Thinking about finally starting your epic 600 page manifesto on clown culture in 19^th century London?  You’re going to need a printer that can churn out pages at light speed.  Colour laser printers can be a costly investment, but with inexpensive and longer-lasting laser toner ink, they’re actually cheaper to operate than inkjets and far more capable of delivering mass amounts of beautiful-looking text on demand.  For a workgroup or the hardworking word wrangler, a good laser printer is a must, and for our money, there’s none finer than the Dell 3130cn.

When you work in a small office like ours, time at the printer is at a premium.  I don’t want to be stuck waiting in a line while there’s work to be done, and chances are neither do you.  While most laser printers turn out an average of 21 pages of black print per minute and about 15 of colour, the Dell 3130cn can crank out an impressive 30 pages of mono and 25 pages of colour per minute.  What this translates to is less time printing per person, and more time being productive for you.  The machine also has a duty cycle (the number of pages that can be printed safely each month) of 70,000 pages, which is approximately double that of competitors and terrific news for those looking to do heavy-duty printing.

If quantity isn’t your chief concern, however, the Dell 3130cn offers a slew of excellent features.  My favourite is the inclusion of a USB slot, which allows you to insert a memory card and print a finished version of your work without ever starting your computer.  Colour laser toner is also extremely cheap for this product, and you’ll never have to worry about being left without since the printer automatically lets you know when levels are low so you can pre-order in advance.  These are the kinds of office-friendly touches that we appreciate, and I was happy to see them here.

Finally, no discussion of a printer is complete without mention of dpi (dots per inch), and in this area the 3130 performs swimmingly.  The Dell printer has a dpi of 600×600, which is fairly typical for laser printers of this class and more than enough for producing quality standard documents.  It also produces beautiful photos and colour projects, meaning you’ll never think about your old white-and-black printers again.

Did you know?

Aeroplane passengers in the U.S. are banned from carrying toner and ink cartridges weighing more than 453 grams onto flights following a 2010 terrorist plot which involved explosive-filled laser printers.

-Jeff O.

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