Konica Minolta Magicolor 5570 Review and Cartridge Choice

The 5570 is the latest colour laser to join theform of the Toner Value Pack. As yet there are
established magicolor family. With a quoted topno compatible cartridges available, but when they
speed of 35ppm for mono and 30ppm for colour,are introduced further running cost savings will be
it looks capable of satisfying high-volumeable to be made.
workgroup printing and uses Konica Minolta'sAnd so to print quality, and it's here the 5570 and
Simitri HD polymerised toner technology, whichits Simitri HD toner scores, as output is far
claims to deliver superior print quality.superior to many competing printers. The printer
Simitri HD uses toner particles that are uniform inproduced some of the best text quality we've
shape, and Konica Minolta claims this allows theseen, with razor-sharp standard font sizes and
printer to deliver finer detail and use less tonereven the smallest point sizes boldly produced with
than the competition. It also claims the tonerno discernable smudging. Mono photos don't suffer
melts at much lower temperatures, allowing thefrom any colour cast, and the levels of detail are
printer to save up to 15% on power consumptionvery good. Colour photos revealed a lot of detail
and reducing paper curling. Plus, it emits 40% lessbut suffered from slight banding in large areas of
CO2 than conventional toner.a single colour - something the HP Laserjet
We have no arguments with build quality, andCP4005n didn't have a problem with. However, if
despite being only slightly larger than Lexmark'sit hadn't been for the banding, we'd have had a
C532dn the 5570 weighs a hefty 44kg fullytough time telling them apart, as both delivered a
loaded. Standard paper handling is spread across avibrancy in our test photos that's often lacking in
500-sheet base tray and 100-sheet motorised MPcolour lasers. The quoted mono print speeds are
tray, and you can add two more 500-sheet baseslightly optimistic, as we clocked a 35-page basic
trays. Along with a decent processor, the printerWord document at 1min 8secs for an average of
sports 256MB of memory, and an extra 512MB31ppm. However, colour printing was on the
costs £190 which is very reasonable.money, with our 24-page DTP document
As is the norm nowadays, the printer comescompleted in 48 seconds for a tidy 30ppm.
supplied with low volume starter cartridges, in thisThe magicolor 5570 may not be able to offer the
case 6,000 page yield cartridges which give a costsame output quality as HP's Laserjets, but it
per page of 7.1p for colour and 1.3p for monocertainly matches them in terms of value and
output.speed. The printer is well built, and its low printing
As soon as these are depleted they should becosts should put it on any enterprise's printing
replaced with high yield 12,000 page cartridges andshort list.
this will reduce the cost per page to a moreAll in all a solid colour workhorse that delivers
respectable 5.8p for colour and 1.1p for mono.good speed and quality colour printing with
Another 0.1 p per page can be shaved frommoderate running costs should let this one onto
these costs by ordering all colours together in theyour shortlist.