The Lexmark E250dn is a great monochrome laser printer for a single home user or a college student. For AU$455.40, you get a built-in duplexer, and it comes network ready (if you don't need the networking, save yourself about AU$100 and go with the E250d (RRP AU$455.50). It's on the slow side for text prints but cranks through graphics prints, and the quality of both print types is excellent. The recently reviewed AU$349 Samsung ML-2571N features built-in networking and faster text prints but skips the duplexer. In the end, we prefer the print quality of the Lexmark E250dn. If you really value fast text prints, go for the Samsung; otherwise, spend the extra cash for the Lexmark E250dn.
Design
The Lexmark E250dn sits 25.9cm tall, 35.8cm wide, and 39.6cm deep, it has a small footprint for a laser printer, making it a perfect fit for a small office or a dorm room. And weighing just 11.3 kilograms, it's not too hard to move to a different spot should the need arise.
The input tray can hold up to 250 sheets of plain paper, and an optional, 550-sheet paper drawer brings the maximum input to 800 pages. A single-sheet manual input slot with adjustable paper guides lives in the front for one-off prints. The top-mounted output tray has a fold-out flap to corral long sheets of paper and a single-sheet exit door lives in the rear of the printer (opening this door automatically engages the rear exit mode). The input tray can be extended to hold legal-size sheets, though this will cause the tray to jut out of the back of the printer; for this scenario, Lexmark thoughtfully includes a snap-on cover that will keep dust out of your paper tray.
The E250 series printers lack an LCD for perusing menus. The control panel is comprised of five indicator lights (error, paper jam, load paper, refill toner, and ready) and two buttons (cancel and resume). The indicator lights shine in various combinations, and the user guide helps you to decipher their meaning. We definitely prefer an LCD, even if it's just a two-line text window, but other monochrome laser printers in this price range also lack one, so we can't fault Lexmark too much.
Both the E250d and E250dn ship with a 1,500-page starter toner cartridge. Replacement cartridges can print about 3,500 pages. The E250 printers employ a two-part cartridge design. The photoconductor has a longer lifespan than the toner cartridges, so with this design, you don't need to discard a still-good component when the toner runs out.
Features
Because the E250 series printers are so basic, it's not surprising that they have a short features list. They come standard with built-in duplexers, so double-sided printing is a cinch. You can also make other selections, such as creating an N-up print (printing multiple pages on a single sheet), printing a watermark, or making a booklet print, though you'll have to do this through whatever program you're printing from, because the E250 printers lack an LCD.
The E250d and E250dn ship with a 366MHz processor and 32MB of RAM (expandable to 96MB). The E250d comes with a parallel connector and a USB port for direct connection, while the E250dn includes a built-in Ethernet connector for sharing the printer over a network. Lexmark also offers an optional wireless adapter for these printers.
Performance
The Lexmark E250dn's performance was a mixed bag. Its text prints were dismally slow, 11.15 pages per minute. The equivalently priced Samsung
ML-2571N printed text at a much faster 16.71ppm. On the other hand, the E250d sped through graphics prints scoring a blazing 20.95ppm, besting all the competition in its price range.
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As for quality, the Lexmark E250dn excelled in both categories. Its text prints were crisp, dark, and clean. The graphics print showed excellent detail, a nice progression through the greyscale, and only minor cross-hatching in graphics. Overall, we liked its print quality better than that of the Samsung ML-2571N.
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Lexmark backs the E250dn with a one-year warranty. Lexmark's Web site includes a knowledge base, downloadable drivers, and a resource centre to help get you started on new printing projects.
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Tas Davies
15/04/2008, 03:12 PM
rating
7/10
Very easy to use and crisp quality prints
Pros: Easy
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