Kyocera 2160 - page 18

The Color Laser Printer Guide: Vendor & Product Profiles

and that’s it. USB connectivity is standard, while

Ethernet 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 Ethernet 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

machines.

The 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 interpolated up to 9,600 x 600dpi.

Most important, they are PostScript printers. That gives

them more flexibility in use, especially in a page layout

environment.

Ethernet and USB are standard on these models, which

are driven 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-

ers, 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) offers outstanding performance for

such a low price.

The 5430 DL prints at 21ppm in both color and black-

and-white. The 5440 DL prints at the very solid speed of

27ppm, again with both blackand 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 at small busi-

nesses that want a single printer for both color and black-

and-white printing. Coming at such affordable prices

with good 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

are tired 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

arerated by Konica Minolta for a reasonably robust

60,000 pages per month.

But the limitations are there as well. These are among

the most expensive printers in this guide that offer neither

PCL nor PostScript, even 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

Quark XPress.

The magicolor 5430 DL starts off with a scanty 250-

sheet paper tray,while the magicolor 5440 DL has a bet-

Konica Minolta magicolor 2500 series

Consumables costs at-a-glance

Price

Yield

Full-color cost per page

Black-and-whitecost 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

OPC 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