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15 out of 15 people found this review helpful
4.0 stars
"A lot to like, but some quirks"
Pros: speed, quality, price, service (web-based diagnostic instructions)
Cons: noisy, big, service (human side), networking
Summary: In many ways, this printer represents a truly phenomenal value. As I was unpacking the parts, I was amazed at the heft and quality - lots of metal, lots of weight, not the type of feel that so many personal laser printers have these days. Another great value point is that the printer comes with a full toner set, good for 4000 prints. That's one thing you won't find on many competing models, and since a full set of toner for any color laser printer costs roughly $400 (often more than the printer itself), it's a significant point to consider.
But then there are the disappointments. After setting everything up carefully, we were greeted with an alarming grinding noise on warmup. After running through the excellent Dell web-based diagnostic program, we determined the problem and sent in a report. Oddly enough, the response we got was (paraphrasing) "this isn't my area - please send your request to yada, yada, yada." I found that odd, since we were simply following the directions on the site. I haven't bothered pursuing the issue, since the noise seems to be getting better. Bottom line: I thought the online diagnosis process was very cool, but the human on the other side was lame.
It sounded like one of the nylon gears was rubbing on a metal bracket, and in the course of 50-odd prints, the sound was diminishing. Now it's sounding pretty smooth, but we're keeping our eye (or ear?) on it. The printer is definitely NOT a quiet one while printing, but I don't see that as a problem.
Networking the printer wasn't very easy. Despite a fairly intuitive menu setup, neither the DHCP or the BootP was working on my home network (LinkSys router). I fussed for about an hour, then just set everything manually, reserving the MAC address of the printer with a specific IP address on my router, and then setting the IP address on the printer manually. That worked.
Along the way I delved into the many settings and controls for the machine that can be accessed through the front LED and buttons. Wow - there are many, including some surprises like a setting for non-Dell toner.
We're now a happy family. We print from 2 Macs and 2 PCs through a wireless network without trouble (Mac users with OS X - don't bother with the $100 Dell multi-protocol card... just use IP printing. You don't ge tall the controls, but can use the web-based controls and can check the toner through the printer dialogue box), and I'm always amazed at the quality and speed of the prints. They're not inkjet quality (I've never seen a laser printer that was, including the $7k-$12k Tektronix/Xerox models) but they're perfect for everything but photos. As an example, I recently grabbed a bunch of textile samples from the web in an attempt to choose a new cover for our couch. Many of these were very subtle in color and texture, including some off-white pieces that I didn't think would print well. I was very pleasantly surprised to see how well everything printed... even the off-whites. Some of the colors lost a bit of depth, which is to be expected (it would have happened even with an inkjet on plain paper), but all the colors were represented well. I was very impressed, and I'm not easy to please - I'm a computer artist who lectures regularly on color management for the desktop.
I originally purchased the printer because we needed a simple, cheap, dependable networked color printer, and this seemed like the way to go. I considered a networked inkjet, but the cost of ink per page combined with the need to keep refills handy, the clogging/cleaning problems and the slow speeds made me look at lasers. Now I'm thinking of buying another one for my studio and retiring my 15-year-old HP LaserJet (the single best computer hardware purchase I've ever made). I find myself regularly choosing to print to the Dell instead of the HP, even though the HP is closer.
Buy this machine, plan to spend some time (and frustration) setting it up, and don't expect smooth, quiet performance. But what you get is truly a great value. The fact that you can get laser images of this quality from a sub-$400 printer is simply stunning. No other word for it.Updated
I just ordered a second 3100cn to replace my faithful HP Laserjet 4m. The HP cost me $2000 in 1991, and was a great printer... one of the first to print at 600ppi (still great quality 14 years later), and truly a bargain price for its time. But lately it's been jamming on heavier paper, and I get errors when printing from Acrobat. As I mentioned above, I find my self choosing the Dell even though the HP is sitting next to me. After another couple of jams, I decided to make the call to the bullpen, and retire the HP once and for all. I'm sure it will find a good home on eBay.
It takes a lot to make me change my computer hardware. I typically buy behind the curve and wait until I find something of true value that has been tested. This printer has found its way into my professional setup, and I can't think of higher praise. I only wish it weren't so big and ugly, but I'll take big and ugly as long as it comes with performance and value.
Color Laser Printer 3100cn:
