Issue #0508/2 - New low-cost colour lasers offer ever-higher levels of functionality and features at lower and lower cost. Konica Minolta ups the features while Dell downs the price.
Believed to be a first for colour laser printers, Konica Minolta has put a PictBridge interface on its new magicolor 2430DL, allowing digital camera users to print directly from the camera.
Host-based with Konica Minolta’s PageScope Raster Language and priced at £299, the magicolor 2430DL is a four-pass, 5/20ppm, network ready colour laser printer.
Representing excellent value for money on a highly specified machine, Konica Minolta’s introduction is met by further price reductions from Dell on its bottom of the range 3000cn colour laser printer that is also network-ready out of the box with fast print speeds (5/25ppm). Normally priced at £239, Dell’s 3000cn is now available at only £191 on a special offer and, on paper, represents the lowest cost colour laser printer both to buy and to run.
In addition to promoting the machine with a special offer on the purchase price, Dell has also reduced the Cost Per Page on the 3000cn by reducing the price of the colour toner cartridges by 20% from £49 to £39, thus reducing the nominal CPP from 8.96 pence to 7.46 pence. The overall CPP over three years (printing 2,500 pages per month, 30% colour and 70% mono) now stands at only a fraction above the 3 pence mark, down 13.5% from 3.49 pence.
Konica Minolta’s 2430DL follows in second place both on purchase price and on running costs with a long-term CPP of 3.63 pence, 20% higher than the Dell. At the top of the scale, Xerox’s Phaser 6100 has a long term CPP of 4.30 pence, 42% higher than the Dell and 18.5% above the magicolor 2430DL.
Companies such as Epson, Hewlett-Packard, Konica Minolta and Xerox still have not started putting a network interface into lower-end printers as a standard feature and yet their hardware prices are significantly higher than Dell’s. By contrast Dell has built-in network support on all of its laser printer range and also set some ground-breaking hardware purchase prices.
One advantage that the new Konica Minolta machine has is an automatic colour calibration system, which should ensure stability of colour balance from job to job and within every print job, regardless of number of copies.
Although the magicolor 2430DL has a protruding paper tray at the front, which is not the most attractive of designs, the tray is not exceptionally intrusive, protruding by only 149mm (6”), and stands clear of the desk surface. This means that the device itself is the smallest colour laser printer on the market, consuming up to 22% less precious desk space than the largest machine mentioned here.
In addition to having the smallest footprint, the magicolor 2430DL is beaten on height only by the Hewlett-Packard Colour LaserJet 2550LN. However, it should be noted that the LJ 2550LN does not have a proper (enclosed and removable) paper tray – it has a fold-out multi-purpose tray, meaning that some height is saved. A fold out tray can be seen to be a disadvantage because the fold down flap is more vulnerable than an enclosed tray and it means that the paper is more exposed to dust, splashing liquids and disturbance from passers by.
Over and above the 200-page standard paper tray on the 2430DL, a second paper tray with 500-sheet capacity and duplex unit are available as options, turning the device into a fully fledged office productivity colour printer.
| Depth | Width | = Footprint | Difference | Height | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Konica Minolta magicolor 2430DL |
395 mm | 430 mm | 1699 cm² | - | 341 mm |
| Dell 3000cn | 419 mm | 424 mm | 1777 cm² | + 4.6% | 431 mm |
| Epson C1100N | 445 mm | 445 mm | 1980 cm² | + 16.6% | 439 mm |
|
Hewlett-Packard Colour LaserJet 2550LN |
482 mm | 452 mm | 2179 cm² | + 28.3% | 325 mm |
| Xerox Phaser 6100DN | 510 mm | 405 mm | 2066 cm² | + 21.3% | 470 mm |
Although host-based, Konica Minolta’s PageScope Raster Language enables this machine to be compatible with Windows, Macintosh and Linux systems, enabling simultaneous printing from all three environments, whereas most host-based printers are compatible with Windows systems only. Management is offered by PageScope Web connection with Status Monitoring and Print Monitoring.
These factors, combined with service access that is now entirely from the front, the Konica Minolta magicolor 2430DL represents a compact, convenient, economical, versatile and capable colour laser printer. Konica Minolta also pre-installs high capacity toners (4,500-page) in this machine – not starter toners and with no need for the user to install the toners in order to be productive.
To round off where we began, one does wonder about the value of a PictBridge interface on a laser printer! In a personal, and especially home, environment, to have the facility for printing direct from a digital camera is certainly as useful as having that facility on an ink jet printer.
| UK | Purchase | Print Speed |
Nominal CPP |
Mixed mono/colour CPP over 3 years |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Konica Minolta magicolor 2430DL |
£299 |
Mono Colour |
20 ppm 5 ppm |
1.44 pence 7.95 pence |
3.62 pence |
|
Dell 3000cn (Special Offer) |
£191 |
Mono Colour |
25 ppm 5 ppm |
0.90 pence 7.46 pence |
3.02 pence |
| Epson C1100N | £399 |
Mono Colour |
25 ppm 5 ppm |
1.43 pence 8.22 pence |
3.73 pence |
|
Hewlett-Packard Colour LaserJet 2550LN |
£366 |
Mono Colour |
19 ppm 4 ppm |
1.58 pence 7.94 pence |
3.67 pence |
| Xerox Phaser 6100DN | £399 |
Mono Colour |
21 ppm 5 ppm |
1.76 pence 9.59 pence |
4.30 pence |
Note that for this level of machine, the mixed mono/colour CPP over three years shown in the accompanying table is calculated on the basis of 2,500 pages per month (30% colour, 70% mono pages) using maximum capacity toners and takes into account any standard, or starter, toner cartridges shipped with the printer and includes the purchase price.
But, being an advocate of checking photos on a large PC screen before committing to the cost of printing, I would almost certainly never use that facility. In my opinion, the greatest value of PictBridge is for use on a mobile system. A number of 6×4 portable ink jet or dye sublimation printers are now available that are ideal for taking on holiday (and a number of A4 format printers and AiOs are small enough to be deemed ‘portable’) but a colour laser printer definitely does not fall into this category.
Why then, does the user need PictBridge unless it is for the purpose of rapidly and untraceably printing personal photographs on a company printer?
~End~
