| The 5570 is the latest colour laser to join | | | | colours together in the form of the Toner |
| the established magicolor family. With a | | | | Value Pack. As yet there are no compatible |
| quoted top speed of 35ppm for mono and 30ppm | | | | cartridges available, but when they are |
| for colour, it looks capable of satisfying | | | | introduced further running cost savings will |
| high-volume workgroup printing and uses | | | | be able to be made. |
| Konica Minolta's Simitri HD polymerised toner | | | | |
| technology, which claims to deliver superior | | | | And so to print quality, and it's here the |
| print quality. | | | | 5570 and its Simitri HD toner scores, as |
| | | | output is far superior to many competing |
| Simitri HD uses toner particles that are | | | | printers. The printer produced some of the |
| uniform in shape, and Konica Minolta claims | | | | best text quality we've seen, with |
| this allows the printer to deliver finer | | | | razor-sharp standard font sizes and even the |
| detail and use less toner than the | | | | smallest point sizes boldly produced with no |
| competition. It also claims the toner melts | | | | discernable smudging. Mono photos don't |
| at much lower temperatures, allowing the | | | | suffer from any colour cast, and the levels |
| printer to save up to 15% on power | | | | of detail are very good. Colour photos |
| consumption and reducing paper curling. Plus, | | | | revealed a lot of detail but suffered from |
| it emits 40% less CO2 than conventional | | | | slight banding in large areas of a single |
| toner. | | | | colour - something the HP Laserjet CP4005n |
| | | | didn't have a problem with. However, if it |
| We have no arguments with build quality, and | | | | hadn't been for the banding, we'd have had a |
| despite being only slightly larger than | | | | tough time telling them apart, as both |
| Lexmark's C532dn the 5570 weighs a hefty 44kg | | | | delivered a vibrancy in our test photos |
| fully loaded. Standard paper handling is | | | | that's often lacking in colour lasers. The |
| spread across a 500-sheet base tray and | | | | quoted mono print speeds are slightly |
| 100-sheet motorised MP tray, and you can add | | | | optimistic, as we clocked a 35-page basic |
| two more 500-sheet base trays. Along with a | | | | Word document at 1min 8secs for an average of |
| decent processor, the printer sports 256MB of | | | | 31ppm. However, colour printing was on the |
| memory, and an extra 512MB costs £190 | | | | money, with our 24-page DTP document |
| which is very reasonable. | | | | completed in 48 seconds for a tidy 30ppm. |
| | | | |
| As is the norm nowadays, the printer comes | | | | The magicolor 5570 may not be able to offer |
| supplied with low volume starter cartridges, | | | | the same output quality as HP's Laserjets, |
| in this case 6,000 page yield cartridges | | | | but it certainly matches them in terms of |
| which give a cost per page of 7.1p for colour | | | | value and speed. The printer is well built, |
| and 1.3p for mono output. | | | | and its low printing costs should put it on |
| | | | any enterprise's printing short list. |
| As soon as these are depleted they should be | | | | |
| replaced with high yield 12,000 page | | | | All in all a solid colour workhorse that |
| cartridges and this will reduce the cost per | | | | delivers good speed and quality colour |
| page to a more respectable 5.8p for colour | | | | printing with moderate running costs should |
| and 1.1p for mono. Another 0.1 p per page can | | | | let this one onto your shortlist. |
| be shaved from these costs by ordering all | | | | |