Dell 5230dn laser printer

Dell's 5230dn monochrome laser printer has the speed and features for a busy office

PC World (US online)

The Dell 5230dn monochrome laser printer may cost more up front, but its speed and expandability make it an excellent choice for a medium-size workgroup.

Pros

  • Fast, inexpensive toner

Cons

  • High purchase price

Bottom Line

Fast and expandable, and using cheap toner, the Dell 5230dn laser printer is well suited for a high-volume office.

Would you buy this?

  • Price

    $ 999.00 (AUD)

Special Offers

The 5230dn offers plenty of standard features, plus room to grow. It supports a combined 350 pages of input from the main and multipurpose trays. You can add up to three 550-sheet drawers ($345.40 each) and a 2000-sheet drawer feeder ($1381.60) for a maximum capacity of 4000 sheets.

Equipped with USB and Ethernet ports, the 5230dn also has a slot for optional serial or parallel connectors ($90 or less). An empty bay lets you add a hard drive for fonts or forms. The control panel has a 3-inch, four-line, backlit monochrome LCD that can tilt upward slightly, plus clearly labelled buttons, a keypad, and a front USB port.

Built for high-volume printing, the 5230dn has a 200,000-page monthly duty cycle and very good speed. It averaged 23.4 pages per minute on a PC and 21.5 ppm on a Mac when printing mostly plain text with some simple monochrome graphics. Though the text quality was as good as you'd expect, images suffered from a limited greyscale range and slower print times.

A high-volume office needs cheap toner, and the 5230dn delivers that. Replacement use-and-return cartridges come in $229.90, 7000-page standard and $410.30, 21,000-page high-yield sizes, working out to 3 cents and 1.9 cents per page, respectively. Nonreturnable cartridges are available at a significantly higher cost. The printer even ships with a standard cartridge rather than a lower-capacity "starter" unit. Cartridges are easy to remove and replace; the cartridge itself displays clear illustrations, just in case.

A busy office needs a printer that can keep pace. The Dell 5230dn can do that--and it can grow with your business. The inexpensive toner and generous warranty sweeten the deal.

Read more on these topics: dell, laser printers, printers,

User Comments

Be the first to comment.

Make your own

Comment
Review
This will be kept private.
0.00
Users posting comments agree to the PC World comments policy.

Most Popular

What's the difference between an Intel Core i3, i5 and i7?
How do I connect my TV to the Internet?
Apple iPad 2 vs Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1: Tablet showdown
Samsung Galaxy S III vs. HTC One X: Head-to-head
New Kogan Agora tablets run Android 4.0

Best Deals on PCWorld

Printers & ScannersView all »
NotebooksView all »
Desktop PCsView all »
TabletsView all »
Software and ServicesView all »

Resources

Printers & Scanners Product Finder
Find the product you're looking for with our Printers & Scanners search tool.