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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 19
K
onica Minolta magicolor 7450
24.5ppm full color
2
4.5ppm black & white
Sum-up: A ledger model with high-resolution imaging.
The new Konica Minolta magicolor 7450 ($2,999) is an
Ethernet-ready ledger-size machine with solid 24.5ppm
speed in both color and black-and-white.
The model features software called ProArt that helps
the printer obtain high (interpolated) resolution, which
makes it usable for photo-quality printing. It also has
built-in automatic calibration that is used to keep color
quality consistent.
The printer can produce a full-bleed ledger image,
extending to 12.25" x 18". That makes it suitable for page
proofs for jobs going on press, among other things. You
can also manually feed pages up to 11" x 35" through a
single-sheet feed tray that comes with the duplexer.
Based on a Fuji Xerox engine
, the 7450 comes with
256MB of RAM and can be upgraded to 1,024MB.
That’s not bad, but you might consider upgrading the
memory from the start, because ledger page size and
PostScript support eat up memory fast.
The printer can directly handle PDF files, though you
need to buy the optional 40GB hard disk to enable this
feature.
There’s a 250-sheet multi-purpose tray and a 100-sheet
standard paper tr
ay that come with the mac
hine. You can
add three additional 500-sheet paper trays, for a total of
1
,850 sheets. Output, however, is only 350 sheets. An
optional duplexer is available.
Cost per page (letter-size) is not very exciting, but it’s
not far out of line from competitors. Our estimated black-
and-white page cost is around 1.7¢, while color pages,
using standard yields for comparison, run at 9.0¢.
Other ledger printers in this price range include Xerox’s
Phaser 7400 family (36ppm in color), which offers much
faster speed and optional finishing. The Ricoh Aficio
CL7200 family also deserves a close look.
This is a reasonably priced ledger machine with decent
speed and passable features. Many other machines that
boast high-end color quality cost far more. On the whole
this is a decent buy, but note that it is not the least expen-
sive ledger model in the color laser market and that there
is no finishing available and only a very small output tray.
Still, for its many benefits, it gets our Editor’s Choice
Award.
Chart entry — page 88
Konica Minolta bizhub C250P
25ppm full color
25ppm black & white
Sum-up: A copier-deri
ved ledger-size printer with good
paper-handling ca
pacity.
Unlike other Konica Minolta printer models, the $7,200
bizhub C250P is based on a copier original, namely the
bizhub C250.
As a printer, this model has quite good basic features,
including its ability to print ledger-size pages. The
466MHz pr
ocessor is ma
tched with standard PostScript,
PCL, and Ethernet connectivity. Both USB and parallel
connectivity are optional features. It also comes with an
expansive 512MB of memory, but that is also the maxi-
mum available. An optional 40GB hard disk is available.
The model has a 75,000 page-per-month duty cycle.
In pa
per handling
, however, this machine shines, a con-
sequence of
its copier background. The standard paper
suppl
y is 850 sheets, including a 100-sheet bypass and a
multipurpose 250-sheet paper tray for special stock and a
regular 500-sheet tray. There’s also a 2,500-sheet large-
ca
pacity tr
a
y a
vailable as an option. That’s a maximum
input ca
pacity of 3,350 pages. Duplexing is optional. The
bizhub C250P can handle a wide variety of media,
including heavy stock (up to 140lb. card stock) and trans-
parencies.
Output options include:
● A multi-position stapling finisher ($1,580) with sort,
group, and corner staple functions
Konica Minolta magicolor 7450
Consumables costs at-a-glance
Price
Yield
Full-color cost per pa
g
e
Blac
k-and-white cost per pa
ge
Black toner $169.00 15,000 $ 0.011 $ 0.011
Cyan toner $219.00 12,000 $ 0.018 N/A
Ma
genta toner
$219.00 12,000 $ 0.018 N/A
Yellow toner $219.00 12,000 $ 0.018 N/A
Blac
k drum
$199.00 50,000 $ 0.004 $ 0.004
Cyan drum $189.00 30,000 $ 0.006 N/A
Ma
g
enta drum
$189.00 30,000 $ 0.006 N/A
Yellow drum $189.00 30,000 $ 0.006 N/A
Waste toner box $29.00 18,000 $ 0.002 $ 0.002
T
O
T
AL PER-P
AGE COSTS
$ 0.0905 $ 0.0170
9.05 1.70