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Review
Created:
April, 2000
There are three elements to consider when buying a printer for home office or small business use. There is the question of quality -- will there be competitive output and long-term durability? There is speed -- will paint dry in the time it takes to print my one hundred-page report? Then there is cost -- will the printer and its toner replacement weigh heavily on my bottom line?
The Lexmark Optra E310 scores competitively in two out of the three.
This black and white laser unit prints well. Output is strong. Text pages are crisp and sharp. Graphics print well. At 600 by 600 dots per inch standard resolution -- rising to 1200 dots per inch for more substantial graphics, you will not complain about the end result.
The speed is very good at the text-only level, offering close to the manufacturer's promise. More than seven pages a minute seem to be the unit's norm. Where the speed stumbles is with graphics. Printing speed for graphics during the testing period ranged from 50 seconds to a full 4.5 minutes. One particular bitmap file did not even make it to the printer -- its mass rendered an error message instead of a printed output. This could be a result of only 2 megabytes of memory being included (which isn't much), which is thankfully expandable to 66 megabytes.
The paper tray holds 150 pages, the output tray holds just 100. That's not exactly top-notch capacity for a high-Volume office printer. One might expect at least the possibility of expanding -- but no such luck with this unit. What you start with is what you get.
Where this durable and sturdy unit falters most is in the price -- $399 US ($625 Canadian). Too bad. If printers were not so competitively priced these days and laser jets were not providing quality that rivals laser printers, this would look like a bargain. But the days of high-cost printing are gone and quality print units can be had for less than $300 ($450 Canadian). The Lexmark Optra E310 may offer value, but isn't such a great bargain.
On the positive end, the Optra E310's toner unit ($102.50 US, $154 Canadian) is efficiently inexpensive. Cost per page comes out to a competitive two cents US (three cents Canadian). You won't be buying costly toner units as often as you'd expect.
On the whole, the Optra E310 is a competitive, sturdy, high-quality printer. It has a somewhat hefty price tag for a printer without significant bells and whistles. Price shop before committing to this one.
Reviewer's Rating: 3.5 / 5
Comments: The Optra E310 is a good black and white printer that costs more than it should but makes efficient use of toner for inexpensive printing.
Platform: PC, Macintosh
Interface: Bi-directional parallel port, USB
Network capability?: Yes
Maximum resolution: 600 x 600 (1200 image)
Color?: No
Pages per minute (manufacturer's claim): 8
Software included: Markvision Print Management Utility
Maximum paper size: 8.5 x 14 inches
More info: http://www.lexmark.com
Price: $399.00 US, $626.25 Canadian
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