Dell 1320c Color Laser Printer Review
Pros
• Good text print quality
• Printer price is economical
• Easy setup/replacing toner doesn't expose inner working parts
Cons
• No expandable features
• Many owners report black text/graphics are not dark enough
• Confusing LED controls; lacks LCD text type display
The Dell 1320c color laser printer is an affordably priced printer that, with a few exceptions, can provide very good color printer quality. The printer offers very simple setup and straight forward printing coupled with easy replacement of toner cartridges. Good printer driver design provides for some functions that have not been made available mechanically, such as duplexing. Other features include a 333 MHz processor, various media types and sizes, and a 35,000 page monthly duty cycle. The Dell 1320c printer has some good qualities but other than the current price being cheaper, it really doesn't stack up well to comparable competitive printers like the Oki C3400n. For reference, the current price on Dell's website for the Dell1320c is listed as $299 with an instant $50 discount netting a price of $259, versus the Oki Data website price of $299 for the Oki C3400n. An "on-line identity crisis" (read further for an explanation) leaves the Dell1320c in a somewhat uncertain work position, being suitable for somewhere between a personal home printer and a small office application printer.
Performance of the Dell 1320c is reasonable with a 333 MHz processor and 64 MB of on-board RAM. The print quality is excellent for most text and color graphics, however some owners report that the black text and graphics actually appear more like a gray color due to lack of black saturation. Besides the black color issue, users report excellent print quality with a resolution of 600 x 600 dpi. These performance features ultimately yield a print speed of up to 16 ppm black and white and 12 ppm color according to Dell's technical specifications. However, according to some on-line reviews by users, actual print speed is about 10 ppm for color graphics and about 13 ppm for black text or graphics. When compared to the Oki C3400, this is about an average of 3 ppm slower for each category.
The printer has a maximum media input capacity via an auto-load media feeder of 250 sheets of up to Legal size media. The output tray can hold up to 150 sheets of paper. In addition, it can accept International DL (4.33 in x 8.66 in), Com-10 (4.13 in x 9.5 in), International C5 (6.38 in x 9 in), and Monarch (3.87 in x 7.5 in) size envelopes. There are two capacity-types of toner and according to Dell's specifications the standard size toner prints 1000 pages while the high capacity toner cartridges print 2000 pages. Also, replacing the toner cartridges does not expose sensitive inner mechanics, which is nice plus.
There are only two connectivity options for the 1320c: 1) High Speed USB or 2) Ethernet 10Base-T/100Base-TX - RJ-45. Using TCP/IP wired, print server networking, the printer can be used by a small business group, although there may be some waiting time if a few users have some sizeable printing jobs.
The setup process is a snap. Dell includes a setup poster along with the owner's manual and an additional HTML format user's guide. The included software offers a simple, automated setup and supplements the setup process with videos.
However, according to many owners, communication during use is not nearly as simple as the setup process. The unit has two buttons and seven LEDs but no LCD text display. User alerts, warnings, and status communications are accomplished by interpreting the multiple combinations of lit and unlit LEDs. Several pages of the user manual are dedicated to interpreting these combinations so you can imagine the confusion associated with this.
Another "down" side to the printer is it doesn't offer any feature expansion or accessories. Memory, media input trays, and networking are offered "as-is" with no opportunity to increase performance. The only additional option is the "high-capacity" toner cartridges which yield double the total pages printed per cartridge.
These features lead us to the Dell 1320c's "on-line identity crisis." Dell's technical specifications indicate monthly high yield capacity that you would expect in a business setting. Yet the printer doesn't have any expandable features that you would expect for use in a business group, even a small one. Dell calls the 1320c a "network printer" which would give one the impression of a small business or workgroup application. Yet their own website technical specifications refer to the 1320c as a "personal printer – laser-color."
Yet, the Dell 1320c gets a relatively high rating from its users. To sum it up, it is probably best to categorize the printer as more of a personal home use printer than a business computer. That being said, perhaps the best description comes from a combination of customer ratings from Dells website: "When it's on sale there is no better deal out there . . . a good solid printer."
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Tags: color laser printers, dell printers, network printers, printer reviews
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