Best Reviewed
Color Laser Printers
- Budget color laser printer Xerox Phaser 6010 *Est. $200
- Best small office printer Brother HL-4570CDW *Est. $350
- Fastest color laser printer Dell 5130cdn *Est. $950
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Fastest color laser printer
- Fast
- Good paper handling
- Low claimed cost per page
- Good text quality
- Below average photo quality
- Large and heavy
The fastest color laser printer, according to reviews, is the Dell 5130cdn (*Est. $950). Its advertised speed of 47 pages per minute (ppm) makes it a color laser printer suitable for a busy office with high printing needs. Reviewers at PC World and at PCMag.com state that this is the fastest color laser printer that they've reviewed. The 47 ppm claimed by the manufacturer translated to 25.2 ppm for text pages in the tests conducted by PC World. While the numbers don't match, the PC World reviewers say it's the fastest printer they've seen and in line with the claim. The testers at PCMag.com get similar results. The Dell 5130cdn has a maximum monthly duty cycle of 110,000 pages, indicating that this printer is intended for high-volume printing.
The Dell 5130cdn is the first-choice laser printer of Jon L. Jacobi at PC World, receiving an impressive 4.5 stars out of a possible 5. Jacobi says this printer has "everything a busy office needs," citing its speed, high print quality and multiple features. Tony Hoffman of PCMag.com awards the 5130cdn 4 out of 5 stars, positioning it as a fast color laser printer for busy workgroups in small or medium-size offices. Basing their evaluation on the PC World review, reviewers at the U.K. website PC advisor agree with its 4.5 star rating, as do the Editors at MacWorld.
The 5130cdn comes with features that support this fast printing speed. The standard paper tray holds 550 sheets of paper, and the multi-purpose tray contains an additional 150 sheets. Optional components include two additional paper trays, one holding an extra 550 sheets (*Est. $250) and the other a staggering 1,100 sheets (*Est. $600). (That's a total of 2,350 sheets using all the optional trays.)There is also a component (*Est. $1,000) that can staple up to 50 sheets of paper at a time and stack up to 1,000 sheets. The standard memory of 256 MB can be expanded up to a maximum of 1,024 MB to process even large print jobs quickly.
Along with this speed, the 5130cdn provides good quality text printing for everyday office documents, though reviewers differ slightly in their evaluation of this function. Jon L. Jacobi of PC World calls the text print quality "nearly perfect," while Tony Hoffman of PCMag.com states that it's "slightly subpar," but both agree that this is adequate for most business uses. Reviewers agree, however, that the printing quality of photos leaves something to be desired. Test prints of photographic images showed a slight graininess or fogginess, though the overall color is good, with natural, rich and well-saturated color. The graininess is more pronounced in grayscale images, which also show light bands. The Dell 5130cdn, however, does well in printing very thin lines, something that Hoffman says is lacking in most laser printers. Hoffman states that the print quality of graphics is good enough for PowerPoint presentations or basic handouts.
Jabobi says the Dell 5130cdn looks a "little intimidating," with its dullish-black exterior and large size. At 17 inches by 22.1 inches by 2 inches, this printer has a large footprint and, weighing in at 99 pounds, will take two or more people to move. The drum and toner cartridges are easily accessed through a fold-down front panel, through which you also reach to clear any paper jams. The front control panel has a monochrome LCD screen with a cursor and navigation buttons that Jacobi calls "intuitive." This printer's settings can also be changed via a web browser.
The reviewers cite the economical cost of the toner as yet another plus for this printer, resulting in a low claimed cost per page, an important consideration for high volume printing. The Dell 5130cdn ships with a 9,000-page black toner cartridge, and 6,000-page color cartridges. High-yield toner cartridges are available and reduce the per-page printing costs further.
The best reviews of the Dell 5130cdn printer come from technology publications, including PC World, PCMag.com and PC Advisor. MacWorld.com repurposes PC World's review, focusing on how the printer works with Apple computers.
| Dell 5130CDN Laser Printer - Color - Plain Paper Print - Desktop | |
(2 reviews) In Stock. |
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Our Sources
Jon L. Jacobi awards the Dell 5130cdn 4.5 out of 5 stars and first place in PC World's list of top 10 laser printers. He states that the 5130cdn doesn't neglect text print quality for speed, and its features, including automatic duplexing and a large-input paper tray capacity, support its role as a color laser printer for a busy office with high volume printing requirements.
Review: Dell 5130cdn Color Laser Printer, Jon L. Jacobi, Feb. 26, 2010
Awarding the Dell 5130cdn 4 out of 5 stars, Tony Hoffman recommends this printer for busy workgroups in small to midsize offices. Highlighting its paper handling and low claimed cost per page, Hoffman comments that, while he considers the text print quality to be slightly subpar, this is a good "workhorse" printer.
Review: Dell 5130cdn Color Laser Printer, Tony Hoffman, April 28, 2011
Macworld uses the color laser printer review from PC World, agreeing with their rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars for the Dell 5130cdn laser color printer. Editors at Macworld rank the 5130cdn in second place in their top 10 laser printers.
Review: Dell 5130cdn, Jon L. Jacobi, March 17, 2010
4. PC Advisor
PC Advisor, a U.K. website, uses the Dell 5130cdn laser color printer review from PC World, agreeing with Jacobi's rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars.
Review: Dell 5130cdn Review, Jon L. Jacobi, March 1, 2010
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