Dell's 1250c Is a Cheap Purchase but Has Pricey Refills

The Dell 1250c colour printer makes use of LED technology as a substitute with the more-common laser to create equally crisp results. Priced at just $230 (as of September 29, 2010), it tends to make shade output appear attainable even for the home workplace. However, exorbitant toner expenses make this printer unbearably expensive within the prolonged expression.

Printer vendors usually charge lower-volume end users significantly less for the printer plus much more for your toner, but Dell has set a whole new document with this design. The printer ships with standard-size, 700-page materials. The black toner fees $50 (7.one cents for each page), even though every color expenditures $55 (seven.nine cents per shade, for each page). A page with all four colors would cost almost 31 cents. Those prices would search expensive even in contrast with the fees of a shade inkjet printer. The higher-yield supplies, at $70 every single, are just onerous: The black toner lasts 2000 pages (three.5 cents for each page), and each shade lasts 1400 pages (5 cents per web page). A four-color web page would cost eighteen.five cents.

More disappointment lies in the skimpy style and capabilities. The control panel is composed of a few of obviously labeled buttons as well as a large amount of lights, the meanings of which might fluctuate based on the color they show and also the velocity of their blinking--yes, you might have to figure out regardless of whether it is a fast or slow blink. You may need the documentation to interpret them. The unit has only a 150-page major input tray; pages exit onto the highest output tray. The tray components are relatively flimsy, as is normal for this price tag variety. Duplexing is handbook only, which means that only committed customers will use it to cut down on paper expenses, but no less than the on-screen prompt is clear. A rear door opens to offer access to the paper route. A aspect door reveals the toner supplies, which insert easily and therefore are keyed to prevent mixups.

Lower-cost laser printers also are typically mediocre performers. Within our assessments, the 1250c posted a below-average (but normal for this value course) velocity of 7.5 pages for each minute printing monochrome documents consisting primarily of black text and straightforward, grayscale photographs. Graphics speed was just previously mentioned regular, reaching two.three ppm when printing snapshot-size color pictures on letter-size paper. To its credit rating, the picture high quality exceeded my anticipations. Our text samples looked darkish gray instead than genuinely black, however they ended up crisp and precise or else. Coloration photographs appeared vivid and sensible, even though a bit grainy-looking. Observe that Mac drivers can be obtained by means of download only; we will update our assessment quickly with people check final results.

The help you will get for this printer is mostly good. The 1250c comes with a regular one-year warranty; extensions approximately 5 a long time total value an additional $35 to $140. The HTML-based person guide that accompanies the printer is thorough and clear, but within a few circumstances we ran into dead ends due to the fact of clumsy navigation, particularly hyperlinks that led to primarily blank title pages without having direction while in the correct direction.

The Dell 1250c puts quality shade printing inside of choice of lower-budget consumers. Except if you intend to not print much, however, your price range will swiftly be busted by this model's high toner fees.