Lexmark C780n Color Laser Printer Review

Lexmark’s C780n is knows for its great print quality. This printer costs a bit more than the other printers in the market, but then its great performance more than compensates for it. This powerful and fast machine prints plain text at a speed of 26.1 pages/ minute; which is quite good. In fact it’s just behind the Oki Printing C5800Ldn (the quickest printer in the market).

The printed text is clear; and appears thick. The graphics produced are of high quality and are printed at a rate of 3.9 pages/ minute. Colors on a plain paper look a bit oversaturated; though the pattern is fine. Better colors and textures can be appreciated when prints are produced on Lexmark’s glossy laser paper.

The printer weighs 105 pound and is especially designed for heavy workloads. It has a 500 hundred sheet capacity input tray. The output tray can hold up to 250 sheets. To save space, the Lexmark’s C780n has a multipurpose tray. This 100 sheet tray on the left side opens at a steep angle.

An additional 500 sheet tray can be added. The printer can also hold labels, transparencies and envelopes. Duplexer for double printing can also be added. However these additional tools may cost quite a bit. It has an integrated memory of 256 MB. The memory can be expanded to up to 768 MB.

The printer is designed in a very simple way. The simple control panel has buttons which are clearly marked and labeled. It also has a monochrome LCD. The messages displayed on the LCD are easy to understand however few things aren’t very clear like how to proceed forwards or how to go back. The front panel is large, but not very user friendly; the reason being the lack of levers or handles on it.

To pull up the panel, there is a small leg. But it’s not easily noticeable because of its small size and also because it has an unclear label. Toner cartridges are in built when you buy the printer. You need to replace them once the ink is finished. For replacing them, you need to lift and pull them out. The procedure for doing this is not very clear; as the visual cues are less.

The cartridges are not very heavily priced; though Lexmark’s products are generally supposed to be quite pricey. The 6000 page black ink cartridge costs $154; which approximates to one penny per page. The color toner cartridges- cyan, yellow and magenta cost $289 each; which is almost 2 cents/ color page. The consumables are overall cheap.

Because of its fast and efficient printing, the printer is ideal for busy offices. One of the drawbacks with this printer is its reliability factor. In spite of having great speed and skills, the printer lacks poorly in reliability ratings. The company has a reliability rating of ‘worse than average’; though its service rating is fair enough. The printer is also quite bulky, and that is another of its drawback.

Lexmark’s C780n is a good general purpose printer, especially at those places where lots of prints are required in a day. Despite its poor reliability, it’s a good choice especially at this price. The printer comes with a one year warranty; any part found to be defective during this time period can be replaced.