Lexmark
T430dn
BUYERS LABORATORY INC.
Lab Test Report
© 2004 Buyers Laboratory Inc. WARNING: This material is copyrighted by Buyers Laboratory Inc. and is the sole property of Buyers Laboratory. Duplication of this proprietary report or excerpts from this report, in any manner,
whether printed or electronic (including, but not limited to, copying, faxing, scanning or use on a fax-back system), is illegal and strictly forbidden without written permission from Buyers Laboratory. Violators will be prosecuted
to the fullest extent of the law. To purchase reprints of any BLI reports or articles, contact BLI at (201) 488-0404. Buyers Laboratory Inc., 20 Railroad Avenue, Hackensack, NJ 07601. Contact us at [email protected].
3
forms or documents on a Web site or central server and print the latest version from the printer control
panel. The ImageQuick allows for the direct printing of HTML, JPEG, GIF, PNG, PCX, DCX, Windows
BMP, TIFF, PostScript, PCL and Text files without using an application or a printer driver. A component
of the ImageQuick Card, the Drag’N’Print Utility, allows users to print multiple Web pages, documents
or image files simply by dragging and dropping them on to the printer icon for any printer on a LAN
using TCP/IP.
Pricing Analysis And Summary
The Lexmark T430dn is priced more than $800 less than the average for legal-size monochrome printers
in its speed range with similar standard features, including duplex and network connectivity, though
the unit’s standard paper capacity is less than half that of competitive units. In addition, the T430dn’s
supplies cost per page is competitive with that of other tested monochrome printers in the same speed
range tested by BLI to date.
Summary
Based on its outstanding reliability, excellent ease of use, good print quality, thorough network
management utilities and good economy, BLI recommends the Lexmark T430dn for small to mid-size
workgroups, provided it is configured with additional paper drawers, in need of a monochrome laser
printer with monthly print volumes of up to 18,000 impressions.
Advantages
• With an estimated street price of $849, the T430dn is priced 49% less than the average ($1,673) for competitive
monochrome laser printers. In addition, cost per page is competitive with tested printers in this speed range.
• Text, line art, halftones and solids produced by the T430dn received BLI’s highest image quality rating.
• First-print times for all file types used in testing (Word, PageMaker, TIFF, PDF and JPEG) are competitive to
above average from both print drivers. In fact, when printing from the PCL driver, the T430dn demonstrated first
print times for the TIFF, PDF and JPEG files that are the fastest of competitive laser printers tested to date.
• One of the most thorough and flexible utilities BLI has evaluated to date, MarkVision Professional makes setup
on the network easy, and can identify all Lexmark printers, as well as non-Lexmark printers, on a network.
• MarkVision Professional also provides extensive device status and print job status monitoring capabilities,
including real-time feedback when a client module is installed at the workstation or limited real-time feedback
when accessing the utility via a Web browser.
• The T430dn demonstrated the fastest first page time out of energy save mode, which, at only 10.39 seconds, is
only two seconds more than when the printer is in a ready state.
Shortcomings
• The T430dn demonstrated below average overall duplex efficiency rates from both drivers.
• The standard and maximum paper capacity, at 350 and 1,100 sheets, respectively, are below average.
GENERAL APPRAISAL
(CONTINUED)