Lexmark has launched quite a number of interesting laser printing solutions over time, aiming both larger corporate customers and smaller businesses. And one of these devices is the C530dn laser color printer launched by the company back in the second half of 2006, a peripheral that provides customers with a very high printing quality, as well as an enhanced level of printing efficiency at a relatively affordable price tag.



The first major improvement that can be encountered in the case of the C530dn is its integrated duplex printing system that allows users to print on both sides of a page without actually sitting around the printer in order to do so. This feature increases the device's level of efficiency, especially since the printer itself is pretty speedy, attaining maximum speeds of around 24 ppm.



And speaking of speeds, let's see what the C530dn has to offer in this particular area. Thus, the printer provides speeds of up to 24 pages per minute (letter format, black), 22 ppm (letter format, color), 22 ppm (A4, black) and 21 ppm (A4 format, color). Moreover, the printer has a relatively short start-up time, of around 10.5 seconds (black) and 11 seconds (color).



The C530dn offers very good printing resolutions, in both black and color printing. Thus, the printer from Lexmark attains a maximum printing resolution of 1200 x 1200 dpi, at a 4800 Color Quality (2400 x 600 dpi). The device works with a very wide range of media types (card stock, envelopes, glossy paper, labels, plain paper, transparent media) and formats (10 Envelope, 7 3/4 Envelope, 9 Envelope A4, A5, B5 Envelope, DL Envelope, Executive, Folio, JIS-B5, Legal, Letter, Statement and Universal).



Lexmark's printer also provides a high level of efficiency, as it incorporates a 350-sheet input tray and a 250-sheet output bin, so that it can be left unattended for longer periods of time. Moreover, it's quite “ink-efficient”, as a standard color cartridge will last for around 1500 pages and a standard black cartridge will last for up to 4000 pages.



The C530dn also works very well as an office printer, as it incorporates an Ethernet 10/100BaseTX (RJ-45) adapter, as well as a 350 Mhz processor with 128 MB of memory (upgradeable up to 640 MB). It supports the LPR/LPD, Direct IP (Port 9100), IPP (Internet Printing Protocol), HTTP, Socket (Raw TCP/IP), Enhanced IP (Port 9400) FTP and TFTP network printing protocols, and also provides native support for the TCP/IP / AppleTalk network protocols.



The C530dn laser color printer retails for around 500 US dollars, which makes it one of the cheapest in the laser color printer series from Lexmark, despite the fact that its features say otherwise.