As businesses of all sizes demand capable colour printing, numerous printer makers have stepped up to offer faster and more affordable colour laser solutions for the network.
Take the Minolta-QMS Magicolour 2200N. It offers speedy printing in both colour and monochrome modes and includes an autosensing 10/100BaseTX Ethernet card for quick network connections.
It also comes with a respectable amount of RAM, ample paper-handling options, and plenty of room for expandability. However, the Magicolour 2200N is hobbled by low resolution, low-yield consumables, and poor colour output.
As with all colour lasers, it takes a little patience and time to unbox the AU$5445 Magicolour 2200N and get things running. You'll need to unpack the fusing oil roller unit, the photosensitive (OPC) drum unit, a plastic waste toner pack, and four toner cartridges (black, cyan, magenta, and yellow), as well as the printer itself.
Because the Magicolour 2200N is extremely heavy (more than 45kg with its accessories installed), you should draft someone to help you unpack and position the printer.
The Magicolor 2200N comes with adequate installation and setup manuals. The Quick Setup Guide sheet covers the basics of printer setup, but we found the lack of text confusing.
The rest is in PDF format on the Print System Documentation CD. This disc provides extensive and useful materials, including the Installation Guide, the 168-page User Guide, the Maintenance Guide, the Service and Support Guide, and numerous how-to videos.
You can use the printer with your standalone PC through the parallel port, or you can connect the Magicolor 2200N to your Ethernet LAN. In addition to the documentation CD, a second disc contains a wealth of software for the Magicolor 2200N. There are drivers for Windows 95, 98, Me, NT, 2000; Mac; OS/2; and Unix operating systems.
The Minolta-QMS network administration software (CrownAdmin) lets you configure your printer and perform network operations on printers connected to Ethernet and Token Ring networks. The disc also contains fonts, ICC printer profiles, host ICM profiles, and Colourific and Pantone colour calibration files for Minolta-QMS colour printers.
The Magicolour 2200N's standard configuration should satisfy small- to medium-sized workgroups. It comes with 64MB of factory-standard RAM (upgradable to 384MB) and supports PCL 6 and Adobe PostScript 2. Although it is capable of 1200 x 1200dpi resolution, with the standard amount of RAM it is limited to 600 x 600dpi.
Its standard configuration also offers a generous 500-sheet paper tray for letter, A4, and legal media. For AU$1125, you can add a 500-sheet paper drawer. The Magicolour 2200N also has a spacious 150-sheet multipurpose tray that is compatible with a wide range of media, including Executive, Statement, A5, B5 (JIS), B5 (ISO), UK Quarto, Foolscap, Folio, SP Folio, Japanese Postcard, DL, Monarch, C5 and C6 envelopes, transparencies, and labels.
In tests, the Magicolour 2200N performed reasonably well. Minolta-QMS rates the Magicolour 2200N at an impressive 20 pages per minute (ppm) black and 5ppm colour, but in our tests, it managed just over half that, at 12ppm black, 3.2ppm text and graphics, and 2.8ppm colour.
Still, that's fast enough for most purposes. The text output was excellent on plain paper, and text and graphics output was also good. However, its colour output was poor. Colours were dark, and photos looked dithered like newsprint.
Consumable costs for the Magicolour 2200N are inexpensive; colour toner cartridges list at AU$304 each (about 5 cents per colour page), and the black toner cartridge lists for AU$165. Because the cartridges are rated for only 6000 pages, however, you'll have to replace them more often than you would for the Optra C710n (its cartridges are supposed to last for 10,000 pages).
The Minolta-QMS Magicolor 2200N is an easily networkable and configurable colour laser. It offers fast print speeds and ample support and expandability. However, its poor colour output and limited 600dpi base resolution leave us wanting more for the price.
Minolta-QMS Magicolour 2200N
Company: Minolta Australia
Price: AU$5445
Phone: 1800 265 687
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