Entered CNET Catalog: 01/19/2005
SKU: 0039281035401
Manufacturer: Konica Minolta
Manufacturer description
At last! An affordably priced color laser printer that's built to share! The network-ready magicolor 2430 DL from KONICA MINOLTA takes up much less desk space than some of its competitors - but, don't let its smaller size fool you. This printer is packed with power and loaded with robust features that make it the perfect solution for all your printing needs.Product summary
The good: Cheap; fast on text; first color laser to print straight from PictBridge cameras; includes Ethernet; Windows, Linux, and Mac compatible.
The bad: Color prints are good but not great; small paper tray; comes with starter cartridges only one-third full; requires extra memory for PictBridge printing.
The bottom line: The Magicolor 2430DL is a fine machine for anyone whose text-printing needs trump their color-printing demands.
Editors' review
- Editors' Choice: No
- Reviewed on: 02/04/2005
The 2430DL is small and cleanly designed. It weighs 45 pounds with toner and drum installed and has two deep handgrips on the sides so that one person can lift it. The USB-based PictBridge port is embedded in the front next to the paper tray where it's easy to connect your camera's signal cable. A small, unadorned control panel sits atop the printer on a sloping edge, so your fingers can push the buttons easily. You can grab a handle to open the top section of the machine to clear paper jams or to change the imaging drum and the toner cartridges. The drum slides into place on pegs; you use the onboard menus to change the toner cartridges.
While adequate for a home office, the printer's shell and paper trays should be sturdier for a work space with multiple users. For example, we treated the paper tray's front door gently, but a hinge broke when we flopped the tray down to accommodate legal-size paper. The output tray, a flap at the printer's crown, also feels flimsy.
Konica Minolta equipped the Magicolor 2430DL sparingly but with enough capabilities to accommodate an individual or small workgroup. The buttons for navigating its LCD menus are clearly labeled and easy to operate, but we recommend you print the excellent menu map, from the Special Pages menu, before descending into the system maintenance or network setup functions. Also, we wish the control panel's 2-line-by-16-character LCD were backlit.The vanilla, basic configuration of the 2430DL doesn't include a lot of hardware. It has a single, 200-sheet, legal-size paper tray; you can stack a 500-sheet paper feeder underneath the printer for a pricey $299. The base memory configuration is only 32MB, enough for an individual printing ordinary documents but not to share on a network or to enable the PictBridge function. To print from a camera, Konica Minolta recommends upgrading the memory with an extra 128MB of RAM for $129, or 256MB for $20 more. The system can hold up to 544MB, though we can't imagine a situation that would demand so much.
Connecting the Magicolor 2430DL to a PC via the USB 2.0 port is simple. The 2430DL's Windows driver provides useful features, such as n-up printing to reduce and print multiple pages onto one sheet; the ability to print a watermark or an external file behind pages; and adjustments for contrast, brightness, saturation, and color-matching. The duplex feature doesn't work without the optional, $399, backpack-style duplexer, however.
From a digital camera connected to the PictBridge port, the onboard LCD menus let you print n-up and tweak sharpness and brightness. But they don't support cropping or borderless printing, and you have to select images to print from the camera rather than from the printer's control panel. CNET tested the Magicolor 2430DL with two PictBridge cameras: a Pentax Optio S40 and a Minolta-brand Dimage Z3. We weren't able to get the printer to work with the Pentax camera.
And just because it hooks up to a camera doesn't mean this printer will produce frameworthy photos--but then again, no color laser can. Still, the PictBridge port might come in handy for business or insurance purposes, such as printing an instant record of a fender-bender. And you can even print on glossy paper for, say, a newsletter.
Konica Minolta ships the Magicolor 2430DL with almost-empty starter cartridges specified to print only 1,500 pages. Once you replace those with the standard 4,500-page cartridges, which cost $85 for black and $130 each for color, a page of black costs a reasonable 1.9 cents worth of toner, and a color page runs 10.6 cents.
For comparison, the HP Color LaserJet 2550L uses about 2.1 cents worth of toner for black pages and 9.6 cents worth for color pages, and the Brother HL-2700CN costs about 1.7 cents for black and 9.2 cents for color pages.
Here's an estimate of the Magicolor 2430DL's total per-page costs, adding in its inexpensive drum: one print costs a total of 2.2 cents for grayscale or 11.8 cents for color.
Speed
The Konica Minolta Magicolor 2430DL delivered respectable speeds for its price range. While it didn't achieve the high velocity of the more costly Dell 3100cn, the 2430DL did beat the pricier Samsung CLP-550.
Quality
The print quality of the Konica Minolta Magicolor 2430DL impressed us overall. It produced sharp, black text as well as any high-end office laser printer. Our test text prints looked free of rough edges and uneven weighting and were easily legible down to very small font sizes. Its weakest point, still well within acceptable bounds, was on grayscales, which printed too dark, lost detail, and seemed to compress the number of shades available, giving the images a flat or two-dimensional look.
The 2430DL did a reasonably good job on color graphics, printing fine details, though colors came out too red and oversaturated, with blocky gradients producing rough transitions and shading. Keep in mind that even excellent color laser graphics prints would merit a mediocre score in the inkjet world. Still, we'd hoped that Konica Minolta's bold move of installing a PictBridge port on this printer would signal that it produced top-notch color quality. Of all the color laser printers that have come through CNET's Labs, only the Dell 3100cn, to date, has received an excellent rating for its color graphics quality.
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Find out more about how CNET Labs tests printers.
Performance analysis written by CNET Labs project leader Dong Van Ngo.
Despite the fact that the Konica Minolta Magicolor 2430DL doesn't cost much, you get a good customer support package. The standard one-year warranty includes generous exchange shipping for repair and toll-free, lifetime tech support available weekdays from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. CT. A one-year warranty extension costs $80, and two extra years is $140; a pricey $270 buys two years of onsite service.Two setup manuals in more than 20 languages provide little detail; for example, they don't cover installing toner cartridges. But the onscreen PDF documentation provides an in-depth, getting-started how-to, with thorough lessons about the printer's features. An onscreen reference manual covers Konica's PageScope network printer-management software, as well as the Mac, Windows, and Linux drivers.
The Konica Minolta Web site offers downloadable drivers and manuals. However, the site's searchable Answer Base wasn't functional during our review, and two questions e-mailed to tech support came back with incomplete answers.
User opinions Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 User Rating: 5.0 stars out of 37 user reviews
I have had this printer 4 years and love it.
Pros: Econimical printing, energy saver automatically kicks in, reliable.
Cons: Doesn't print regular photo paper, as any laser product cannot. Does print very well on 9 mil matte photo paper.
Review: I would purchase another one if needed. User Rating: 0.5 stars out of 37 user reviews
Junk. Don't buy Konica-Minolta.
Pros: Colour network laser. Sounds great, right?
Cons: Worthless.
Review: Unfortunately, this printer is worthless. Its reliability is awful. I just junked mine. Its lifetime has seen 397 pages. Not 39,700, Not 397,000. 397 pages. Ever. The laser is dead.
I spent 35 minutes on hold waiting for a Konica-Minolta rep to tell me, "your laser is dead, and it'll cost more to replace it than it would to buy a new printer."
I suggest you do the same: buy another printer. One that doesn't have Konica-Minolta printed on it. User Rating: 2.0 stars out of 37 user reviews
Useless on network; 32mb memory = BS
Pros: Under $600. Small footprint. Decent prints, but not designed as photo quality.
Cons: Will not hold a static IP. Noisy, takes forever to warm up. NOT usable as USB printer on Vista or Win7. K-M may/may not issue Win7 drivers, still waiting. Expensive doorstop. Memory and cartridges very expensive.
Review: Bought in 2006 for home network but never able to configure properly, even two experts gave up; spent over 30 hours troubleshooting. Can not recommend Konica Minolta do to poor customer service and very expensive memory and replacement cartridges. They don't seem to care about home users. Currently a very expensive doorstop. User Rating: 1.0 stars out of 37 user reviews
not a good printer
Pros: reasonable reproduction when it is working
Cons: error after error after error
Review: initially i thought i had done the right thing purchasing this printer, however i now kick myself.
the unit is only a year old, but repeatedly says that one cartridge is not installed. you have to take the cartridge out, and put it back. then it will say the second cartridge is not installed and you have to take it out and return it. the same thing will happen for the other two cartridges and when you have done that, it will say there is a paper jam (which isn't accurate). it frequently takes 15 minutes to get a single copy printed.
to make things worse, since you are frequently going through this scenario, you wind up with spilled color dust in the paper tray. you may wind up having to make several copies to get a clean one. to make matters still worse, the lens will then require cleaning because it has color dust on it.
all in all............this has been perhaps the worst mistake i have made on purchasing a color printer. User Rating: 1.5 stars out of 37 user reviews
Very problematic,
Pros: Small size
Cons: Paper handling, toner leakaga, sensor problems
Review: I've had this printer for about 2 years and it has been problematic from the start.
It frequently stops feeding paper and displays MEDIA JAM. Several emails and phone calls to Konica-Minolta tech support have failed to resolve this issue. This is the same paper that feeds flawlessly on my very cheap but incredibly reliable HP 1012 laserjet, which I use for everyday B&W printing.
Secondly, whenever I open the top to clear a paper jam, there is black toner everywhere. I've spoken with a tech at an authorized Konica-Minolta printer repair shop and was told that toner leakage is common in these printers. The results are that (1) I frequently have to clean off the laser window to stop streaking, and (2) every few weeks the printer LCD advises me that one of the toner cartridges is not loaded, so I remove it, clean off the black smudge on the contacts and reinsert it.
Most recently, every time I start a print job the LCD says that the paper tray is empty, and I have to remove the paper and put it back in again to reset one of the sensors.
I recently replaced this printer with a Xerox Phaser 6180n that seems to work flawlessly, has the same street price of around $400, and prints better quality color at about 20ppm instead of 5ppm because it's a single-pass printer. Also, I noticed that the Phaser does not loudly go clunk-clunk-clunk as does the 2430DL.
From reading this review, you probably get the idea that I didn't like this printer very much, and you're right. My only regret is not replacing it sooner. User Rating: 1.5 stars out of 37 user reviews
not built to last, like a US car
Pros: Worked out of box
Cons: noisey; leaks toner over time; not reliable
Review: I enjoyed this printer when I first got it. But after a year and a half, the printer is no longer reliable. I'm consistently getting error messages about toner cartridges not be installed. The problem appears to be the amount of toner leaking out from the cartridges. I cleaned the printer and it works well for about two weeks, then the same problems appear. Looking at the number of these printers appearing on eBay with similar problems; its time for me to cut my losses, and look for a more reliable machine. I bought this printer to save $$ over inkjet printers. User Rating: 1.5 stars out of 37 user reviews
Bad for Desktop Publishing with Illustrator or InDesign
Pros: Good output at 1200x600
Cons: WILL NOT PRINT FULL COLOR PAGES in Adobe InDesign or Illustrator even with the upgraded 512MB of memory. Driver it ships with prints a yellow cast on everything. Noisy
Review: If you use InDesign or Illustrator move on. You will NEVER get a full color page at the highest resolution (2400x600), even with 512 MB of memory installed.
I spent over an hour on the phone with tech support, finally speaking with the Manager, Hugh. They know this is a problem and blame it on Adobe for poor programming of their applications. I just thought, well, these applications were out before this printer...
I'm not impressed with the blame game. I will never authorize the purchase of another printer from this company.
As well, the printer written for this driver casts a yellow hue on everything. It's a known problem. There is a generic Windows driver that resolves this problem.
It's just too bad it too us more than 30 days to resolve these problems or I'd return this paperweight to NewEgg. User Rating: 3.5 stars out of 37 user reviews
Great low cost printer for home use.
Pros: Reliable, cheap to operate.
Cons: Noisy operation,
Review: Excellent printer for home network use. My kids and I had three inkjet printers that were always running out of ink. This ended the cartridge swapping. It prints faster than most inkjets and is good enough for normal use. It won't replace an inkjet for high quality photo printing. User Rating: 2.0 stars out of 37 user reviews
Bad experience with 2300DL and tech support
Pros: Worked okay for 9 months or so
Cons: Noisy, poorly designed
Review: Konica Minolta is off my company's approved list. Initial quality of a 2300DL bought January 2003 was good, but after 9 mos. it started having problems and never got better. It's noisy (squeaks badly - even tho tech support had me try to lube it w/3-in-1 oil); quality of graphs & photos is deteriorating, and now the take up roller pulls paper unevenly skewing the output. Total copies run in just under 4 years is 45,000. BTW, their tech support is slow, incompetent, and sometimes surly. Take my advice and buy someone else's color laser printer. User Rating: 1.0 stars out of 37 user reviews
Don't Believe What You Read
Pros: Good Prints
Cons: Bad Drum Advertisement
Review: The advertised 45,000 page count on the Drum is a joke. Using the the lowest resolution settings and not turning off the printer (per KM recommendation) yielded less than 7500 page count on the drum. At this rate, the printer becomes far to expensive to operate. Furthermore, KM was not helpful at all. User Rating: 4.0 stars out of 37 user reviews
Near perfect image quality. Better than competition in price range.
Pros: Good (nearly great) image quality. Very reliable.
Cons: Noisy. Considering affordable price--no real complaints.
Review: This is my first Konica Minolta printer. I bought it after returning a similarly priced HP color laser. I went with HP first because of the excellent quality I received from their inkjets in the past.
In side-by-side comparisons with identical documents, this Konica Minolta laser outperformed the HP laser hands down for pure image quality.
As far as speed, reliability and other considerations, the HP may have been as good or better. However, I didn't keep the HP long enough to find out. Image quality was really my only concern.
After using this machine for several months now, I can also say that in addition to great image quality, the overall reliability appears to be very good as well.
All things considered, I just don't know how you could find a better color laser for the money. User Rating: 4.5 stars out of 37 user reviews
Price is awesome for what you get
Pros: Price, Duplex printing mode
Cons: Online Support, Big and heavy
Review: Amazing printer but if you lose the installation disc then you are screwed. But for the price very good quality. Fast prints. A lot of other stuff i really nice about it User Rating: 1.0 stars out of 37 user reviews
Printing is good but pulls 5 to 6 pages at time
Pros: Good Printing
Cons: pull too many papers at time
Review: Pulls too many papers at time User Rating: 1.0 stars out of 37 user reviews
Buyers beware- REBATE IS A SCAM
Pros: Works as advertised
Cons: beware- REBATE IS A SCAM
Review: The word is getting out. I too sent the complete rebate form/UPC/etc. to the PO Box, and the letter was returned to me as "BOX CLOSED." However, the letter is clearly postmarked July 20, and the return sticker says 8/24/06. This means that Konica-Minolta "held" the letter for a month, then returned it to me after the box was closed. If anyone else has had this problem, PURSUE it. Don't let them get away with this!! User Rating: 3.5 stars out of 37 user reviews
Good small network office printer
Pros: color and fine B/W output
Cons: noisy on startup
Review: Overall I'm pleased with this machine. I bought it because it has drivers for 64-bit Windows, but I needed Tech Support (which was very friendly) to install them.
My only issue is the unpleasantly noisy startup and operation. I hope Konica addresses this in their future products. User Rating: 4.0 stars out of 37 user reviews
Great for home/small office
Pros: Great price, built-in networking, good print performance
Cons: LCD readout is small, menu nav is not very intuitive, LOUD!
Review: Yeah, it's a little slow for a laser printer, but coming from an injet, it works at warp speed. Photo quality isn't as nice as a good injet, but it still performs well enough for most brochures/fliers. I only had one issue with the printer- adding it to the network. It took me about 5 minutes to figure out how to change the default IP address and once that was done, none of the PCs on the network had any trouble printing. User Rating: 3.0 stars out of 37 user reviews
An OK printer with a good quality.
Pros: Good color and B/W quality. Speed for color is OK too.
Cons: It is noisy but for home, from time to time is OK.
Review: I tried to install it on my Windows 2K desktop and I could not since it was not detected by the OS. I called customer support and after an hour of settings we abandoned it. I tried to install it on a laptop that has also Windows 2K too. The same imposibility. I tried on my laptop from work that has Windows XP, and this time the setup was finally simple and I could use the printer. Quality of color is OK as long as the picture is taken in sun and it has a very good definition. Anyhow I have to take back to store since non of my home computers can use it. For the money/quality ratio, 250$ it is a keeper. Another problem I do not like is the poor instructions on how to use it, how to first time install it, or how to change the toner. Final thought...cheap product...cheap everything it offers. User Rating: 4.0 stars out of 37 user reviews
Great value for small home office.
Pros: Ease of use
Cons: Noisy, loses connection when sleeping, poor install manual, poor envelope printing
Review: My wife looked long and hard at laser printers and decided on this printer.
The installation/owners manual is a pictogram. This is my first network printer install. I read the manual and followed it. Manual specifiaclly states don't hook-up to network until told to do so by the install program.
Took me a short while to realize the network had to see the computer before it could add it.
MANUAL NEEDS TO BE REDONE TO MAKE IT EASIER FOR IDIOT NEWBIES LIKE ME to connect and install.
Creases envelopes. User Rating: 1.5 stars out of 37 user reviews
Would not recommend this product.
Pros: Good color output.
Cons: Black and white prints not set properly.
Review: I returned this product due to the fact that printing in black and white mode produced output where the toner did not set properly (it rubbed off). There was also ghosting. The funny thing was that, as long as there was color on the page, the black text was extraordinary. May be a problem with the driver, who knows? User Rating: 4.5 stars out of 37 user reviews
Top quality printer
Pros: Not Available
Cons: Not Available
Review: Excellent print speed -- fantastic quality. I bought it to replace an old Epson inkjet. Manage the printer from the web over your network -- uses DHCP to get address. Maintenance is simple. Manual duplexing and envelope printing are not perfect but both can be done. User Rating: 3.5 stars out of 37 user reviews
Good Print and Network, Poor Toner Life
Pros: Good Print Quality, Networking and Speed
Cons: Poor Toner Life, Expensive Toner, James on Cheap Paper
Review: I am using this printer for marketing material flyers and mailers. Im a professional home finance and realtor consultant. It is important for me to present great home loan products like the wealth builder mortgage, which the material looks great printed on this printer. Print speed is good, network connection is great and quality is good. Im upset with the fact that replacement toners cost as much as this printer (Why the printer is so cheap) I got maybe a 1000 prints of the catridges with 25-75% coverage on each page. The printer does not like low weight paper that is cheap, it will jam and eat it up. They sell this @ costco for a good price no rebates. I had to take it back because of the toner life is horrible. Im not sure if the replacements would be better? Hope this helps you. Any questions e-mail me ryanf4u@hotmail.com User Rating: 4.0 stars out of 37 user reviews
Great Color Laser Printer for the money
Pros: Fast b&w printing, great quality color prints, & affordable
Cons: Paper jams on card stock paper & installation on xp had language setting problem
Review: Great printer for the money. I had a problem with the photo quality at first but minolta's customer service was great and walked me through fixing that. I am still trying to resolve another problem as well, this problem formed in the set-up process. It seemed to have installed my properties in spanish instead of english, according to customer service this happens frequently with windows xp users. Other than that small issue it's a great printer. The print quality on brochures and flyers are great, just what I need for the type of work I produce.Updated
I reviewed this product to early!!! At first I enjoyed the printer from the one previously purchased but it turned into a real "problem child". After a couple months of my post I did have a problem with the control panel being set in Spanish. I tried to call Konica Minolta twice with no return call. I was able to work around that aspect but then things went down hill.
I am fed up to the point that I had to update my first review while searching for a new printer. This is my work printer and basically just doing color brochures and flyers. I have discontinued the use of card stock since the printer always jams. I rely on my ink jet for hard stock flyers and such. Right now it's shredding paper and nothing seems to be stuck in it, that isn't the only problem. I have had problems with it complaining about paper jams and nothing is stuck. I have opened the door and close it and it will start print again or I will have to turn it on and off to print again. Another problem is it states that I need to install an ink toner or "ink toner not installed", what I usually do is open it and shake it and put it back, this works for a few times but then I have to end up changing the ink toner for it to go on. My major problem is that the print outs are coming out w/a thick ink line on the side of the sheet. I have cleaned the rollers and sheet but it usually cakes back up. I am really disappointed in this printer now and would like to change my review to a BIG "2"!!!! Now I must rely on my ink jet for print outs and can not finish my work in a timely fashion.Updated
I reviewed this product to early!!! At first I enjoyed the printer from the one previously purchased but it turned into a real "problem child". After a couple months of my post I did have a problem with the control panel being set in Spanish. I tried to call Konica Minolta twice with no return call. I was able to work around that aspect but then things went down hill.
I am fed up to the point that I had to update my first review while searching for a new printer. This is my work printer and basically just doing color brochures and flyers. I have discontinued the use of card stock since the printer always jams. I rely on my ink jet for hard stock flyers and such. Right now it's shredding paper and nothing seems to be stuck in it, that isn't the only problem. I have had problems with it complaining about paper jams and nothing is stuck. I have opened the door and close it and it will start print again or I will have to turn it on and off to print again. Another problem is it states that I need to install an ink toner or "ink toner not installed", what I usually do is open it and shake it and put it back, this works for a few times but then I have to end up changing the ink toner for it to go on. My major problem is that the print outs are coming out w/a thick ink line on the side of the sheet. I have cleaned the rollers and sheet but it usually cakes back up. I am really disappointed in this printer now and would like to change my review to a BIG "2"!!!! Now I must rely on my ink jet for print outs and can not finish my work in a timely fashion. User Rating: 4.0 stars out of 37 user reviews
Seems to be good printer for the money
Pros: Easy setup. Fast BW prints. Good print quality @ 2400x600 dpi compared to HP 2550.
Cons: Networking wasn't quite as easy as I'd hoped, but was achievable. No user manual in the box - only on the install CD in .pdf.
Review: We bought this printer this weekend because I was tired of buying print cartridges for my 3 1/2 year old inkjet, which still worked well. Setup went quickly. It appears to print very well and we love the ability to network it. There are not really any instructions on how to network the printer, however, a little knowledge and common sense goes a long way. The only problem that I found is that when I let the setup CD automatically detect the printer, it wouldn't work. I navigated through the menu on the printer and found the printer's IP address and manually entered it and it worked great. Only 1 problem, last night during a storm, we had a power surge. Being that I didn't change the DHCP or BootP settings on the printer, the printer's IP address changed. So it wouldn't print again. After reading the .pdf manual I determined that I could manually change the printer's IP address from the printer and also turn off the DHCP and BootP. This should solve the problem as the printer is now on a static IP. Other than this, which is pretty easy to figure out if you network stuff at all, the installation was a breeze. I have it networked through my wireless router and love printing wirelessly from my laptop.
Price was good at $399.00 - $100 cheaper than the HP at office depot. User Rating: 3.5 stars out of 37 user reviews
best in show!
Pros: price, size, color print quality
Cons: noise, documentation
Review: As a realtor I need high quality color flyers and direct mail pieces - inkjet printing does not look professional enough, smudges and is expensive. I first bought the HP2600n (received a defective unit that would only work with manual feed; it also had soso photo print quality), then went to Office Depot to check out the HP 3550 (expensive, average photo print quality as far I could tell from the demo printout at Office Depot), the KM magicolor 5430 and the KM magicolor 2430DL. The latter appeared to have the same demo printout quality as the 5430, but was a lot smaller and cheaper. Sofar I have been happy with it. Setup was easy, even though the docu is not great. The reddish cast of photos is easily corrected with Photoshop Elements, text is perfect and the speed is good (but speed was no criterium for me). For the price you cannot go wrong with this little machine! Unfortunately I could not find a store where I could have tested the Lexmark C510N or the Samsung CLP-550, which were my first choices after reading all the online reviews... User Rating: 4.0 stars out of 37 user reviews
Excellent little printer for the price with good quality output. Photos look Great!
Pros: 2 year Warr, Brilliant colours on plain paper, Quite fast for money, Photos print very well for a cheaper laser printer, Network capability included, Very Configurable, Not too loud, pictbridge port
Cons: photos not as sharp as inkjet (didn't expect more)
Review: I use this to print out brochures for my business and they look great. The near photo quality printout is spectacular! pictures of items for sale look fantastic and colourful. The pictbridge input at the front of the machine is handy and easy to use. Great Printer for the money. 2 Year Warranty is standard. The choice of USB 2.0 or Network is perfect for most situations. Does not take too long to warm up. I am very happy with my purchase! Even happier now since last month they were giving away the optional Duplex unit for free with this printer! User Rating: 4.5 stars out of 37 user reviews
Great Printer
Pros: Good photo quality, fast
Cons: Alittle quarky running on a network
Review: I found it on sale at the local Office Depot for $299.99, when i had seen it at Sams Club and Circuit City for $499.99. I couldn't resist and bought it, i'm glad i did. For everyday printing this thing is great, even printing digital photos it works really well, you definatly need LASER photo paper, no i haven't tried inkjet, but just so you know. The Picbridge feature works really well also, i have 2 camera that both work with it adn its really quick without going throught the computer. User Rating: 4.5 stars out of 37 user reviews
A great little printer for a reasonable price.
Pros: Very crisp black text / decent color
Cons: Effective warmup too long / loud
Review: I really wasn't in the market for a new printer, but was toying with buying a color laser because of my inkjet woes (smudging, ink evaporation, etc). I happened to stop in at Office Depot and spotted this machine on the shelf. I proceeded to run it through it's paces and found it to be a decent little printer. Where this story gets better is the price. Office Depot had it on sale lest week for $399, which was a good deal to begin with. Due to a fluke with modern advertising sign printing technology, it was mis-marked at $299.99, complete with the correct model number on the sign. I told the sales clerk that I wanted to purchase it and they met me at the register with the printer. When the cashier scanned it, it rang up at $399.99, at which point I asked the sales clerk to bring the sign up front. He did just that, and the rest is history. One concern I have with the printer is it seems not to fuse the toner very well unless the printer has been in active service for at least an hour. More testing is needed to confirm. All in all, it was a great purchase and I recommed it for anyone who is in the market for a mid-range personal color laser printer.Updated
It turns out that I actually got two bum printers, both were not fusing correctly. I exchanged the second one for the floor model (only had 14 pages printed on it) at my local Office Depot. I got the third one home and voila, no more smudging. OK, not so impressed with initial quality out of the box, but I know sometimes these things happen. Still like the printer a lot and stand by my recommendation. User Rating: 1.0 stars out of 37 user reviews
NOT good for envelopes and heavy stock or colored text
Pros: small size - nice black text
Cons: weak paper tray - wrinkles envelopes - bends paper/envelopes - spotty text printing - VERY Loud
Review: I had this printer for three weeks. The paper tray is very weak and highly annoying. It ruined envelopes I printed by indenting the fold into the other side of the envelope and wrinkled them beyond repair. Heavy stock paper was not even worth wasting - not only did it bend it something fierce - but it sounded like someone was dying when it attempted to pick the paper up and send it through the printer (which would take a few times). This machine is so loud, I had it on my desk and when it was running everything else sounded muffled. I had alot of problems with printing colored text - very dotty - only crisp once and a while. Did not seem to work well with InDesign. If you are a designer and are looking for a printer - this is not it!! Look further...Not worth $1 - let alone $400! User Rating: 4.5 stars out of 37 user reviews
A definite winner
Pros: You can get this network printer with 3 years additional warrenty with the cost of consumables comparable to HP for $100 less.
Cons: memory is only 32meg fro factory, could be at least 64 but it is easy to upgrade.
Review: I was in search for a network color laser for my house as I was tired of going through ink with deskjet printers. After careful comparison and trying seval brands at a local retail store, I chose this one due to the fact that it has the network features I wanted, the cost of consumables was comparable to the HP 2550N, and after upgrading the warrenty through the retail store by an additional 3 years, it was still $100 cheaper than the HP. I have been using it now for a month and it is great. I have had no problems out of it at all and the setup was a no brainer even for the network setup. The picture quality is what I would rate at magazine quality.
With the printer in sleep mode, I can send a print job of a full page, full color picture at the printers highest resolution, the printer will warm up and print it in about 62 seconds. After it warms up it takes about 30 seconds for a second page. I know that some people think that is slow, but compared to my only deskjet this think is fast.
The only bad thing I can say is that it comes with only 32meg of RAM and only uses single sided memory as well as to print on envelopes you must remove the pare that is in the paper tray. User Rating: 4.5 stars out of 37 user reviews
Very Good Minolta Product
Pros: Easy to use software, intuitive menus, great color printing
Cons: Network menu a little tricky, a little noisy
Review: It is a very good color laser printer the graphics are very good. It's a bit noisy when printing in color. You have to give it a set IP address which was a tad tricky. The software is very straightforward there is no added "junk that you'll never use.
Black printing is fast but a bit slow out of stanby for color. User Rating: 4.5 stars out of 37 user reviews
Fast colour laser printer for the price of an inkjet!
Pros: Fast colour printing at an affordable price.
Cons: Documentation need refinement
Review: In the search for a small and affordable colour laser printer for the home office, I decided on the Konica Minolta. The contenders for this coveted spot in my home office were the HP Colour LaserJet 2550N and the Dell 3100CN. The ultimate win came with the price point comparison. I was able to purchase my Magicolor printer for a mere $399.00 USD.
Setup of the printer was fairly straightforward except for one minor snafu that I ran into with the toner cartridge. I came to the conclusion that the unit must have shook the cartridge loose in shipping. When the unit was powered on it showed a Fatal Error 17H. Translated this was a matter of the toner cartridge assembly being unable to cycle properly. It took a minute to ensure that the cartridge was engaged and off she went without a blink.
The 2430DL model also came equipped with the pict bridge capability. In order for the printer to use this feature an additional amount of RAM must be installed. You will need to purchase Single Sided 168Pin SDRAM since it is unable to recognize double sided DIMMs. Don't try it, just save yourself the frustration and order the proper RAM for it. Luckily I had some on hand and installed it into the printer by removing the one captive screw from the rear of the printer and snapping it into place. Voila the printer now had a 128MB RAM DIMM installed without breaking a sweat.
This printer was to be installed on my home office LAN. It came equipped with a network card and it was setup for DHCP. The printer had no problem seeing my network. Once connected I was able to access the built in web server to administer to the printer, rename it to something more human and of course change the default password.
Setup of the software was easily accomplished using the standard installer from the CD that is provided with the printer. Quite honestly this part was the no brainer for anyone who is capable of using a mouse.
The quality of the prints that come out of it while not photographic quality (my definition of photographic quality is a continuous tone print produced by dye sublimation or with a very high end micro picoliter inkjet printer) is more than acceptable for home use to do spot graphics and proofing work. There are several customisations that can be done with the printer drivers and are all fairly easy to understand. Text was very sharp and easy to read, it did not produce any noticeable jaggies.
There was only one thing that I can really say that is negative. Documentation. Konica Minolta if you are out there, please be kind to your users and provide fully printed manuals for the consumer. In the excitement of having a new colour printer, most tend to not read over the manual but more often than not, it is good practice to RTFM (Read The Fine Manual)
My rating for this printer is very high and I wholly recommend it for home office use. For higher volume printing, you are better off to get a business class work group printer. User Rating: 4.5 stars out of 37 user reviews
Delivers on good quality at great price
Pros: Was down to $399 last week at Staples and Office Depot.
Cons: Not really a photo printer (think magazine quality, not photo quality)
Review: I use this printer in a mixed PC and Mac network and it works very well in both XP and Mac OS X. Had no trouble setting it up on my ethernet network. On the Mac it is a Rendezvous printer so it is completely plug and play (after you install the included drivers). Rendezvous is an ethernet network protocol that requires no geek-speak. No IP addresses to enter, it just "shows up" as a Rendezvous printer. XP just needed to know what IP address my router had assigned to the printer in order to properly install the drivers for it.
Print quality is very nice. I looked at several brands of ~$500 color laser printers and the Konica Minolta models had the best looking prints to my eye. Color lasers are great for business printing where you can have instant sales brochures that look like you had them offset print. Photos on this printer are nice magazine quality, certainly good enough for brochures. User Rating: 4.5 stars out of 37 user reviews
Initial Experience
Pros: Price is right
Cons: A tad on the noisy side - but thats because its a 4 pass
Review: I just picked up this printer today - A special Presidents Day sale at Staples - The price was so good ($100 off !), that I picked up the he 3 year warranty ($50)
So far, the out of box experience has been good. I don't know what the previous user was talking about, but setup was in English, setup was a breeze and the setup instructions were minimal and easy. I have it attached to my home network, and the installation was truly a snap (you do have to understand IP Addresses - so you do have to know what you are doing when you put the IP Address in - Its not hard, but you still need a bit of knowledge about how IP Works)
As to the printout, the text looks fine. I bought some Laser Printer paper and the first pictures I printed were perfect. Are they Kodak paper prints ? No, but I tell you they aren't to shabby for what I was planning on anyway.
The best part, is I have 14 days to play with this thing, I plan on throwing a few different paper types at it. The thinking here, is that if I get 3 years out of this printer it will be perfect, and by then the technology should really be spot on.
I plan on posting a followup in 2 weeksUpdated
I didn't get as much done with it in my first week, but here is what I have found so far.
1. I tried doing an envelope today - A Cheap grocery store brand. While it worked and the printer printed on it, it did come out with a few noticeable creases. My guess here, is that the lighter the stock, the more prone it would be to having this happen. I have to get a heavier envelope to see if it happens again.
2. While on the topic of Envelopes, you have to take the paper out and then insert the envelope. For a "home" printer, they should think about including some mechanism to suppor that
3. I printed out a few newsletters today - I notice that for GIF's they appear to print a tad fuzzy .. Not sure what to attribute this to (probably the resolution of the GIF file). Again, for my purposes this isn't a problem.
4. Oh, another thing I found out was that the printer has a nifty HTTP Server, so you can get in to find out how the Cartridges are doing and how many pages you have printed.
5. One nit, the documentation is a tad sparse. I don't see much documentation specific to how to change cartridges or feed envelopes.
6. Another thing I don't know, is if you can use ink-jet certified paper in a laser printer. I do see that certain papers are marked inkjet/laser, I wonder if there really is a difference User Rating: 2.0 stars out of 37 user reviews
Not the Best Choice!
Pros: Nice color, and nice footprint.
Cons: Drivers are defaulting in spanish!?
Review: This printer has many faults... The driver options are all in spanish not english! The printer has known issues if you have a Novell network, and it seems to by unable to detect and print on clear transparencies. Although their site says with special materials it can print on clear overheads. Not much for support, and consumables seem to be a bit short on life!
I would check out the HP as my next purchase! User Rating: 4.5 stars out of 37 user reviews
High quality laser color
Pros: High quality laser color at reasonable price. Ideal for small business or home network. Kids homework projects look great!
Cons: Less memory (32Meg) compared to popular competition (64meg).
Review: User Rating: 4.5 stars out of 37 user reviews
Quite Impressive Color Prints!
Pros: I just moved from my DISPOSABLE (14 month old) Epson C82 InkJet printer to this one and love the color output. It prints at 2400x600 and black print is very crisp. Toner cartridges are also very affordable at $69 for Cyan, Magenta or Yellow. (1500 pages
Cons: Was not aware of the power demands of Laser printer in the home. May need to get some sort of power regulator to keep the lights from flickering. (Printer has power saving option and it is ON by default)
Review: User Rating: 3.0 stars out of 37 user reviews
Great Printer but don't buy if you want to use PictBridge
Pros: Easy setup right out of the box. Stunning Photo quality for a Laser if the picture is well lit and hi res, otherwise Inkjet is still better. Support is very responsive and apologetic
Cons: Be careful when installing the Driver as Spanish is the default language and instructions for removing the driver include editing the registry. Boasts that it has PictBridge but only supports draft mode out of the box. Minimum memory upgrade of 128 is r
Review:
out of 37 user reviews
I have had this printer 4 years and love it.
Pros: Econimical printing, energy saver automatically kicks in, reliable.
Cons: Doesn't print regular photo paper, as any laser product cannot. Does print very well on 9 mil matte photo paper.
out of 37 user reviews
Junk. Don't buy Konica-Minolta.
Pros: Colour network laser. Sounds great, right?
Cons: Worthless.
I spent 35 minutes on hold waiting for a Konica-Minolta rep to tell me, "your laser is dead, and it'll cost more to replace it than it would to buy a new printer."
I suggest you do the same: buy another printer. One that doesn't have Konica-Minolta printed on it.
out of 37 user reviews
Useless on network; 32mb memory = BS
Pros: Under $600. Small footprint. Decent prints, but not designed as photo quality.
Cons: Will not hold a static IP. Noisy, takes forever to warm up. NOT usable as USB printer on Vista or Win7. K-M may/may not issue Win7 drivers, still waiting. Expensive doorstop. Memory and cartridges very expensive.
out of 37 user reviews
not a good printer
Pros: reasonable reproduction when it is working
Cons: error after error after error
the unit is only a year old, but repeatedly says that one cartridge is not installed. you have to take the cartridge out, and put it back. then it will say the second cartridge is not installed and you have to take it out and return it. the same thing will happen for the other two cartridges and when you have done that, it will say there is a paper jam (which isn't accurate). it frequently takes 15 minutes to get a single copy printed.
to make things worse, since you are frequently going through this scenario, you wind up with spilled color dust in the paper tray. you may wind up having to make several copies to get a clean one. to make matters still worse, the lens will then require cleaning because it has color dust on it.
all in all............this has been perhaps the worst mistake i have made on purchasing a color printer.
out of 37 user reviews
Very problematic,
Pros: Small size
Cons: Paper handling, toner leakaga, sensor problems
It frequently stops feeding paper and displays MEDIA JAM. Several emails and phone calls to Konica-Minolta tech support have failed to resolve this issue. This is the same paper that feeds flawlessly on my very cheap but incredibly reliable HP 1012 laserjet, which I use for everyday B&W printing.
Secondly, whenever I open the top to clear a paper jam, there is black toner everywhere. I've spoken with a tech at an authorized Konica-Minolta printer repair shop and was told that toner leakage is common in these printers. The results are that (1) I frequently have to clean off the laser window to stop streaking, and (2) every few weeks the printer LCD advises me that one of the toner cartridges is not loaded, so I remove it, clean off the black smudge on the contacts and reinsert it.
Most recently, every time I start a print job the LCD says that the paper tray is empty, and I have to remove the paper and put it back in again to reset one of the sensors.
I recently replaced this printer with a Xerox Phaser 6180n that seems to work flawlessly, has the same street price of around $400, and prints better quality color at about 20ppm instead of 5ppm because it's a single-pass printer. Also, I noticed that the Phaser does not loudly go clunk-clunk-clunk as does the 2430DL.
From reading this review, you probably get the idea that I didn't like this printer very much, and you're right. My only regret is not replacing it sooner.
out of 37 user reviews
not built to last, like a US car
Pros: Worked out of box
Cons: noisey; leaks toner over time; not reliable
out of 37 user reviews
Bad for Desktop Publishing with Illustrator or InDesign
Pros: Good output at 1200x600
Cons: WILL NOT PRINT FULL COLOR PAGES in Adobe InDesign or Illustrator even with the upgraded 512MB of memory. Driver it ships with prints a yellow cast on everything. Noisy
I spent over an hour on the phone with tech support, finally speaking with the Manager, Hugh. They know this is a problem and blame it on Adobe for poor programming of their applications. I just thought, well, these applications were out before this printer...
I'm not impressed with the blame game. I will never authorize the purchase of another printer from this company.
As well, the printer written for this driver casts a yellow hue on everything. It's a known problem. There is a generic Windows driver that resolves this problem.
It's just too bad it too us more than 30 days to resolve these problems or I'd return this paperweight to NewEgg.
out of 37 user reviews
Great low cost printer for home use.
Pros: Reliable, cheap to operate.
Cons: Noisy operation,
out of 37 user reviews
Bad experience with 2300DL and tech support
Pros: Worked okay for 9 months or so
Cons: Noisy, poorly designed
out of 37 user reviews
Don't Believe What You Read
Pros: Good Prints
Cons: Bad Drum Advertisement
out of 37 user reviews
Near perfect image quality. Better than competition in price range.
Pros: Good (nearly great) image quality. Very reliable.
Cons: Noisy. Considering affordable price--no real complaints.
In side-by-side comparisons with identical documents, this Konica Minolta laser outperformed the HP laser hands down for pure image quality.
As far as speed, reliability and other considerations, the HP may have been as good or better. However, I didn't keep the HP long enough to find out. Image quality was really my only concern.
After using this machine for several months now, I can also say that in addition to great image quality, the overall reliability appears to be very good as well.
All things considered, I just don't know how you could find a better color laser for the money.
out of 37 user reviews
Price is awesome for what you get
Pros: Price, Duplex printing mode
Cons: Online Support, Big and heavy
out of 37 user reviews
Printing is good but pulls 5 to 6 pages at time
Pros: Good Printing
Cons: pull too many papers at time
out of 37 user reviews
Buyers beware- REBATE IS A SCAM
Pros: Works as advertised
Cons: beware- REBATE IS A SCAM
out of 37 user reviews
Good small network office printer
Pros: color and fine B/W output
Cons: noisy on startup
My only issue is the unpleasantly noisy startup and operation. I hope Konica addresses this in their future products.
out of 37 user reviews
Great for home/small office
Pros: Great price, built-in networking, good print performance
Cons: LCD readout is small, menu nav is not very intuitive, LOUD!
out of 37 user reviews
An OK printer with a good quality.
Pros: Good color and B/W quality. Speed for color is OK too.
Cons: It is noisy but for home, from time to time is OK.
out of 37 user reviews
Great value for small home office.
Pros: Ease of use
Cons: Noisy, loses connection when sleeping, poor install manual, poor envelope printing
The installation/owners manual is a pictogram. This is my first network printer install. I read the manual and followed it. Manual specifiaclly states don't hook-up to network until told to do so by the install program.
Took me a short while to realize the network had to see the computer before it could add it.
MANUAL NEEDS TO BE REDONE TO MAKE IT EASIER FOR IDIOT NEWBIES LIKE ME to connect and install.
Creases envelopes.
out of 37 user reviews
Would not recommend this product.
Pros: Good color output.
Cons: Black and white prints not set properly.
out of 37 user reviews
Top quality printer
Pros: Not Available
Cons: Not Available
out of 37 user reviews
Good Print and Network, Poor Toner Life
Pros: Good Print Quality, Networking and Speed
Cons: Poor Toner Life, Expensive Toner, James on Cheap Paper
out of 37 user reviews
Great Color Laser Printer for the money
Pros: Fast b&w printing, great quality color prints, & affordable
Cons: Paper jams on card stock paper & installation on xp had language setting problem
I reviewed this product to early!!! At first I enjoyed the printer from the one previously purchased but it turned into a real "problem child". After a couple months of my post I did have a problem with the control panel being set in Spanish. I tried to call Konica Minolta twice with no return call. I was able to work around that aspect but then things went down hill.
I am fed up to the point that I had to update my first review while searching for a new printer. This is my work printer and basically just doing color brochures and flyers. I have discontinued the use of card stock since the printer always jams. I rely on my ink jet for hard stock flyers and such. Right now it's shredding paper and nothing seems to be stuck in it, that isn't the only problem. I have had problems with it complaining about paper jams and nothing is stuck. I have opened the door and close it and it will start print again or I will have to turn it on and off to print again. Another problem is it states that I need to install an ink toner or "ink toner not installed", what I usually do is open it and shake it and put it back, this works for a few times but then I have to end up changing the ink toner for it to go on. My major problem is that the print outs are coming out w/a thick ink line on the side of the sheet. I have cleaned the rollers and sheet but it usually cakes back up. I am really disappointed in this printer now and would like to change my review to a BIG "2"!!!! Now I must rely on my ink jet for print outs and can not finish my work in a timely fashion.
I reviewed this product to early!!! At first I enjoyed the printer from the one previously purchased but it turned into a real "problem child". After a couple months of my post I did have a problem with the control panel being set in Spanish. I tried to call Konica Minolta twice with no return call. I was able to work around that aspect but then things went down hill.
I am fed up to the point that I had to update my first review while searching for a new printer. This is my work printer and basically just doing color brochures and flyers. I have discontinued the use of card stock since the printer always jams. I rely on my ink jet for hard stock flyers and such. Right now it's shredding paper and nothing seems to be stuck in it, that isn't the only problem. I have had problems with it complaining about paper jams and nothing is stuck. I have opened the door and close it and it will start print again or I will have to turn it on and off to print again. Another problem is it states that I need to install an ink toner or "ink toner not installed", what I usually do is open it and shake it and put it back, this works for a few times but then I have to end up changing the ink toner for it to go on. My major problem is that the print outs are coming out w/a thick ink line on the side of the sheet. I have cleaned the rollers and sheet but it usually cakes back up. I am really disappointed in this printer now and would like to change my review to a BIG "2"!!!! Now I must rely on my ink jet for print outs and can not finish my work in a timely fashion.
out of 37 user reviews
Seems to be good printer for the money
Pros: Easy setup. Fast BW prints. Good print quality @ 2400x600 dpi compared to HP 2550.
Cons: Networking wasn't quite as easy as I'd hoped, but was achievable. No user manual in the box - only on the install CD in .pdf.
Price was good at $399.00 - $100 cheaper than the HP at office depot.
out of 37 user reviews
best in show!
Pros: price, size, color print quality
Cons: noise, documentation
out of 37 user reviews
Excellent little printer for the price with good quality output. Photos look Great!
Pros: 2 year Warr, Brilliant colours on plain paper, Quite fast for money, Photos print very well for a cheaper laser printer, Network capability included, Very Configurable, Not too loud, pictbridge port
Cons: photos not as sharp as inkjet (didn't expect more)
out of 37 user reviews
Great Printer
Pros: Good photo quality, fast
Cons: Alittle quarky running on a network
out of 37 user reviews
A great little printer for a reasonable price.
Pros: Very crisp black text / decent color
Cons: Effective warmup too long / loud
It turns out that I actually got two bum printers, both were not fusing correctly. I exchanged the second one for the floor model (only had 14 pages printed on it) at my local Office Depot. I got the third one home and voila, no more smudging. OK, not so impressed with initial quality out of the box, but I know sometimes these things happen. Still like the printer a lot and stand by my recommendation.
out of 37 user reviews
NOT good for envelopes and heavy stock or colored text
Pros: small size - nice black text
Cons: weak paper tray - wrinkles envelopes - bends paper/envelopes - spotty text printing - VERY Loud
out of 37 user reviews
A definite winner
Pros: You can get this network printer with 3 years additional warrenty with the cost of consumables comparable to HP for $100 less.
Cons: memory is only 32meg fro factory, could be at least 64 but it is easy to upgrade.
With the printer in sleep mode, I can send a print job of a full page, full color picture at the printers highest resolution, the printer will warm up and print it in about 62 seconds. After it warms up it takes about 30 seconds for a second page. I know that some people think that is slow, but compared to my only deskjet this think is fast.
The only bad thing I can say is that it comes with only 32meg of RAM and only uses single sided memory as well as to print on envelopes you must remove the pare that is in the paper tray.
out of 37 user reviews
Very Good Minolta Product
Pros: Easy to use software, intuitive menus, great color printing
Cons: Network menu a little tricky, a little noisy
Black printing is fast but a bit slow out of stanby for color.
out of 37 user reviews
Fast colour laser printer for the price of an inkjet!
Pros: Fast colour printing at an affordable price.
Cons: Documentation need refinement
Setup of the printer was fairly straightforward except for one minor snafu that I ran into with the toner cartridge. I came to the conclusion that the unit must have shook the cartridge loose in shipping. When the unit was powered on it showed a Fatal Error 17H. Translated this was a matter of the toner cartridge assembly being unable to cycle properly. It took a minute to ensure that the cartridge was engaged and off she went without a blink.
The 2430DL model also came equipped with the pict bridge capability. In order for the printer to use this feature an additional amount of RAM must be installed. You will need to purchase Single Sided 168Pin SDRAM since it is unable to recognize double sided DIMMs. Don't try it, just save yourself the frustration and order the proper RAM for it. Luckily I had some on hand and installed it into the printer by removing the one captive screw from the rear of the printer and snapping it into place. Voila the printer now had a 128MB RAM DIMM installed without breaking a sweat.
This printer was to be installed on my home office LAN. It came equipped with a network card and it was setup for DHCP. The printer had no problem seeing my network. Once connected I was able to access the built in web server to administer to the printer, rename it to something more human and of course change the default password.
Setup of the software was easily accomplished using the standard installer from the CD that is provided with the printer. Quite honestly this part was the no brainer for anyone who is capable of using a mouse.
The quality of the prints that come out of it while not photographic quality (my definition of photographic quality is a continuous tone print produced by dye sublimation or with a very high end micro picoliter inkjet printer) is more than acceptable for home use to do spot graphics and proofing work. There are several customisations that can be done with the printer drivers and are all fairly easy to understand. Text was very sharp and easy to read, it did not produce any noticeable jaggies.
There was only one thing that I can really say that is negative. Documentation. Konica Minolta if you are out there, please be kind to your users and provide fully printed manuals for the consumer. In the excitement of having a new colour printer, most tend to not read over the manual but more often than not, it is good practice to RTFM (Read The Fine Manual)
My rating for this printer is very high and I wholly recommend it for home office use. For higher volume printing, you are better off to get a business class work group printer.
out of 37 user reviews
Delivers on good quality at great price
Pros: Was down to $399 last week at Staples and Office Depot.
Cons: Not really a photo printer (think magazine quality, not photo quality)
Print quality is very nice. I looked at several brands of ~$500 color laser printers and the Konica Minolta models had the best looking prints to my eye. Color lasers are great for business printing where you can have instant sales brochures that look like you had them offset print. Photos on this printer are nice magazine quality, certainly good enough for brochures.
out of 37 user reviews
Initial Experience
Pros: Price is right
Cons: A tad on the noisy side - but thats because its a 4 pass
So far, the out of box experience has been good. I don't know what the previous user was talking about, but setup was in English, setup was a breeze and the setup instructions were minimal and easy. I have it attached to my home network, and the installation was truly a snap (you do have to understand IP Addresses - so you do have to know what you are doing when you put the IP Address in - Its not hard, but you still need a bit of knowledge about how IP Works)
As to the printout, the text looks fine. I bought some Laser Printer paper and the first pictures I printed were perfect. Are they Kodak paper prints ? No, but I tell you they aren't to shabby for what I was planning on anyway.
The best part, is I have 14 days to play with this thing, I plan on throwing a few different paper types at it. The thinking here, is that if I get 3 years out of this printer it will be perfect, and by then the technology should really be spot on.
I plan on posting a followup in 2 weeks
I didn't get as much done with it in my first week, but here is what I have found so far.
1. I tried doing an envelope today - A Cheap grocery store brand. While it worked and the printer printed on it, it did come out with a few noticeable creases. My guess here, is that the lighter the stock, the more prone it would be to having this happen. I have to get a heavier envelope to see if it happens again.
2. While on the topic of Envelopes, you have to take the paper out and then insert the envelope. For a "home" printer, they should think about including some mechanism to suppor that
3. I printed out a few newsletters today - I notice that for GIF's they appear to print a tad fuzzy .. Not sure what to attribute this to (probably the resolution of the GIF file). Again, for my purposes this isn't a problem.
4. Oh, another thing I found out was that the printer has a nifty HTTP Server, so you can get in to find out how the Cartridges are doing and how many pages you have printed.
5. One nit, the documentation is a tad sparse. I don't see much documentation specific to how to change cartridges or feed envelopes.
6. Another thing I don't know, is if you can use ink-jet certified paper in a laser printer. I do see that certain papers are marked inkjet/laser, I wonder if there really is a difference
out of 37 user reviews
Not the Best Choice!
Pros: Nice color, and nice footprint.
Cons: Drivers are defaulting in spanish!?
I would check out the HP as my next purchase!
out of 37 user reviews
High quality laser color
Pros: High quality laser color at reasonable price. Ideal for small business or home network. Kids homework projects look great!
Cons: Less memory (32Meg) compared to popular competition (64meg).
out of 37 user reviews
Quite Impressive Color Prints!
Pros: I just moved from my DISPOSABLE (14 month old) Epson C82 InkJet printer to this one and love the color output. It prints at 2400x600 and black print is very crisp. Toner cartridges are also very affordable at $69 for Cyan, Magenta or Yellow. (1500 pages
Cons: Was not aware of the power demands of Laser printer in the home. May need to get some sort of power regulator to keep the lights from flickering. (Printer has power saving option and it is ON by default)
out of 37 user reviews
Great Printer but don't buy if you want to use PictBridge
Pros: Easy setup right out of the box. Stunning Photo quality for a Laser if the picture is well lit and hi res, otherwise Inkjet is still better. Support is very responsive and apologetic
Cons: Be careful when installing the Driver as Spanish is the default language and instructions for removing the driver include editing the registry. Boasts that it has PictBridge but only supports draft mode out of the box. Minimum memory upgrade of 128 is r
