Review: Konica Minolta Magicolor 2430DL laser printer

At the pricier end of the market, Konica Minolta’s Magicolor 2430DL is externally identical to the Xerox Phaser 6120 but with a grey upper casing and different software inside and out.

Rated at 20ppm in mono and 5ppm in colour, performance is acceptable. Our testers rated the text quality among the best, but colour photos were average. The text results are probably due to the true 2,400 x 600dpi print engine, which delivers crisp detail.

Unique among these laser printers is the inclusion of a front-facing USB port and Pictbridge compatibility for printing photos directly from digital cameras.

This feature, commonly found on inkjet printers, can require large amounts of memory to be installed in a laser printer, due to the need to render the whole image in one go before the page is printed.

You’ll need to install an additional 256MB to enable the highest quality mode on the Magicolor 2430DL for Pictbridge printing.

The standard 200-sheet multipurpose input tray is covered by a removeable plastic cover that rests loosely on the tray – it’s good protection from dust but could easily become lost.

Where the Magicolor differs most significantly from the Phaser 6120 is in its lack of support for high-level printer languages such as PCL6 and Postscript, although support is provided for Mac OSX and Linux via supplied utility software, making it suitable for heterogeneous workgroups of networked computers.

A network interface is included as standard and web-based management makes remote configuration simple. The desktop status display minimises trips to the printer to check up on job progress.

The Magicolor is also expandable, with an additional 500-sheet paper tray and automatic duplexing unit options.

This is part of a group test on budget colour laser printers. Other articles are:
Introduction and editor's choice
Canon Laser Shot LBP 5200
Dell 3100cn
Epson Aculaser C1100N
HP Color Laserjet 2600n 
Lexmark C510n
Oki C3200
Xerox Phaser 6120
The Real Cost of Printing