Bake-Off: Eight Color Printers Put Through The Paces

Fourth Place: Lexmark C532N
Lexmark International Inc. has clearly been struggling over the past two years with revenue and earnings. But its problems have largely been limited to its consumer and OEM businesses, while sales of its branded, commercial color printers have done better. With the C532N, we found a capable and worthy color laser printer. From a speeds-and-feeds perspective, it printed 17 pages in a minute, 185 pages in 8 minutes, 26 seconds, had a standard Web-based management interface and was the easiest to set up. Lexmark has been criticized for its color offerings at times, but its color quality was no slouch and, considering the $499 list price, worked well as part of an office solution. The downside: Lexmark is in a brutally competitive space and, to start outflanking its competitors, it may want to add stronger, on-board management features. If you're a Lexmark reseller, you can take comfort knowing that the company is keeping up, but keep an eye on its offerings to make sure its competitors don't start pulling away further.

Lexmark's longtime, robust channel program provides what resellers have come to expect: discounts, lead-generation programs, marketing support, and demo and evaluation units. There's no cost to become a Lexmark reseller.

Fifth Place: Kyocera-Mita Eco Pro C220N
The Kyocera Mita Eco Pro C220N lived up to its reputation and was the most energy-efficient printer we reviewed in this round, consuming 60 watts of power during a 21-page print job, for example. For VARs with customers that need multiple printers throughout an enterprise—from several dozen to perhaps several hundred—the EP C220N could provide a compelling argument from a cost-savings point of view. At a list price of $1,030, it also could provide a compelling argument from a cost-of-acquisition standpoint. From a performance perspective, it was a little disappointing, printing 18 pages per minute and 185 pages in 9 minutes, 51 seconds with middle-of-the-pack color quality.

Kyocera-Mita, though, is investing much in the channel, has launched some managed print services offerings—including one with distributor Synnex—and does have higher-performing and faster units in its lineup. Kyocera also provides VARs with a nifty, Web-based TCO calculator and marketing collateral for managed services, in addition to financial incentives.

Sixth Place: Samsung CLP-610
Starting from almost nothing a few years ago, Samsung Electronics has come far, fast. At this pace, it's poised to threaten other vendors' channel market share in the next 24 months, if not sooner. Right now, though, there's a clear gap between veteran players in the color laser space and Samsung.

The numbers: The CLP-610 printed 14 pages per minute, 185 pages in 11 minutes, 29 seconds, offered a friendly, browser-based management console that gave clear views of toner life, unit page count, roller information, machine and network settings, and support information. Its color quality was above-average. The unit is list-priced at $399 but street pricing was found as low as $329, making it clearly the least expensive unit reviewed in this roundup. Its form factor is nice and light and it deployed in a snap. Earlier this year, Samsung announced enhancements to its PrintCentives channel program and provides financial incentives, marketing funds and help with creating specific, customer-focused solutions in some cases.

Next: Seventh Place: Konica-Minolta Magicolor 4650dn