Art-ology

The Dell Laser 1600n printer is a device that can scan, print, copy, and fax. It is specially built for a small office and costs around $600, which is pretty affordable considering you are getting four devices at the same time. It is compact enough to fit in a small office, yet offers so many features, not the least of which is the exceptional prints offered by the Dell Laser 1600n toner.

The machine is able to connect to the network using the built-in Ethernet port. Printing speed is 22 pages per minute for monochrome, which is slightly faster compared to other laser printers. It also features a 50-sheet automatic document feeder that makes scanning and copying very convenient.

When you connect the Dell 1600 printer to the network, the color-scanning feature will become unavailable, which is a bit strange. Printing and scanning quality are the two things that make this machine very attractive. The quality it provides is the best we have seen in a multifunctional laser printer under the same price range. Another weird limitation is the PC faxing. The software bundled does not let you do PC faxing, which means you have to use Microsoft’s faxing software. Unfortunately, this software cannot read the address book saved in the machine’s control panel.

The machine averages around 6 pages per minute when scanning grayscale documents and 3 pages per minute for colored documents. It was able to able to get around 6 pages per minute for its copying feature. These results are among the fastest in its class.

It has a paper tray that can hold 250 sheets, but you have the option of buying a second tray and making it a total of 500 sheets. The device also has a 32 MB memory, which is more than enough for home use. However, the 32 MB is not going to be enough if you plan to use this machine for an office. You might want to consider adding additional memory, which cost around $30.

The package includes a 3,000-page yield toner cartridge. A brand new toner of the same type costs around $70. However, a 5,000-page yield toner is also available for roughly $80. Getting this one will give an average printing cost of 1.6 cents per page, instead of 2.3 cents.

The automatic document feeder is something that needs be improved. The power cord is too short for the lid to stay completely open. This would make scanning or copying large documents strenuous to do. You would need to improvise something if you want to keep the lid open. Expanding the memory is a very easy task to do with this Dell printer. Just open the small door on the left side, insert the memory to any of the DIMMs, and you are good to go. It can be upgraded by anyone.

When this multifunction machine is connected to an Ethernet network, an embedded web server let’s you remotely observe the printer’s status. If you planning to connect it through USB, you would need to buy the cable, since it is not included in the package. The drivers and utilities CD can be easily installed on the computer. However, this device only supports Windows 95 or higher. Mac and Linux operating systems will not be able to use this device, since there are no drivers available.

The Dell 1600n printer has lifetime 24/7 technical support. It also has a standard one-year warranty, which can be extended for another 2 years for around $118. The warranty also covers shipping and replacement.

Performing at the professional level you need, the Dell Laser 1600n printer toner cartridges is one in a quality line of Dell Laser printer toner. Finding what you need online in the way of cartridge is a good bet to save money every time.