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Entered CNET Catalog: 07/06/2006
SKU: 3010SAPP
Manufacturer: Dell, Inc.
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User opinions
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User Rating: 
1/10
Has worked correctly twice in two years
Pros: Black printing is decent
Cons: Color printing is atrocious and slow
Review:
The first day I got my printer, I tested it with a color photo. Pretty good.
A few days later I tried printing a color document for work, and noticed a vertical smear. Checked the support FAQ, and it said I should open the printer and slide some piece of plastic back and forth fifty times. Tried that, and it was marginally better (but still with a noticeable smear). Dell tech support was totally worthless. I didn't want the trouble of trying to return this GIANT printer to the vendor, so I basically decided to just use it as a black and white printer.
Recently I replaced the black toner, and to my surprise, that made the color printing work perfectly again. A day later, the smearing was back, and now it's worse than it ever was.
This printer is a giant embarrassment. Takes up half my desk, cost me $300, and has essentially never worked correctly. It's also slow as hell (3 pages per minute), although black printing alone is much faster. And for all its size, it won't do double-sided printing, which means I have to manually flip and reverse all the pages to save paper.
Not only would I never buy a Dell printer again, I will never buy ANYTHING from Dell again.
A few days later I tried printing a color document for work, and noticed a vertical smear. Checked the support FAQ, and it said I should open the printer and slide some piece of plastic back and forth fifty times. Tried that, and it was marginally better (but still with a noticeable smear). Dell tech support was totally worthless. I didn't want the trouble of trying to return this GIANT printer to the vendor, so I basically decided to just use it as a black and white printer.
Recently I replaced the black toner, and to my surprise, that made the color printing work perfectly again. A day later, the smearing was back, and now it's worse than it ever was.
This printer is a giant embarrassment. Takes up half my desk, cost me $300, and has essentially never worked correctly. It's also slow as hell (3 pages per minute), although black printing alone is much faster. And for all its size, it won't do double-sided printing, which means I have to manually flip and reverse all the pages to save paper.
Not only would I never buy a Dell printer again, I will never buy ANYTHING from Dell again.
User Rating: 1/10
THE worst printer i have ever bought!
Pros: Pretty much nothing!
Cons: Not Mac compatible
Review:
If your thinking of buying this particular model...don't do it. You'll be disappointed! In less than a year, the drum has gone bad already; I don't even use it that much. In fact, when it comes to printer don't buy any Dell branded printer!
Updated
Madaxley wrote: "Those that complain about the lack of support for Linux or Mac should read the specifications before they purchase."
I did read the specs. I already have this printer before I got my Mac. If Dell makes other printer models compatible with Mac, why can't they make 3010 a Mac compatible?
Madaxley wrote: "Those that complain about the lack of support for Linux or Mac should read the specifications before they purchase."
I did read the specs. I already have this printer before I got my Mac. If Dell makes other printer models compatible with Mac, why can't they make 3010 a Mac compatible?
User Rating: 1/10
Worst Printer I have ever used
Pros: Black & Grey Color Scheme
Cons: Quality, Usability, Extremely High Ink Usage
Review:
a) Printed two pages and received low yellow toner warning.
b) Had numerous issues with streaks, eventually got a replacement drum. Fixed issue.
c) Can we say printing 100 copies of a 3-page Christmas Newsletter equals 2 week nightmare. Printer constantly says toner out of ink. When no evidence of fading has even appeared. Printer won't print if it thinks it's low.
This is the worst POS I have ever owned. A new set of toners costs as much as the printer. Toner estimate of 1,000 - 2,000 pages is greatly optimistic. Try 200 - 400 pages.
Not compatible with Mac or Linux either.
THERE IS NOTHING GOOD ABOUT THIS PRINTER
b) Had numerous issues with streaks, eventually got a replacement drum. Fixed issue.
c) Can we say printing 100 copies of a 3-page Christmas Newsletter equals 2 week nightmare. Printer constantly says toner out of ink. When no evidence of fading has even appeared. Printer won't print if it thinks it's low.
This is the worst POS I have ever owned. A new set of toners costs as much as the printer. Toner estimate of 1,000 - 2,000 pages is greatly optimistic. Try 200 - 400 pages.
Not compatible with Mac or Linux either.
THERE IS NOTHING GOOD ABOUT THIS PRINTER
User Rating: 
3/10
Poor choice
Pros: cost was relatively low
Cons: everything else
Review:
the yellow toner ran out after about 15 pages, had to argue 45 min. with Dell rep in India to get another; ships with "starter" toner; very very hard to use non-standard size paper; wasted many pages and much time fighting this user-unfriendly box; big and heavy.
User Rating: 
9/10
Affordable, Quality Output for Windows users.
Pros: Excellent value, Quality Output, Low Cost
Cons: Costly supplies. No PCL or Postscript support. Color output is on the slow side.
Review:
Our Law firm has two of these printers on the network. We are an entirely Windows XP Pro/Windows Server 2003 shop. This printer supports windows GDI printer language only. This means no Mac or Linux support. This is stated right in the specs. Those that complain about the lack of support for Linux or Mac should read the specifications before they purchase.
The output quality of these printers is extremely good for this class of printer. We have had nothing but positive comments since installing them. The only thing my users have asked for is faster color output.
Network connectivity is very straight forward. Sharing them off of a Windows Server is a cinch. Dell's automatic e-mail notification of supplies status and paper jams is a very nice addition.
Some things that I wish were included are:
- Syslog capability. It sucks to have only a single page of job history.
- User account codes. It would be nice to know which departments/clients to bill back supplies cost to.
- Telnet configuration capability
- PCL or Postscript capability
Cost for supplies (Toner, Drum, etc.) are quite high if your purchase them from Dell. This is obviously where Dell is making their money. Fortunately toner refill kits are available on e-bay for a fraction of the cost of new toners from Dell. We have refilled cartridges several times now and have had no problems with output quality or cartridges falling apart. $99 for a refill kit containing all four colors that lasts 4000 pages is a lot cheaper than Dells ~ $240 for the same 4 colors and half the number of pages.
If you really want OEM cartridges, those show up on e-bay quite frequently.
Conclusion:
If you are a small to medium sized business that is primarily a Windows based shop, you will be quite satisfied with the Dell 3010cn. If you have Mac or Linux users then step up to the 3110cn for full PCL and Postscript support.
The output quality of these printers is extremely good for this class of printer. We have had nothing but positive comments since installing them. The only thing my users have asked for is faster color output.
Network connectivity is very straight forward. Sharing them off of a Windows Server is a cinch. Dell's automatic e-mail notification of supplies status and paper jams is a very nice addition.
Some things that I wish were included are:
- Syslog capability. It sucks to have only a single page of job history.
- User account codes. It would be nice to know which departments/clients to bill back supplies cost to.
- Telnet configuration capability
- PCL or Postscript capability
Cost for supplies (Toner, Drum, etc.) are quite high if your purchase them from Dell. This is obviously where Dell is making their money. Fortunately toner refill kits are available on e-bay for a fraction of the cost of new toners from Dell. We have refilled cartridges several times now and have had no problems with output quality or cartridges falling apart. $99 for a refill kit containing all four colors that lasts 4000 pages is a lot cheaper than Dells ~ $240 for the same 4 colors and half the number of pages.
If you really want OEM cartridges, those show up on e-bay quite frequently.
Conclusion:
If you are a small to medium sized business that is primarily a Windows based shop, you will be quite satisfied with the Dell 3010cn. If you have Mac or Linux users then step up to the 3110cn for full PCL and Postscript support.
User Rating: 
2/10
Not Mac compatable
Pros: It's a great paperweight.
Cons: Not Mac compatable
Review:
Besides the misery noted by other users, Dell must go to some trouble to prevent their printers from being Mac compatable, even as a network printer. Dell is unique in this capability.
User Rating: 9/10
Great home office printer!!
Pros: Excellent print quality in both color and B&W
Cons: Large, but most color lasers are.
Review:
Iam very impressed with this printer. I had a little trouble getting it to print when I first set it up, but Dell's 24/7 tech support talked me through some quick fixes to get it up and running!! I love it!
User Rating: 1/10
The Worst Printer Ever Designed
Pros: Dies within its warranty period.
Cons: I have yet to get this model to work.
Review:
I have had the displeasure of working with two of these printers. Neither one ever worked and both ended up being sent back to Dell within a month. The design on the toner drums is such that if they are not perfectly in place, the pages will have streaks the entire length of the page. The second problem is that pages continuously get jammed. Of the 221 pages I print (mainly fixing the streaking) 189 jammed. This printer also weighs 77 pounds and is a beast to handle.
User Rating: 1/10
Poor reliability, even worse service, abysmal quality control.
Pros: 2 units replaced under warranty and they never asked for old printers back so I sold the fuser on eBay for $125.
Cons: Replacements take weeks to arrive.
Review:
After only 1,000 prints my first printer I started having a banding problem (blank vertical stripes) and all 4 toners were empty. The unit toner is rated at 2k blk and 1k color. Dell sent replacement parts but that did not fix the problem. They sent a repairperson with more parts and he could not get the printer to turn back on.
They sent a replacement printer but it took 6 weeks to arrive. After only 20 prints I get an error message saying there is insufficient memory. After hours on tech support they concluded the RAM is faulty and are sending another replacement.
I've asked repeatedly for a credit so I can purchase a different model but they are sticking to their "like for like" exchange policy. The problem is they keep sending me brand new broken printers.
I'll never use Dell again.
They sent a replacement printer but it took 6 weeks to arrive. After only 20 prints I get an error message saying there is insufficient memory. After hours on tech support they concluded the RAM is faulty and are sending another replacement.
I've asked repeatedly for a credit so I can purchase a different model but they are sticking to their "like for like" exchange policy. The problem is they keep sending me brand new broken printers.
I'll never use Dell again.
User Rating: 
10/10
Great printer
Pros: speed, color quality, no more ink cartridges, price
Cons: size + weight
Review:
If you have realistic expectations, this is a great printer. I use it in my office which is run almost entirely paperless. Sometimes I may not need a printer for 2 weeks, but when I do, I need it right now.
Have had several inkjet printers but got tired of finding the nozzles clogged or using up half the ink cartridges deep cleaning the machine before use and then constantly running out of ink. And lets not even get into calibration. After getting this color laser, I can finally declare all inkjets suck by comparison.
Printer is fast. First page out from ?dead sleep? is roughly 10 seconds. Faster than any inkjet. Paper comes out dry, not like ink jets. On glossy paper, photos crisp like in a highly quality glossy magazine. But will agree if you need use a printer for high quality photos on photo quality paper, inkjets probably still produce better. But not by much. And best part is, because toner is dry powder, it never drys out, so even if I don?t use it for 2-3 weeks, first page out is perfect.
As for the cons: machine is big & heavy like the first generation monochrome lasers use to be. All color lasers are. For me where I was going to place it was a big consideration is selecting this model. I didn?t want a something the size of an old 20? CRT television sitting on my desk next to the sleek LCD monitors. That meant it was going under the desk on the floor. Under $400, there are few choices, with HP & Dell being the best. HP may have a better track record but the output sends the finished page out the top towards the back. So though it?s specs measures it lower in height, you actually need more room to reach back and grab the paper. HP only works well if sitting on desktop. This Dell, the paper feeds out the top but horizontally toward the front. So you only need 2 inches of clearance on top. But despite having bought it for its design to accommodate where I was putting it, I repeat that it prints great quality color.
Lot of reviews elsewhere complain about how loud these printers are. Not true at all. I actually have to bend down to listen if the machine has started printing (and by then the first copy is actually out).
Don?t know about longevity or how long the drum will last as I?ve only had it a month. But as one of the cheapest color lasers available, I don?t expect it to be able to print 20,000 copies a month. If you?re printing that kind of volume, you need to step up to an office grade printer.
Finally, all color toners are expensive. No more than B&W, but the machines use 4 of them rather than just one. And with every print, whether color or B&W, you?re using up the single drum which alone is half the cost of the machine to replace. If you print a lot, get a second monochrome laser for your B&W prints, which you can now buy for just the price the drum for this machine. It?ll save you money on supplies and make the the toners/drum in this machine last longer.
For $290, this machine is a deal. If it lasts me only a year I'll be thrilled. As fast as technology changes, by then they'll have smaller cheaper models out. And I cannot stress enough: NO MORE PLUGGED UP INK CARTRIDGES & running out late at night to find replacements. Inkjet cartidges may be cheaper in price but not when they dry out and I only get a couple of dozen prints before having to replace them.
And as always, buy at Costco.com. If it turns out your less satisfied that I am, you can return it any time no questions asked.
Have had several inkjet printers but got tired of finding the nozzles clogged or using up half the ink cartridges deep cleaning the machine before use and then constantly running out of ink. And lets not even get into calibration. After getting this color laser, I can finally declare all inkjets suck by comparison.
Printer is fast. First page out from ?dead sleep? is roughly 10 seconds. Faster than any inkjet. Paper comes out dry, not like ink jets. On glossy paper, photos crisp like in a highly quality glossy magazine. But will agree if you need use a printer for high quality photos on photo quality paper, inkjets probably still produce better. But not by much. And best part is, because toner is dry powder, it never drys out, so even if I don?t use it for 2-3 weeks, first page out is perfect.
As for the cons: machine is big & heavy like the first generation monochrome lasers use to be. All color lasers are. For me where I was going to place it was a big consideration is selecting this model. I didn?t want a something the size of an old 20? CRT television sitting on my desk next to the sleek LCD monitors. That meant it was going under the desk on the floor. Under $400, there are few choices, with HP & Dell being the best. HP may have a better track record but the output sends the finished page out the top towards the back. So though it?s specs measures it lower in height, you actually need more room to reach back and grab the paper. HP only works well if sitting on desktop. This Dell, the paper feeds out the top but horizontally toward the front. So you only need 2 inches of clearance on top. But despite having bought it for its design to accommodate where I was putting it, I repeat that it prints great quality color.
Lot of reviews elsewhere complain about how loud these printers are. Not true at all. I actually have to bend down to listen if the machine has started printing (and by then the first copy is actually out).
Don?t know about longevity or how long the drum will last as I?ve only had it a month. But as one of the cheapest color lasers available, I don?t expect it to be able to print 20,000 copies a month. If you?re printing that kind of volume, you need to step up to an office grade printer.
Finally, all color toners are expensive. No more than B&W, but the machines use 4 of them rather than just one. And with every print, whether color or B&W, you?re using up the single drum which alone is half the cost of the machine to replace. If you print a lot, get a second monochrome laser for your B&W prints, which you can now buy for just the price the drum for this machine. It?ll save you money on supplies and make the the toners/drum in this machine last longer.
For $290, this machine is a deal. If it lasts me only a year I'll be thrilled. As fast as technology changes, by then they'll have smaller cheaper models out. And I cannot stress enough: NO MORE PLUGGED UP INK CARTRIDGES & running out late at night to find replacements. Inkjet cartidges may be cheaper in price but not when they dry out and I only get a couple of dozen prints before having to replace them.
And as always, buy at Costco.com. If it turns out your less satisfied that I am, you can return it any time no questions asked.
User Rating: 2/10
3500 Pages and 2 drums later still has problems
Pros: Good quality print
Cons: Poor reliability
Review:
After 3500 pages of print the 2nd drum is wearing out. The first was replaced under warranty, hopefully the 2nd will be also. The monthly duty for this printer is way overrated. I would recommend this for casual home use at best.
