Fast prints; excellent print quality; built-in duplexer (except on the C532n model); network-ready; separate photoconductor means less waste; expandable on-board memory
Text LCD isn't backlit; C530dn model doesn't have expandable paper handling options; colour handling could use some minor improvements; lacks straight pass-through printing
With fast speeds and impressive print quality, the Lexmark C530dn is a great colour laser printer for the price -- we prefer it over a more expensive colour printer from the competition
8.1 Excellent
Reviewed by Felisa Yang
The Lexmark C530dn is a fast, high-quality colour laser printer that we recommend for any small office or home with high-volume printing needs. For £300, you get a network-ready printer with a built-in duplexer for automatic double-sided printing. If you need increased paper-handling options or more toner cartridge choices, check out the C532n (£340, no duplexer) or the slightly more expensive C532dn (£430).
Lexmark also has taken laudable steps to improve the eco-friendliness of its laser printers -- by reducing power consumption and material waste -- which benefits both your bank balance and the environment, a move we applaud. We're curious to see whether other manufacturers follow suit. The Lexmark C530dn's print speeds and quality are on a par with the more expensive Oki C5500n, which lacks a duplexer, making the C530dn a better buy.
Design
The Lexmark C530dn is a behemoth of a printer, as colour lasers tend to be (individual toner cartridges take up a lot of space). The C530dn's toner cartridges are stacked vertically, resulting in a tall unit: 439mm wide by 485mm tall by 513mm deep. It weighs a back-breaking 26kg, but two hand wells on either side help you get a grip if you need to move the printer around.
The control panel is very basic. A four-line text LCD is the centrepiece, though it's not backlit, so it can be difficult to read in bad lighting conditions. Only eight buttons adorn the panel: Menu, four direction keys, a Check key, a Back key and a Stop key.
The C530dn comes with a 250-sheet input tray that can expand from A4 to hold legal-size paper, as well as a 100-sheet multipurpose feeder that folds out from the front panel of the paper tray. You don't get any paper expansion options on this model, but it should be sufficient for home users. If you're in a small office environment and need expanded paper handling, the Lexmark C532n model offers the same 250-sheet tray plus an optional 550-sheet drawer, though you lose the multipurpose tray in favour of a single-sheet manual feed slot (for an 800-page max input). The next step up is the C532dn, which offers the 250-sheet tray, the 100-sheet multipurpose feeder, and the optional 550-sheet tray, for a total input capacity of 900 pages. The C530 series machines lack straight pass-through printing, a potential problem if you're using paper that has a tendency to jam when curled. The Oki C5500n does include this feature.
Features
All three models in Lexmark's C530 range come with a 375MHz processor and 128MB of RAM as standard (the memory can be expanded up to 640MB). The C530 series printers also come equipped with a USB connector and an Ethernet jack for network printing. You can opt for a Wi-Fi adaptor, too, for wireless printing. Using the printer's Menu option, you can change some settings,including brightness, contrast and saturation, make collated prints, or make a multipage print to fit multiple pages (up to 16) on to one sheet of paper.
Lexmark's C530 series is part of what Lexmark is calling its 'green machines', that is, printers that reduce their impact on the environment. The most obvious such feature is the built-in duplexer that comes standard on all but the C532n model. Duplexing, or automatic double-sided printing, reduces the amount of paper consumed, which is good for both the environment and your wallet. Lexmark is also promoting its new laser scanning units (an internal component in laser printers), which are smaller and have fewer moving parts than traditional units, allowing for less power consumption.
Finally, Lexmark has separated the toner cartridges into two units: one piece is simply the toner and the other is the photoconductor. Most manufacturers use a single-unit toner plus photoconductor cartridge. Lexmark's C530 series photoconductors will generally last for about 20,000 pages and the toner cartridges that ship with the C530dn will last for about 1,500 pages, so clearly the photoconductor will outlast the toner. By separating the two units, you don't need to waste a still-good photoconductor unit. All this should save you some cash and ease your mind somewhat about your contributions to landfills.
Lexmark's toner cartridge options are somewhat convoluted, but you do get plenty of choices. The C530dn ships with starter 1,500-page black and colour cartridges, while the C532n and C532dn models ship with 4,000-page black and 3,000-page colour cartridges. Replacing the cartridges is where your choices may become confusing. Lexmark has a return cartridge programme: it offers a price discount to consumers who agree to use the cartridge only once and return the spent cartridges to Lexmark for recycling or manufacturing. See the Lexmark site for more details. Cost-per-page varies greatly due to all the toner options, but overall, the prices are reasonable and in line with the competition. Naturally, the available high-yield cartridges result in a lower cost-per-page.
Performance
Among the colour laser printers we've seen in this price range, the Lexmark C530dn made an impressive showing. It was fast across the board and made high-quality prints. It printed black text at a speedy 17.02 pages per minute, behind the more expensive Oki C5500n (17.92ppm) and Lexmark's own C500n (19.86ppm). It was quick with black graphics prints, too: 16.36ppm, again, behind only the Oki and the Lexmark C500n. It really impressed us with its fast colour prints, though. Even printers that excel at mono prints usually slow right down with colour, but not so with the Lexmark C530dn. It cranked out colour text at 15.94ppm and colour graphics at 13.56ppm.
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Colour graphics |
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Colour text |
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Black graphics |
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Black text |
Sometimes, you get fast prints at the expense of quality, but the C530dn delivered in both areas. The black text was clean, sharp and dark -- everything we expect from a laser printer. The same goes for the colour text. Even better, the colour text suffered only minimally from the cross-hatching that often plagues colour text. The black graphics print showed excellent greyscale handling, sharp details and again, minimal cross-hatching. The colour graphics print also showed sharp detail and smooth colour gradients, though we saw some banding in what should be a smooth greyscale. The colours were also overly red, resulting in a ruddy skin tone among other things, but that was the only issue we found with the print.
Overall, we preferred the Lexmark C530dn's print quality to both the HP 2605dn and the Oki C3400n and found it to be on par with the more expensive Oki C5500n.
Edited by Matthew Elliott
Additional editing by Nick Hide
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