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| date of review: updated 08/27/03 |
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The Way We See It
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| Excellent |
| Good |
| Average |
| Poor |
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| Setup |
7.5 |
| Print Quality |
8.3 |
| Speed |
8.5 |
| Paper Handling |
9.0 |
| Supplies |
8.5 |
| Service/Reliabilty |
9.0 |
| TOTAL |
50.8 |
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In Short: The Minolta-QMS 3100DN is a solid color laser printer that is packed with high-end features and offers great value. Setting up the 3100DN was relatively easy. Four toners install in the top rear of the unit and a large imaging unit installs from the top also. Connecting to a PC or Mac is simple and the driver install was conventional. Putting this printer on the network proved a bit trickier than some of the other printers we tested. However, after some handy phone support from Minolta we were up and running. The 3100DN comes with many high-end standards like a whopping 256 MB Memory, PCL & PostScript Level3 emulations, 100BaseT Ethernet internal print server, Auto-Duplex unit, On-site warranty, and a full set of supplies. The 3100DN produces above average print quality up to 1200x1200dpi at speeds up to 8 pages per minute. In the standard 600 DPI mode, this printer prints up to 16 pages per minute in monochrome or full color for every day office applications. The standard configuration has one 500-sheet letter/legal feeder and a multi-purpose feeder for odd sizes or heavy paper up to 80lb cover stock, (216 g/m2). Options include an additional 1000 sheet feeder and internal HD for advanced management features.
The Bottom Line: The Minolta-QMS 3100DN is a reliable network color laser printer for letter and legal-sized printing. It's network ready and is fast enough to handle the printing needs of a department, in color or black and white, with a duty cycle of 60,000 pages per month. This printer works well in the Mac OS, UNIX, or the Windows environment. Even though there are newer models out there with better performance, we feel this is the best value under $2000. The Minolta-QMS 3100 earns our "Editor's Choice" award for best network color laser value. |
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