subject: Is the Konica Minolta 7450 cost effective? [print this page] Is the Konica Minolta 7450 cost effective?
Coming in at nearly 1000 for the 7450II model, and at almost 1800 for the 7450II GA, the Konica Mintola Magicolor 7450 certainly isn't one of the cheapest printers on the market. However, cost and cost-effectiveness are not the same thing. This is a high quality printer, packed with features. So, how do those features stack up, and are they enough to make this printer value for money? Or could you get more for your money by choosing a different model?
The Magicolor is aimed at the creative business market, and is intended to produce very high quality, large scale colour printing. Marketing companies, design agencies and media organisations would all benefit from a printer like this. Standard office printers can generally produce A3 documents and print in colour, as the Magicolor can, but this printer really does offer something different.
While the initial price tag might be higher than standard printers, this is a very different beast. Most office printers are designed for printing mostly A4 text documents. While they will have colour capability, it's not their core function, but more of an added extra. This printer puts real colour printing of a quality which would often need to be outsourced, into the office. For creative businesses, that's a fantastic benefit to have, and well worth a few extra hundred pounds. If every print job in a busy design agency that demanded high quality colour printing had to be done by someone else, the costs would start to mount up very, very quickly.
The Magicolor comes with innovative PhotoArt-9600 technology which is designed to produce high quality images with sharp, vibrant colours that always look professional and are photo-quality. There is considerable flexibility built in, as the printer takes paper up to 256gsm and banners up to 1200mm. This means that the user has complete creative freedom to produce exactly the kind of outputs they need, with the ability to play about with formats, colours and weights. The printer can create brochures, leaflets and reports that will impress anyone. Even many businesses which aren't creative as their core business could benefit from owning a Magicolor, particularly if they often need to produce printed reports or stationery.
The Magicolor is surprisingly fast, whether its printing in colour or just black and white. It beats most other printers on the market with a black and white speed of 25 pages per minute. Part of the reason for the quality and efficiency of the output of this printer is the quality of the toner used, which works with the printer's capabilities to produce very high quality colour reproduction and sharp lines. The Magicolor can be used with various different computer programs and operating systems. This means that it's able to serve a wide range of different types of businesses.
Overall, these printers are excellent value for money. Although it's easy to baulk at the initial high price tag, the actual cost when the potential savings when compared to using outside professional printers is taken into account is low.
