subject: Konica Minolta MagiColor 2300W – Sluggish Color Laser Printer [print this page] Konica Minolta MagiColor 2300W Sluggish Color Laser Printer
A refurbished unit is sometimes the most cost effective way to go when looking for a laser printer that has some of the features that newer models have, such as color laser print technology and wireless networking, but without the speed performance. When low volume output is all you require, look for models such as the Konica Minolta MagiColor 2300W, which has trustworthy, high quality color print features, but is very slow by today's standards.
Color laser printing has never been cheap, and when the Konica Minolta MagiColor 2300W debuted in 2003, it came with a $799 dollar price day. Believe it or not, this made it one of the most affordable color laser printers on the market. By today's standards, this seems ludicrous, especially since the 2300 prints at an extremely sluggish rate of only 4 pages per minute in color. But, again, refurbished units are sometimes the most cost effective way to go and, if speed is not a priority, an older device such as this may be right for your home or office.
Black and white print speeds are much more acceptable than color, and run at a maximum of 16 pages per minute. Even by today's standards, this is decent enough. There is a catch though, and that's that the Konica Minolta MagiColor 2300W comes with a cripplingly large footprint and height, with dimensions of 14 in. x 19.6 in. x 15.4 in. (W x D x H). Again, one would have to consider that newer units are much more petite in scale, but if size is no issue, then maybe this bulky unit would be acceptable.
The Konica Minolta MagiColor 2300W is also very heavy, weighing in at over sixty pounds. It does, however, have a few saving graces, such as an optional network cardwhich allows for Ethernet connectivity, which can be great for home use when multiple rooms are involved. Print quality is also very exceptional, with maximum print resolution of 2400 x 660 dots per inch. Print quality this high is rare in current color desktop laser printers, as high resolution has been placed second to speed.
The device's built in 200 MHz PowerPC 405 processor seems like it would power through color print tasks easily, but is surprisingly incapable of surpassing the 4 page per minute limitation. 32 MBs of SDRAM are included as well, and can be upgraded with as much as 256 MBs for a grand total of 288 MBs, which should help, if nothing else, to keep complex print jobs, such as full page imagery, moving along at maximum speed.
Standard paper handling abilities come in the form of a 200 sheet paper tray, which can further be upgraded to a maximum of 700 sheets, while envelopes, transparencies, and other special media can be hand fed through the priority slot. USB and Parallel ports allow for single host PC connectivity, and a maximum monthly duty cycle of 35,000 pages per month make the Konica Minolta MagiColor 2300W at least worth looking at.
