Yup, that gigantic Dell box contained a huge color laser printer. But to my pleasant surprise, the 100 lbs 5130cdn isn’t nearly as boring and mundane as I thought it was going to be. I really don’t know if it’s the fastest printer in the world like Dell claims, but I do know that this printer could be a serious weapon in the hands of a comic book pirate. (I would like to think they exist)
Disclaimer: I don’t know jack about business-level printers. When Dell first asked me to look the world’s fastest color laser printer, I thought it was going to be a desktop model like Best Buy sells. Nope, the 5130cdn is a full scale, business printer with a monthly load throughput capacity of a 110,000 pages. This printer is serious business but for $1,549 I would expect nothing less.
I managed to get the printer set up after some issues with Windows 7. For some reason, this brand new printer doesn’t ship with Windows 7 drivers, instead I had share the printer on another computer and then the print speed wasn’t up to spec. But once Dell gave me the right drivers and assured me that I got a pre-production model and the retail version will have the compatible drivers, I was off to the races.
The printer is rated at 47ppm in both mono and color and I found those numbers to be accurate. With just a random text-only PDF, I was able to get about 39ppm when printing over a wireless network and exactly 47ppm via a direct USB connection. Even when the document has a splattering of color, the speed isn’t noticeably affected.
But let’s say you want to print a full-color comic book for some random reason. Just how fast is it then? Well, the 5130cdn managed to spit out the 38 pages in 1:38 as shown in the video above. Trust me, that’s fast considering each page is a full color image around 800KB in size. Try that with your inkjet and see what you get.
Dell has of course loaded this printer with a ton of new technology to get these results. It’s the first Dell printer to use ColorByDell, which is a total print quality solution that improves color saturation, sharpness, and print quality. Plus, the printer has a Cost Per Page of 1.04c per page for black and white, and 7.72c for color.
The 5130cdn is available starting today for $1,549, which includes a 3 year next business day on-site service contract. Let me warn you though, if you do buy this monster, its shipping weight is 120 lbs on a pallet and your wife won’t like it if it sits in the living room all evening.
Dell Launches World’s Fastest Color Laser Printer
3 New Commercial Printers Help Customers Boost Productivity & Lower TCO
ROUND ROCK, NOVEMBER 10, 2009 – Dell today announced three new commercial workgroup printers to help businesses of all sizes increase productivity and lower their total cost of printing. Printers available today include the Dell 5130cdn, the world’s fastest single function letter (LTR) size color laser printer, the Dell 7130cdn, Dell’s first LED color printer with tabloid size printing capability; and the Dell 3330dn, a single function monochrome laser printer for high performance class black and white printing. These new printers will be launched and available in Europe and the Middle East on November 24.
The Dell 5130cdn can print up to 47 single-side and 37.6 double-side LTR pages per minute (ppm) in both mono and color, making it the world’s fastest LTR size single–function color laser printer. The 5130cdn also premiers ColorbyDell, a total print quality solution that delivers improved color saturation and image sharpness and outstanding print quality. This is enabled through a combination of a powerful new image enhancement algorithm, advanced toner technology and improvements in print engine design. The Dell5130cdn also brings significant energy and cost savings by using a new toner formulation that fuses at a lower temperature, enabling a remarkable Cost Per Page (CPP) of 1.04c for black and white and 7.72c for color print outs[i]. With a maximum duty cycle up to 110,000 pages a month, the Dell 5130cdn provides outstanding reliability and is available today in the US from $1,549 with 3 Year Next Business Day (NBD) Onsite Service after remote diagnosis[ii].
To help companies reign in the costs of their color printing, Dell also announced the availability of Dell ColorTrack Pro—a remote administration tool for IT administrators to centrally monitor and control access to color printing on the Dell 5130cdn. Designed for workgroup environments, Dell ColorTrack Pro manages user access at the server level, to more easily control printing and toner costs.
“With a school district as large as ours, it’s important that we provide students, faculty and staff access to quality technology,” said Tim McNeese, Information Systems Director of Williamson County Schools. “After installing the new Dell 5130cdn printers, we noticed a big difference in the quality and speed of the printouts. The great value and high production rate helps our schools run smoothly and collaboratively,” he added.
The Dell 7130cdn is Dell’s first LED-based color printer with the ability to print up to tabloid-size, high quality Pantone® approved color prints, for more accurate color reproduction. With its ability to bring professional quality color printing in-house with lower costs and improved printing options, the Dell 7130cdn includes a rich feature set, including numerous paper handling options, a powerful processor and enhanced memory. This allows the printer to print the first page (First Print Out Time) as quickly as 6.5 seconds in both mono and color. The Dell 7130cdn is available today in the US from $2,799 with 1 Year Next Business Day (NBD) Onsite Service after Remote Diagnosis[iii].
“Dell’s new commercial printers add to a compelling portfolio of business color and mono printers for organizations of all sizes,” said Keith Kmetz, Vice President of Hardcopy Peripherals Solutions and Services at IDC. “The Dell 5130cdn revolutionizes speed and usability. And its user-friendly appeal makes it attractive to organizations looking for high quality color output at a low total cost of ownership,” he added.
On the black and white printing front, Dell announced the Dell 3330dn, a single–function black and white performance printer that can print up to 40 pages per minute (ppm), with a monthly duty cycle up to 80,000 pages. Built for high performance printing needs, the Dell 3330dn packs work-horse reliability, and includes paper drawer and memory expansion capabilities that grow with increasing business demands, all in a compact desktop size. The Dell 3330dn is currently available from today in the US from $599 with 1 year Advanced Exchange Service.
“Dell has always focused on efficiency, reducing costs and increasing productivity for businesses of all sizes, and today we have extended that same winning formula to the printing world,” said Mike Arterbury, Global Director Commercial Software & Peripherals at Dell Inc. “Our portfolio of printers provides customers with valuable and affordable choices and lower cost of printing, saving them time – and real money!” he added.
“Dell’s complete lineup of laser printers provide customers with outstanding value, world class reliability and ease of use to help them achieve more with less, with minimum downtime and complexity,” said C. K. Lim, General Manager of Dell’s Global Imaging Business.
Dell printers are available direct from Dell and from Dell’s more than 50,000 partners worldwide.
Printer Specifications
5130cdn Color Laser Printer 7130cdn Color Laser Printer 3330dn Mono Laser Printer List price US$ 1,549 (includes 3-yr NBD On-site Service after remote diagnosis) US$ 2,799 with 1-yr NBD Onsite Service after remote diagnosis US$599 with 1-yr NBD Advanced Exchange after remote diagnosis Consumables type Separated toner and drum unit Separated toner and drum unit Separated toner and drum unit Print Speed (Letter) Up to 47ppm in both mono and color (Actual print speed will vary with use) Up to 35ppm (actual print speed will vary with use) Up to 40ppm (actual print speed will vary with use) Duplex Print Standard Standard Standard Max. resolution Up to 1200 dpi x 1200 dpi Up to 1200 dpi x 1200 dpi Up to 1200×1200 dpi / 2400 IQ User interface 160 x 64 Mono Graphics backlit LCD text 128 x 64 Graphics backlit LCD text 4 line backlit LCD (text and graphics) 3-button + 5-way cursor keypad 6-button cluster 20 buttons keypad 1 LED: Status (green, yellow & red) 1 LED: Status (green, yellow & red) 1 two-tone LED Processor 800 MHz 1 GHz 466 MHz Connectivity High-speed USB 2.0, Gigabit Ethernet High-speed USB 2.0, Gigabit Ethernet USB 2.0 (Hi speed), Parallel, 10/100 Ethernet Print Language PCL® 5c, 5e/6 Emulation: 81 fonts Adobe® PostScript® 3: 136 fonts
PCL® 5c, PDF direct v1.4 , Adobe® PostScript® 3 Adobe® PostScript® 3 PCL® 5e, PCL 6, PCL XL, HBP (GDI), XPS (GDI) and PostScript® Level 3 Emulation Paper input (std/max) 700 / 2900 sheets 600 / 2100 sheets 250 / 850 sheets (550tray+MPT) Paper output (std/max) 500 / 1000 sheets 400 / 400 sheets 50 sheets Multi-purpose input 150 sheet 100 sheet 150 sheets Max. monthly duty cycle Up to 110,000 pages Up to 150,000 pages Up to 80,000 pages Size (W x D x H) 22.1” x 20.0” x 17.0” 25.2” x 26.2” x 15.7” 10.2″ x 16.6″ x 14.53″ Weight 99lbs (45kg) 145.2lbs (66 kg) 31.15 lb.
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For more details, please go to www.dell.com/printers