The Lexmark C530dn is a fast, high-quality colour laser printer that we recommend for any small office or home with high-volume printing needs. For £300, you get a network-ready printer with a built-in duplexer for automatic double-sided printing. If you need increased paper-handling options or more toner cartridge choices, check out the C532n (£340, no duplexer) or the slightly more expensive C532dn (£430).
Lexmark also has taken laudable steps to improve the eco-friendliness of its laser printers -- by reducing power consumption and material waste -- which benefits both your bank balance and the environment, a move we applaud. We're curious to see whether other manufacturers follow suit. The Lexmark C530dn's print speeds and quality are on a par with the more expensive Oki C5500n, which lacks a duplexer, making the C530dn a better buy.
Design
The Lexmark C530dn is a behemoth of a printer, as colour lasers tend to be (individual toner cartridges take up a lot of space). The C530dn's toner cartridges are stacked vertically, resulting in a tall unit: 439mm wide by 485mm tall by 513mm deep. It weighs a back-breaking 26kg, but two hand wells on either side help you get a grip if you need to move the printer around.
The control panel is very basic. A four-line text LCD is the centrepiece, though it's not backlit, so it can be difficult to read in bad lighting conditions. Only eight buttons adorn the panel: Menu, four direction keys, a Check key, a Back key and a Stop key.
The C530dn comes with a 250-sheet input tray that can expand from A4 to hold legal-size paper, as well as a 100-sheet multipurpose feeder that folds out from the front panel of the paper tray. You don't get any paper expansion options on this model, but it should be sufficient for home users. If you're in a small office environment and need expanded paper handling, the Lexmark C532n model offers the same 250-sheet tray plus an optional 550-sheet drawer, though you lose the multipurpose tray in favour of a single-sheet manual feed slot (for an 800-page max input). The next step up is the C532dn, which offers the 250-sheet tray, the 100-sheet multipurpose feeder, and the optional 550-sheet tray, for a total input capacity of 900 pages. The C530 series machines lack straight pass-through printing, a potential problem if you're using paper that has a tendency to jam when curled. The Oki C5500n does include this feature.
Features
All three models in Lexmark's C530 range come with a 375MHz processor and 128MB of RAM as standard (the memory can be expanded up to 640MB). The C530 series printers also come equipped with a USB connector and an Ethernet jack for network printing. You can opt for a Wi-Fi adaptor, too, for wireless printing. Using the printer's Menu option, you can change some settings,including brightness, contrast and saturation, make collated prints, or make a multipage print to fit multiple pages (up to 16) on to one sheet of paper.
Lexmark's C530 series is part of what Lexmark is calling its 'green machines', that is, printers that reduce their impact on the environment. The most obvious such feature is the built-in duplexer that comes standard on all but the C532n model. Duplexing, or automatic double-sided printing, reduces the amount of paper consumed, which is good for both the environment and your wallet. Lexmark is also promoting its new laser scanning units (an internal component in laser printers), which are smaller and have fewer moving parts than traditional units, allowing for less power consumption.
Finally, Lexmark has separated the toner cartridges into two units: one piece is simply the toner and the other is the photoconductor. Most manufacturers use a single-unit toner plus photoconductor cartridge. Lexmark's C530 series photoconductors will generally last for about 20,000 pages and the toner cartridges that ship with the C530dn will last for about 1,500 pages, so clearly the photoconductor will outlast the toner. By separating the two units, you don't need to waste a still-good photoconductor unit. All this should save you some cash and ease your mind somewhat about your contributions to landfills.
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User reviews4
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theshark 7 October 2012
Good: Colour reproduction, speed. Duplex functionality.
Bad: It's a bit big
Comment: I bought this for my home two years ago and it's been a great printer, producing great images. I do wish I'd double checked the dimensions before I bought it however, it is quite large and looks imposing beside my desk.
Liam R E Quin 29 May 2011
Good: quiet; reasonable print quality
Bad: uses toner constantly; slow to print first page
Comment: This printer uses toner every day, even when you're not printing; it "calibrates" itself, moving toner from the cartridges to a toner receptacle that you have to pay to replace in addition to those empty toner cartridges.
If you leave the printer turned off, it will calibrate when you turn it on, and/or sometimes when you first print; it takes a minute or two, so you can't rely on this printer if you are in a hurry.
The blacks are very smooth and solid (on the right paper at least) and the colours are good, so the only real problem I have with it is the toner usage. A minor (for me) secondary problem is that the paper path is not straight through, so printing on card or envelopes is difficult.
I don't think I'd buy another one.
Barrie Bain 6 May 2008
Good: Price, print qaulity
Bad: Colour toners "time out"
Comment: No complaints on quality, purchase price etc, but the key problem is colour toner apparent use. We use the printer primarily for mono printing, but we have had to replace the colour toners 6 times for a total of just over 800 colour copies. All the colour toners show empty at exactly the same time, presumably because they have a chip that tells them its time to extract more money from the owner. They are not physically empty. Lexmark say that when printing mono you use a bit of colour toner, but this does not explain why the toners say they are empty when, physically it is clear they are not. If like us, you want a printer for mostly mono with the occassional colour, you will end up spending a fortune on toner you don't actually use. Now the colour photoconductors and showing low.
If you are printing mostly colour, running cost will probably not be too bad, but the fact that all toners shoe empty at the same time will mean you are still wasting toner - on no other printer we have had have all the toners run out at exactly the same time. Black toner use has been acceptable and matches indicated life.
Reviews should pay closer attention to running costs - in just one year we've spent almost three times more on toners (that we haven't actually used up ) than we paid for the printer.
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