Lexmark C734DN

Lexmark C734DN Color Laser Printer

Offices will like this printer's speed, features, and low cost; the default color palette, however, is oversaturated. Lexmark's C734dn color laser printer ($899 at this writing) has an overenthusiastic color palette and a few small design problems. Nevertheless, it should satisfy most mainstream offices with its speed, cheap toner, and features aplenty. The C734dn printed plain, black text at a zippy rate of 27.6 pages per minute in our tests--pretty close to Lexmark's spec of 30 ppm. Graphics speeds topped out at just 4.4 ppm, but that's still speedier than most printers. Color images we printed at default settings looked vivid; but at higher-quality settings, noticeable oversaturation set in: orangey flesh tones, flowers that practically glowed. The C734dn's driver includes some basic color management utilities, and these may come in handy. The C734dn's generous set of standard features includes a 550-sheet input tray, a 100-sheet multipurpose tray (MPT), and a 300-sheet output tray. Need more? An optional 550-sheet input tray costs $299; a 550-sheet drawer for narrower media (such as envelopes) costs $359. An optional, 2000-sheet input feeder costs $599.