Lexmark C734dn Color Laser Printer Review
Pros
• Economically and competitively priced
• Variable print outputs including automatic duplexing and banner printing
• Very good print speed
Cons
• Paper output tray could be larger
• Depending on application, colors may appear over-saturated
• Basic warranty coverage is only 1 year
The Lexmark C734dn Color Laser printer is a competitively priced color laser printer that accepts the challenge of most of today's printing needs and then some. The Lexmark C734dn provides power and high output-yield with a few "bonuses" that you might not expect from this class of printer. Compared with similar brands based on output yield, the Lexmark's features are competitive with other manufacturers' printers such as the Dell 5130cdn. Some of these features include truly fast printing speeds, fine print resolution, a more than generous total paper tray input capacity, a good selection of various print media supported, expandable memory, USB front-of-printer flash drive printing, toner alerts and other print management tools. These features and more make the Lexmark C734dn a great choice for midsize to large businesses or workgroups. In addition, it is noteworthy to mention that the Lexmark C734dn has received the "Better Buys for Business 2010 Editor's Choice" and PC World's "Top 10 Color Laser Printer" awards.
If you are going to produce a color printer that targets mid to large size office groups, speed is important. Lexmark's published technical specifications state speeds of up to 30 pages per minute for black and color printing. Various on-line sites report actual results similar to the technical specs, ranging from 27 ppm and up for black, with high resolution color graphics averaging around a very competitive 5 ppm.
Not only is the print speed impressive, but the C734dn boasts an equally impressive print resolution. While most printers in this category print 600 x 600 dpi Lexmark tops the specs again with impressive 1200 x 1200 dpi for both black and color printing.
Another notable feature is the total paper input capacity. Standard input capacity is a respectable 650 sheet maximum. Add on the optional 500-sheet drawer, 2,000-sheet high capacity feeder, and the 550-sheet input tray and total input capacity with optional items jumps to a whopping 3,750 sheets of 20 lb stock.
There is no better partner for quantity than diversity; and again, Lexmark gets high grades. The C734dn prints on a wide range of media including card stock, glossy paper, envelopes, vinyl labels, transparencies and a variety of other media including up to 36-inch banners. It supports a generous array of media sizes from various envelope sizes to A4, A5 and Legal size papers.
The Lexmark C734dn furthers its printing diversity, by automatically duplexing. Duplexing not allows two sided print jobs like manuals and books to be printed with ease, but also has an added benefit of economical paper use. Provide multiple users with the benefit of easy duplexing and you'll save on print media supply costs.
On the performance side, the printer comes standard with 256 MB of memory that can be upgraded with optional memory modules to a total of 1,280 MB. In addition, an optional internal 80 GB hard drive can be added to collate large jobs, store fonts, forms and the like, or buffer print jobs. Another nice feature related to memory and storage is the ability to print jobs directly off a USB Flash drive that can plug in right at the front of the printer.
There are still more available options for the C734dn. For example there are a variety of connectivity accessories including printer server, Ethernet, and wireless cards, a Forms and Bar Code printing card, and even a Lexmark "PrintCryption" Card for insuring proprietary or confidential information is kept secure when printing over a TCP/IP Network. Extended capacity toner cartridges and caster/swivel base options round out the list.
According to Lexmark's on-line demo of C734dn Color Laser printer, it is targeted for the mid to large size office workgroup. That being said, there are a couple of areas that could be improved upon. First, for a printer that can handle storage of up to 3,750 sheets of paper, it seems as though the output bin capacity of 300 sheets is just a might bit low. Also, the basic warranty coverage is only for one year. Comparable printers, the Dell 5130cdn for example, comes with a three year warranty. And finally, some users report that the color saturation of graphics at high quality settings was a bit over-done.
In conclusion, the Lexmark C734dn color laser printer comes standard with 256 MB of memory, standard black and color toner cartridges, automatic duplexing, 1200 x 1200 dpi printing for both black and color, and a 650-sheet input total. Options that can be purchased separately include additional memory modules up to 1 GB, a total of up to 3,750-sheet paper input storage, an internal hard drive, and various network connectivity options. The Lexmark C734dn color laser printer is a great award winning buy that provides speed and printing diversity with very good economic pricing for any mid to large size business, office, or workgroup application.
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Tags: color laser printers, lexmark printers, network printers, printer reviews
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