Kyocera 2160 - page 20

The Color Laser Printer Guide: Vendor & Product Profiles

Konica Minolta magicolor 7450

24.5ppm full color

24.5ppm 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 tray that come with the machine.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: Acopier-derived ledger-size printer with good

paper-handling capacity.

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 processor is matched 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 paper handling, however,this machine shines, a con-

sequence of its copier background. The standard paper

supplyis 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-

capacity tray available as an option. That’s a maximum

input capacity 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:

lAmulti-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 page

Black-and-whitecost per page

Black toner $169.00 15,000 $ 0.011 $ 0.011

Cyan toner $219.00 12,000 $ 0.018 N/A

Magenta toner $219.00 12,000 $ 0.018 N/A

Yellow toner $219.00 12,000 $ 0.018 N/A

Blackdrum $199.00 50,000 $ 0.004 $ 0.004

Cyan drum $189.00 30,000 $ 0.006 N/A

Magenta 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

TOTALPER-PAGE COSTS

$0.0905 $ 0.0170

9.05 1.70