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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 17
and that’s it. USB connectivity is standard, while
Ether
net is an option. Print resolution is 2,400 x 600dpi
interpolated. A 130MHz processor is supported with
32MB of memory. You cannot add extra memory. This
printer is Windows only, and uses host-based GDI print-
ing.
The $399 magicolor 2530 DL gives you a little more
than the minimum. It offers an optional 500-sheet tray for
added input.
It has Ether
net standard.
Output resolution
is 2,400dpi interpolated. It too has a 130MHz processor,
and while it starts with a better 64MB of memory, you
can increase that to an expansive 576MB. A duplex unit
is a $229 option. While it supports only host-based print-
ing, it does have drivers for Macintosh and Linux
mac
hines
.
T
he magicolor 2550 machines add even more. The $499
magicolor 2550 EN has 128MB of memory and optional
($229) duplexing. The $699 magicolor 2550 DN doubles
the memory to 256MB and has standard duplexing.
Memory can be upgraded to 640MB on both machines.
Print quality can be inter
pola
ted up to 9,600 x 600dpi.
Most important, they are PostScript printers. That gives
them more f
lexibility in use, especially in a page layout
environment.
Ethernet and USB are standard on these models, which
ar
e dri
ven with a 300MHz processor. There’s also an
optional ($349) 40GB hard disk. Like the magicolor 2530
DL, they have options for another paper tray (500
sheets).
In the growing number of inexpensive color laser print-
e
rs, these are solid competitors. But they’ve been eclipsed
by low-end models from manufacturers like Lexmark and
OKI Printing Solutions in terms of color speed.
Chart entries — pages 85–86
Konica Minolta magicolor 5430 DL
21ppm full color
21ppm black & white
Konica Minolta magicolor 5440 DL
27ppm full color
27ppm black & white
Sum-up: A friendly design and a good price make these mod-
els appealing choices.
The two-toned design sets off the Konica Minolta magi-
color 5430 DL and 5440 DL from most other desktop
models. But that’s not the only selling point: the 5430 DL
is one of the fastest color lasers in the $600 range, while
the 5440 DL (at $999) of
fers outstanding performance for
such a low price.
The 5430 DL prints at 21ppm in both color and black-
and-w
hite. The 5440 DL prints at the very solid speed of
27ppm,
again with both b
lac
k and color pages. That
means you sacrifice nothing in color speed, while getting
a fast enough small-workgroup black-and-white printer.
Konica Minolta is aiming this product a
t small busi-
nesses that want a single printer for both color and black-
and-white printing. Coming at such affordable prices
with g
ood speed and easy use makes it a tempting offer-
ing for those who are tired of ink jet printers or who have
never used color at all. It’s also an upgrade for those who
ar
e tir
ed of very slow color laser printer speeds of four to
six pages a minute.
Both printers have solid but basic features for low-cost
machines. They have a 200MHz processor and start with
64MB of memory (expandable to 576MB). They print at
up to 2,400 x 600dpi interpolated resolution.
On the plus side
,
they come network-ready. They also
ar
e rated by Konica Minolta for a reasonably robust
60,000 pa
ges per month.
But the limitations are there as well. These are among
the most expensive printers in this guide that offer neither
PCL nor P
ostScript,
e
v
en as options. They support host-
based printing both in
Windows (GDI) and Macintosh
environments. Konica Minolta believes that these are not
critical for business users, explaining that the vast major-
ity of users originate jobs from Microsoft Office, emails,
or Internet Explorer rather than Adobe Illustrator or
Quar
k XPr
ess.
The magicolor 5430 DL starts off with a scanty 250-
sheet pa
per tr
a
y
,
w
hile the ma
gicolor 5440 DL has a bet
-
Konica Minolta magicolor 2500 series
Consumables costs at-a-glance
Price
Yield
Full-color cost per page
Black-and-white cost per page
Black toner $84.99 4,500 $ 0.019 $ 0.019
Cyan toner $129.99 4,500 $ 0.029 N/A
Magenta toner $129.99 4,500 $ 0.029 N/A
Yellow toner $129.99 4,500 $ 0.029 N/A
O
PC drum/color
$
149.00 11,250 $ 0.013 N/A
OPC drum/black $149.00 45,000 N/A $ 0.003
Waste toner box $19.00 25,000 $ 0.119 $ 0.001
TOTAL PER-PAGE COSTS
$ 0.0189 $ 0.0230
1.89 2.30