glance
Price
Yield
Full-color cost per page
Black-and-white cost per page
Black print cartridge $152.99 25,000 $ 0.006 $ 0.006
Cyan print cartridge $309.99 25,000 $ 0.012 N/A
Magenta print cartridge $309.99 25,000 $ 0.012 N/A
Y
ello
w print car
tridge
$309.99 25,000 $ 0.012 N/A
Drum/b
lac
k
$297.99 40,000 $ 0.007 $ 0.007
Drum/c
y
an
$463.99 40,000 $ 0.012 N/A
Drum/magenta $463.99 40,000 $ 0.012 N/A
Drum/yellow $463.99 40,000 $ 0.012 N/A
Cleaning kit $48.99 50,000 $ 0.001 $ 0.001
Fuser kit $279.99 200,000 $ 0.001 $ 0.001
T
ransf
er kit
$378.99 200,000 $ 0.002 $ 0.002
TOTAL PER-PAGE COSTS
$ 0.0898 $ 0.0178
8.98 1.78
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