Issue #0840/4 – Cheap to buy, expensive to run – this has become a familiar story with Lexmark printers and MFPs. Lexmark’s new X544dn is an exception to a degree, in that Return Program cartridges pull costs down enough for it to be considered as an alternative to competitors from Brother, Hewlett-Packard, Oki and Xerox. Using regular cartridges though, we are left in no doubt about the high level of costs involved in running the X544dn.
Lexmark X544dnAs with the mono laser printers from Lexmark, the purchase price of the X544dn hardware from Lexmark is the lowest amongst its competition, albeit in this instance by a very small margin over the Brother MFC-9840CDW and Hewlett-Packard Colour LaserJet CM2320fxi.
Purchase Price - A4 Colour MFP
Unusually, the cost of black toner for the X544dn works out at just about the same nominal Cost Per Page as the CM2320fxi but still places it at the top-end of the cost scale. Not surprisingly, the nominal colour CPP is higher than for any other device – but only by a margin of 10%.
Overall, this leaves the X544dn costing some 8.5% more than the CM2320fxi over a three-year period, when printing 2,500 pages per month.
Within this group though, we find a couple of very high-priced devices, Oki’s C5550MFP and Xerox’s Phaser 6180 MFP/D. These may have very high hardware purchase prices but this does not mean that they are expensive devices.
In fact, Oki’s C5550 MFP proves to be the most economical in the long-term because supplies pricing is very competitive, meaning that nominal Cost Per Page is low – for both mono and colour printing. In turn, this means that out-of-pocket expenses on a week-by-week basis are low. There may be a premium to pay up front but the end result is most emphatically worth that premium.
Total Cost of Printing - A4 Colour MFP
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; 70% pages in mono and 30% pages in colour; is based on the use of maximum capacity supplies; takes into account any standard, or starter, supplies shipped with the device; and also includes the cost of purchase. All prices are Median Street Price sourced in Germany, including tax.
Even Xerox’s Phaser 6180 MPD/D is far from the most expensive device as a long-term prospect, despite it being the most expensive device to buy off the shelf – 83% more expensive than the X544dn. Its nominal colour CPP is a welcome 25% below Lexmark’s, leaving it costing 13% less than the X544dn in the long-term and just a fraction less than the CM2320fxi.
Oki C5550 MFPUsing Return Program cartridges in the X544 would, of course, make a difference to customers, reducing Total Cost of Printing by as much as 18%. For once, this actually does make a significant difference to customers, bringing long-term CPP to 5.70 cents and pulling it below the level of the Hewlett-Packard and Xerox machines. Brother and Oki continue to prove the most economical of the devices in the group however, with the Oki C5550 MFP being the most economical in the long-term despite being one of the most expensive to buy at the outset.
So, by way of summary, Lexmark’s X544dn is an acceptable device to purchase and own if Return Program supplies are used throughout the life of the device. But, even against the discounted Lexmark cartridges, customers can still cut costs by looking elsewhere.
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