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Review: Lexmark E322n monochrome laser printerReviewed By: Kirk Hiner Review Date: January 21, 2002
People sometimes say, "You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone." People also sometimes say, "It's time you realize I'm not your fool (Nobody's fool...nobody's fool...("). These same people have even been known to say, "Shake me, all night. Shake me, shake it don't break it, baby. Shake me." Of course no one was really listening to any of this, which may be why Cinderella hasn't put out a new album since 1994...and hopefully never will again. I was never much a fan of Cinderella nor any of those other hair metal bands, but I'll have to give "Don't Know What You Got (Till It's Gone)" another listen now that I know it's about laser printer technology. See, there was once a time when office workers had two options for shooting out their documents, memos and financial statements on their way to the Arthur Andersen company paper shredder; laser and dot matrix. Laser printers were wildly expensive, and dot matrix was...well, dot matrix was to the printed word what Cinderella was to recorded music. Then, along came the ink jet printer, and suddenly, who needed a laser printer anymore? It was quite simple to outfit a color ink jet printer with PostScript option and ethernet connectivity for the price of a low-end laser printer without comparable options? The trade off? The ink jet was slower and the text didn't look quite as nice. Big deal, right? But hey, it was good enough, right?
Of them all, it's the PS 2 emulation, ethernet connectivity and OS X compatibility that most attracted me to the printer. Of course, 16 pages per minute and 1,200 dpi (not at the same time, of course), are pretty nice to have as well. The print quality is impressive with both photos and graphics, provided the latter is formatted to take advantage of the 1,200 dpi, of course. I'm often amazed at the number of people who expect web pages, for example, to magically look fantastic simply because they're printed on a laser printer. I did find that some of the shadow values disappeared or became muddy, but that can also be attributed to paper quality. This is where the ability to adjust the levels of darkness really comes into play. By lightening the print to conserve ink, I actually got better image results on standard paper, and I didn't feel guilty about the number of tests I printed from Quark XPress...well, save for the waste of paper, of course. Where the E322n really shines is in printing text. At the highest speed with the lowest dpi, text printed from Nisus Writer, Quark XPress and Adobe Acrobat was crisp at nearly all the ink levels whether using TrueType or PostScript fonts. The big test came in the form of my 369 page novel, printed directly from Adobe Acrobat. The whole document printed in right around 25 minutes with no paper jams or carriage slides (in face we only experienced one paper jam throughout the entire review period). The last pages seemed hotter than they should've as they came out, but the quality was the same on page 369 as it was on page 1. The performance is impressive, but honestly, I have yet to use a laser printer that didn't yield great print results. The E322n instead distinguishes itself in other ways, the first of which is size. When the box arrived at our office, I was surprised at how small it was. The E322n is not much larger than its ink jet counterpart, the Z53. It's also fairly light for a laser printer, allowing for easy movement as your office grows.
Physical set-up is simple as well. The top of the printer opens easily for access to the laser cartridge, and a handle on the cartridge makes for simple placement and removal. The cartridges themselves run from $109 for a standard cartridge to $154 for a high yield cartridge, but they yield around 3,000 to 6,000 pages, respectively, depending upon your settings. This provides great relief from the ink jet world where I find myself installing new cartridges at least every other month. The ethernet and USB ports are placed high on the back of the system so you don't have to pull the unit too far from the wall to remove and plug in the connection cables. The op panel controls are simple, but functional. Only the power switch is placed in an inconvenient spot, low and far back on the left hand side. I would've rather seen this placed further up or even on top near the op panel. The printer's appearance could've used a bit more thought as well. With Epson and HP making sharper looking printers, Lexmark's models seem dated with the flat putty colors of the early to mid-90s. It seems antiquated sitting next to my Quicksilver G4, flat panel Studio Display and Harman/Kardon iSticks. Even my DSL modem looks more modern. But hey, now the Epson 800N won't feel like such an ugly duckling. But here's the kicker.What makes the E322n so attractive, quite frankly, is the price. 16 ppm, 1,200 dpi, built-in ethernet, and PostScript emulation for $600. Remove ethernet, drop from 16MB to 8MB, and you're at looking $400. This puts good printers with an impressive set of features well within the financial reach of students, home users and small businesses seeking the speed and quality of a laser printer. The ethernet connectivity--along with the ability to add more RAM and a larger paper tray--will allow the printer to grow as your needs do. There are cheaper laser printers out there, but few with the capabilities and performance of the E322n. So, yes, I'm now happily back in the world of laser printing because Lexmark has finally created a printer with the functionality I need yet at a price I can afford. Their Macintosh support has been fantastic from the start, and their quick support for OS X indicates they have no plans to pull it back. Now, if I could just get Cinderella to release a concept album on FireWire technology vs. USB 2, I can't help but thin it'd be the comeback of the century.
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As the man sang, you don't know what you've got until it's gone...and come back again. I didn't miss the laser printer, but then I tried the Lexmark E322n, and everything's changed. Here's why:
Set-up and use has also been a strong-suit for Lexmark, and the E322n continues this tradition. Installation in both Mac OS 9 was a simple matter of running the install program and clicking a few buttons. OS X was even simpler;