Kyocera 2160 - page 28

The Color Laser Printer Guide: Vendor & Product Profiles

The C530dn/C532n engine comes with a 375MHz

processor, while the C534 models have a 625MHz

processor.Along with a few other vendors,Lexmark has

made sure that getting into color printing at the entry

level no longer means making big sacrifices in speed.

PostScript is a standard feature through the whole line,

which is not always the case with low-priced color laser

printers.

These models have decent memory capacity.They start

with 128MB, upgradeable to 640MB. That much memo-

ry may be helpful, because unlike some of their low-cost

competitors,these are Postscript-based machines,making

them useful for a wide variety of graphics applications.

The models print at a resolution of 1,200dpi. A 40GB

hard disk is an option on the C534 models.

Paper capacity is limited, based on the standard 250-

sheet paper tray, a 100-sheet MPF feeder (except for the

C534n, which has a manual MPF feeder), and an option-

al 550-sheet paper tray(standardon the C534dtn). There

is a 250-sheet output tray.Duplexing is standard on all of

these models except for the C532n and C534n.

USB is standard, as is Ethernet. Wireless 802.11b

Ethernet is an option as well.

Lexmark hasn’t published supply costs for these new

models yet, but we anticipate they’ll be on the high end:

around 2.8¢ for black pages and 14.7¢ for color.The good

thing about these machines’ consumables is their higher

capacity: black cartridges print 5,000 pages, while the

three color cartridges last for 3,000 pages.

Lexmark believes what sets its machines off from com-

petitors’ is a more extensive set of color-printing controls,

much like those found on higher-cost printers. This series

also allows the administrator to lock out some users from

use of color, a good feature for a workgroup in which

only some users really need color and where you want to

keep costs down. Like other Lexmark models, there is an

extensive suite of software available,with support for bar-

codes, and for forms creation and printing.

But where these machines have everyone else beat is in

sheer speed for the price. Other low-cost models print at

arelatively slow speed in color, from 4ppm to 8ppm in

color. At 22ppm color printing, this family has remark-

able speed, setting a new standard for low-cost color

lasers. Plus it has standard PostScript,a unique feature in

this price class.

As such, it competes very well with a slew of low-cost

printers from Dell and others. The C532n is particularly

astandout, while the C534 models are quite solid as well,

if a little less unique.

Making a workgroup color printer for under $1,000 that

has decent color control software is a nice plus. What’s

remarkable is that its 22ppm color speed makes it a cred-

itable workgroup printer on its own. This family gets our

Editor’s Choice Award.

Chart entries — pages 94–96

Lexmark C770n

Lexmark C770dn

Lexmark C770dtn

25ppm full color

25ppm black & white

Sum-up: A strong small-workgroup printer family, but with

tough rivals.

The new C770 family is one of two similar color laser

printer families. At 25ppm in both color and black-and-

white, these models are very affordable mid-range color

lasers. The printers have relatively modest paper han-

dling,but they otherwise have a solid but standard set of

features.

The three models in this family are:

lThe C770n is the base model, with 600 sheets of stan-

dardinput and 256MB of memory,along with stan-

dard Ethernet connectivity ($999).

lThe C770dn adds automatic duplexing ($1,299).

lThe C770dtn adds another 500 sheets of input stan-

dardand holds up to 256MB of memory ($1,549).

Based on an 800MHz processor,these machines are

The Lexmark C532n prints color at 22ppm speed at1,200dpi

resolution.