Lexmark T650DN mono workgroup laser printer

Our test photographic image includes fine detail in the foreground, bright and shadowed areas in the distance and a large area of gradated sky. The T650DN did well enough with the bright detail, but lost quite a lot in areas of shadow. The sky suffered from the same greyscale problems as business graphics fills, though there was still only marginal evidence of banding.

Although photo printing isn't a major part of the work of any mono laser, it's becoming increasingly important that work machines can reproduce images with reasonable fidelity. This printer is better than a lot, but a smoother toner lay-down is needed to produce really high-quality piccies.

Pencils not included

The Lexmark toner cartridge is an integrated unit containing the photoconductor drum as well as the toner itself. This makes for easy maintenance, and the two available capacities of 7000 and 25,000 pages emphasise that the machine is intended for heavy use. A 7000-page cartridge is provided in the box, but using the more economical 25,000 page cartridge to calculate costs produces a figure of 1.2p inc. VAT per ISO page.

This is a good figure for a printer in this class, so its overall cost should stay low over the lifetime of the machine. The initial purchase price is on a par with the main rivals in this level of print and the only fly in the ointment is the stupidly small main paper tray. Any machine intended for work should be able to take at least a ream of paper at a time.

Verdict

This is a juggernaut of an A4 mono workgroup laser printer but, apart from the size, it's well-designed, gives good economy, is fast and easy to use and has useful features such as walk-up and PIN-code printing. With a 500-sheet paper tray as standard, rather than the paltry 350-sheet one supplied, it would be a winner. ®

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