Review Inkjet printers struggle to compete with lasers in a business environment, because they tend to be more expensive to run and provide slower print speeds. Lexmark aims to change this with the J110TN. This network printer combines the colour printing facilities of an inkjet and the speed of a laser, offering offices the best of both worlds.
The J110TN is less costly and a lot smaller than most lasers, so there will be no problem finding space for it. There's a choice of USB or parallel connection, and this version comes with an external MarkNet print server. Setup is easy and the software is simple to use.
Lexmark claims it can churn 16ppm (pages per minute) mono and 14ppm colour which, while slower than most lasers, is still pretty fast for an inkjet. However, in our tests it couldn't come up with the goods and, even at its fastest setting, only managed 9ppm for mono and 6ppm colour. This is significantly faster than most inkjet printers, but still nowhere near the speed of a laser printer.
In its defence, the price doesn't come close to that of a colour network laser printer either. So it may not be the fastest way to bring colour printing to your office, but it is one of the cheapest.
Quality is good, and certainly better than anything on offer from a laser. The maximum resolution is 2400x1200dpi (dots per inch), though 600x600dpi is a more realistic option. Text looks fine even when set to the fast, low resolution, ink-saving setting, but it's no good for graphics or images.
Smaller workgroups are likely to run on a tight budget, so the J110TN has a lot to offer. It's much cheaper than a laser printer and, though it's not yet fast enough to match them for speed, it is a step in the right direction. ®
Info
Price: £693
Contact: 0870 440 0044
Web site: www.lexmark.co.uk
Spec
Resolution: 2400x1200dpi
Interface: USB or parallel
Average cost per page: 1.44p mono, 2.18p colour
Paper trays: two 250-page
Dimensions: 378x510x515mm
Weight: 19.7kg
This review is taken from the July 2001 issue. All details correct at time of publication.
Copyright © 2001 IDG. All rights reserved
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