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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].

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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)

Summary of Contents for T430dn

Page 1: ...n addition the T430dn demonstrated competitive overall simplex efficiency rates from both the PCL and PostScript drivers With a maximum true resolution of 1200 x 1200 dpi the T430dn earned BLI s highest rating for all types of print jobs BLI test technicians noted that little if any toner spray was evident around characters the edges of circles were smooth and displayed no stair stepping and graysc...

Page 2: ...on errors or alerts such as low on toner as well as take an inventory of all printers on the network record all printing data and export that data to a database or spreadsheet The Lexmark T430dn can also be managed via its embedded Web page By accessing the page via a Web browser the user or administrator can view printer status the amount of consumables such as toner and the maintenance kit remai...

Page 3: ...ing 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 ...

Page 4: ... T430dn includes two print drivers PCL 6 and PostScript 3 Fonts 91 PCL 91 PostScript and 44 PPDS Resolution modes 600 x 600 dpi 1200 x 1200 dpi and two interpo lated resolution modes 1200 IQ offering 1200 x 600 dpi resolution and 2400 IQ offering 2400 x 600 dpi resolution Bypass The 100 sheet bypass accommodates sheets ranging in size from 3 x 5 to 8 5 x 14 and in weight from 16 to 43 lbs Control ...

Page 5: ...anty 249 a LexOnSite Exchange first year upgrade 89 a one year LexOnSite Exchange extended warran ty 149 a two year LexOnSite Exchange ex tended warranty 279 a three year LexOnSite Exchange extended warranty 449 a LexOn Site Repair first year upgrade 49 a one year LexOnSite Repair extended warranty 139 a two year LexOnSite Repair extended warranty 269 and a three year LexOnSite Repair ex tended warr...

Page 6: ...sion Profes sional Client is installed at the workstation us ers can access information through the T430dn s Web page although the Web page offers only limited real time feedback through a Java applet loaded when the Web page is launched Real time feedback is limited to the error messages that that occur on the T430dn Device status Yes Information on device status is available when using the MarkV...

Page 7: ...es CPP4 Black 282 3 13 177 46 68 1 563 1 563 1 Toner cost per page is based on Lexmark s Web pricing for the high yield return print cartridge and BLI s tested toner yield based on an original with 5 page coverage 2 The supplies cost per page is based on Lexmark s Web pricing and BLI s tested toner yields for the high yield return print cartridge Print Quality Text Good Line art Good Halftone rang...

Page 8: ... Yes Ability to process envelopes Yes TEST RESULTS AND OBSERVATIONS CONTINUED Print Productivity BLI S TESTED PRINT SPEEDS 0 10 600 x 600 dpi Average Speed including first page 5 15 20 30 32 15 05 Pages Per Minute Print speed is tested using BLI s Test Original with 5 page coverage The test page is printed in a quantity equal to dou ble the vendor s rated print speed for the device in each mode tes...

Page 9: ...pe Text Graphic Text Graphic Graphic Text Graphic File Extension DOC PM TIF PDF JPG Pre Raster File Size 114 KB 116 KB 20 MB 426 KB 248 KB Post Raster File Size 79 3 KB 10 6 KB 592 MB 415 KB 902 KB First Print Time seconds 8 58 8 34 11 12 10 27 8 55 All files are printed in a quantity equal to twice the manufacturer s rated speed for the device The raster times print speeds were tested at 600 dpi u...

Page 10: ... to completion of all print jobs 42 22 seconds Range for printers tested to date 42 22 seconds to 15 minutes 1 88 seconds Problems encountered None Applications compatibility units are tested for compatibility with Microsoft Word 2000 Microsoft PowerPoint 2000 Microsoft Publisher Adobe Photoshop 6 0 and Adobe Acrobat 5 0 using 25 application test files which contain text graphics halftoneimages tab...

Page 11: ... printers on a network documentation on MarkVision Professional lists other printers with which the utility is compatible Like other Lexmark printers the T430dn is designed to be alert based allowing the printer to report errors to the management utility when they occur so that users do not have to proactively request status information this should help reduce network traffic At the workstation end...

Page 12: ...ased on an event occurrence of a printer or group of printers MarkVision Professional also has the ability to take an inventory of all printers on the network and record the data the data may be customized by using filters as well as export the data to a database or spreadsheet The feature of exporting data may also be used in conjunction with MarkVision Professional s job accounting feature which ...

Page 13: ...erslab com 13 T430dn Status Window TEST RESULTS AND OBSERVATIONS CONTINUED Consumables monitoring Yes via the embedded Web page or via the Sta tus window Users can access the embedded Web page to obtain information on remaining life of consumables such as toner and the maintenance kit information regarding the amount of toner remaining is also available from the Status win dow T430 Status Window T...

Page 14: ...NetWare Windows UNIX Linux 44 PPDS IBM iSeries AppleTalk RIP Once Print Many Standard Standard Interface USB Parallel Secure Print Standard 10 100BaseTX IPP Web Support Optional Optional Interface 10Base2 Ethernet Collation Standard Token Ring Serial Auto Int Emul Switching Yes Yes Print Mgmt Software MarkVision Professional Other Print and hold SPEED AND RESOLUTION ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Speed Mo...

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