Lexmark C500n Color Laser Printer review

The black graphics prints were also good, with decent detail in the image portions and a good handling of the greyscale. We liked the colour text handling, too, though in smaller point sizes we could see visible dots and cross-hatching. Colour graphics is where the C500n fared the worst, and it actually wasn't all that bad. We saw visible banding in the greyscale and some jaggedness on curved lines. Colour graphics looked decent, though we did see a bit of banding in the colour gradients. In the photo elements, skin tones looked believable, though slightly ruddy.

CNET Labs' colour laser speed tests (pages per minute)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Colour graphics

Colour text

Black graphics

Black text

Lexmark C500n

6.43 

6.88 

19.8 

19.86 

Samsung CLP-510n

5.34 

4.88 

17.5 

17.87 

Konica Minolta Magicolor 2430DL

4.43 

4.88 

14.04 

14.26 

HP Color LaserJet 2600n

6.31 

6.64 

6.78 

7.03 

CNET Labs' colour laser quality
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Colour graphics

Colour text

Black graphics

Black text

Lexmark C500n

good 

good 

excellent 

excellent 

Konica Minolta Magicolor 2430DL

good 

good 

good 

excellent 

HP Color LaserJet 2600n

fair 

good 

good 

excellent 

Samsung CLP-510n

good 

good 

good 

fair 

Edited by Matthew Elliott
Additional editing by Kate Macefield