Lexmark T420DN

Monochrome A4 printing is the bread and butter of most offices, and that's just the market the Lexmark T420DN monochrome laser printer is aimed at., or, in marketing speak, it has a small footprint and low profile.

It's unexceptional to look at, and is such an understated printer that the Lexmark press release draws attention to its 'Cancel job button'. And well it might, as almost every other function is controlled by the drivers, simplifying matters intensely.

The D suffix on the model code is for duplex and the N is for network, and there is also a T420D (with no 10/100 local area network and only 16MB memory) priced at £621.58 (£529 ex VAT) if you prefer a cheaper printer that is directly connected to a single PC or Mac.

Lexmark claims a speed of 22ppm. In our tests the T420DN ran at a true speed of 20.6ppm once the initial page had spooled. This is very impressive, particularly as the quality of printed text on ordinary photocopy paper is excellent.

Photo printing quality was acceptable yet unexceptional, particularly on skies, which is what we expect from any monochrome laser.

Our only quibbles are that the drivers default to letter size paper rather than A4; this is typical of laser drivers though, so we can't really complain. The 16MB memory upgrade installed in the DN model costs £100 direct from Lexmark.

Clearing a paper jam from the printer is a bit awkward as the paper feeds almost vertically, so once you remove the paper tray you are trying to pull the jammed sheet downwards into the desk.

The single-element toner cartridge costs £159 and it's a 10,000-page unit, so running costs are 1.59p per page (plus paper).

This is an excellent monochrome A4 laser printer, and we were very impressed.

Contact: Lexmark 08704 440 044
www.lexmark.co.uk

Specifications

• 250-sheet tray
• Quoted 22ppm mono, 12ppm duplex
• 300 x 300 or 600 x 600dpi (1,200 using image quality)
• One cartridge
• 200MHz processor, 32MB of memory
• USB, Centronics IEEE1284 parallel, Ethernet 10/100TX
• 13.8kg
• 406 x 425 x 258mm (w x d x h)
• 500-sheet drawer upgrade option