Lexmark C500n Color Laser Printer

Manufacturer: Lexmark International Inc. Part number: 22R0010

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$265.00 - $499.00 at 8 online stores

CNET Editor rating:
3.5 stars Very good
Average user rating: 2.0 stars out of 3 reviews

More product information:: Editors' review; Product brief; User reviews; Specifications; Manufacturer info

Bottom Line:: The Lexmark C500n is a fast color laser printer fit for a multiuser environment with high-volume printing needs. The competition offers more features, but slower printing or lower-quality prints.

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CNET editors' review

Lexmark C500n Color Laser Printer

price range: $265.00 - $499.00

The Lexmark C500n is a fast color laser printer fit for a multiuser environment with high-volume printing needs. The competition offers more features, but slower printing or lower-quality prints.

The good: Fast black text and graphics prints; excellent text handling; good graphics prints; inexpensive.

The bad: High consumables cost; limited functionality; no duplexer; nonexpandable memory.

The bottom line: The Lexmark C500n is a fast color laser printer fit for a multiuser environment with high-volume printing needs. The competition offers more features, but slower printing or lower-quality prints.

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The Lexmark C500n is a basic, single-function color laser printer geared for small offices and home offices. After reviewing a bunch of multifunction color printers recently, $400 seems like a lot for a single-function machine. The C500n's fast print speeds and network-readiness, however, make it a good addition for small offices that have high-volume text printing needs. Although, for about the same price, the Samsung CLP-510n offers a duplexer, and the Konica Minolta Magicolor 2430DL serves up a PictBridge port. If you have the budget, a color laser multifunction is a cash- and space-efficient option; it saves you from having to purchase separate devices, then find room for them. At $899, the HP Color LaserJet 2840 is more than twice the price of the Lexmark C500n, but it includes fax, copier, and scanner functions--useful in any office environment. If you're happy with the functions of the C500n but just want a speedier option, check out Lexmark's own C522n, which printed color text and graphics at about twice the speed of the C500n and has more expandability options, too.

Like all laser printers, the Lexmark C500n is a monolithic piece of machinery; make sure you have room for it. It stands 18.9 inches wide, 16.5 inches deep, and 15.2 inches tall and weighs a back-breaking 66 pounds. Unfortunately, it has no built-in hand wells, so moving it is a slow and painstaking task. You're better off getting someone else to help you move it. The standard version of the printer comes with a single 250-sheet input tray; you can purchase an optional 530-page drawer to increase your total input to 780 pages. Additionally, the above-mentioned trays can handle up to A4-size paper only, but Lexmark also sells a legal-size paper drawer. Maximum output is 250 pages as well, and the output tray has a simple foldout flap to catch longer sheets. There's no straight pass-through on this machine, so be wary of using paper that has a tendency to jam when curled.

The C500n is network-ready (wired only), which is a boon in a multiuser environment. Another unexpected benefit to the networkability: the printer is noisy, even while idling, so you may want to stick it in an unpopulated area. Even better, it supports both Mac and Windows PCs. It comes with 64MB of nonexpandable memory and a 200MHz processor. It has no duplexer, so double-sided printing is a manual operation.

The entire front wall swings down to expose the four toner cartridges. They're set in a single-pass array, which makes for faster color printing than with the older drum laser printers, which had to make a separate pass to lay on each color. The C500n ships with starter toner cartridges. Unfortunately, Lexmark consumables are pricey: the standard black toner cartridge (2,500 pages) costs $90, and the standard color cartridges (1,500 pages) cost $98.45 each. If you do a lot of printing, you're better off with the high-yield cartridges: the black (5,000 pages) will run you $134.70 and the color cartridges (3,000 pages) are $119.70.

The C500n has a simple top-mounted control panel. It consists of a Start/Go button, a Cancel button, and four buttons for navigating the short menu: Left/Right, Back, and Select. A two-line monochrome LCD shows you the menu options, which are limited to basic configuration options and test/calibration options. Unfortunately, the LCD isn't backlit, making it difficult to see in low light.

If you do a lot of black printing, this might be the printer for you. The Lexmark C500n was a speed demon when printing black text and graphics: 19.86ppm and 19.80ppm, respectively. It slowed down a good deal when dealing with color, but it's still on a par with or better than the competition: 6.43ppm for color graphics and 6.88ppm for color text. Lexmark's own C522n proved faster at graphics prints than the C500n. The print quality of the C500n was also quite good. It excelled at printing black graphics: the text was clean and crisp. The black graphics prints were also good, with decent detail in the image portions and a good handling of the grayscale. We liked the color text handling, too, though in smaller point sizes, we could see visible dots and cross-hatching. Color graphics is where the C500n fared the worst, and it actually wasn't all that bad. We saw visible banding in the grayscale and some jaggedness on curved lines. Color graphics looked decent, though we did see a bit of banding in the color gradients. In the photo elements, skin tones looked believable, though slightly ruddy.

CNET Labs' color laser speed tests (pages per minute)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Color graphics

Color text

Black graphics

Black text

Lexmark C500n

6.43

6.88

19.8

19.86

Samsung CLP-510n

5.34

4.88

17.5

17.87

Konica Minolta Magicolor 2430DL

4.43

4.88

14.04

14.26

HP Color LaserJet 2600n

6.31

6.64

6.78

7.03

CNET Labs' color laser quality
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Color graphics

Color text

Black graphics

Black text

Lexmark C500n

good

excellent

Konica Minolta Magicolor 2430DL

good

excellent

HP Color LaserJet 2600n

fair

good

excellent

Samsung CLP-510n

good

fair

Lexmark backs the C500n with a one-year warranty. Free, toll-free phone support is available on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and on Saturdays from noon to 6 p.m. ET for the length of the warranty. You can add a year of support for $124, two years for $244, or three years for $402.

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Product brief

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User reviews

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Average user rating: 2.0 stars out of 3 reviews

Showing opinion 1 to 3 out of 3

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1 stars

This printer and the support is really horrid.

by rickw51 on March 30, 2007

Pros: It prints horridly but does so fast

Cons: Very noisy, support is horrible, does not handle thick media well

Summary: I've only had this printer 6 days and am considering putting it out with the garbage. I tried printing on the recommended photo paper and it puts black lines ...

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Summary: I've only had this printer 6 days and am considering putting it out with the garbage. I tried printing on the recommended photo paper and it puts black lines down the back of the paper. It also does not accept card stock very well. Lexmark support (misnomer) first said that it was a defective black cartridge then later said that the printer does not accept the type of paper I was using. Either way I'm dumping this sucker and going back to the HP. I'd advise anyone who wants to use other than just regular bond paper to not waster their money on this printer. Unfortunately I bought it at CompUSA brand new but can not return it because they're going out of business. An expensive lesson but I did learn. Bottom line, this printer is a hunk of junk!!!

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3 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
3 stars

Prints great, until theres a problem

by lgman83 on February 19, 2008

Pros: Super fast print outs of simple documents

Cons: Talking to a wall is more effective than their "customer service"

Summary: I encountered my first error with lexmark about few weeks ago when my starter toner cartridge indicated low, so I bought a normal & expensive OEM Lexmark toner cartridge. I ...

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Summary: I encountered my first error with lexmark about few weeks ago when my starter toner cartridge indicated low, so I bought a normal & expensive OEM Lexmark toner cartridge. I install the cartridge and the printer still indicates Low toner. At this point I called their tech support and hoped they would tell me its a simple problem, no, they told me to go buy a brand new High Yield cartridge at $150 to fix the problem. I asked for an employee number and they hung up.

"Contacting Lexmark:
If the "Toner Low" message remains after a new cartridge is installed, contact Lexmark Technical Support for additional assistance. NOTE: When calling for service, you will need to know your printer model and serial number."

I used to have an HP Color LaserJet 2605dn.
It printed out great for the first week, then started to eat and jam paper internally. I was fortunate enough to have Staples business depot on my side and I got a refund hassle free.

The only reason i'm giving this printer 3 out of 10 is because of the poor Customer Service, other than that and the faulty toner indicator, the printer prints great!

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8 stars

Works excellent.

by hsikaria on August 22, 2006

Pros: Fast and good quality

Cons: too noisy and complicated

Summary: My name is Sikaria Hemant. I feel that this product has a lot of plus points which outweigh the negligible negatives. Sikaria family has been using this product for a ...

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Summary: My name is Sikaria Hemant. I feel that this product has a lot of plus points which outweigh the negligible negatives. Sikaria family has been using this product for a while now.

Hemant Sikaria,

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0 out of 4 users found this user opinion helpful.

Showing opinion 1 to 3 out of 3

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Specifications

Manufacturer: Lexmark International Inc.
Part number: 22R0010

General
Printer Type Workgroup printer - Laser - Color
Form Factor Desktop
Width 18.9 in
Depth 16.5 in
Height 15.2 in
Weight 63.9 lbs
Printer
Print Speed up to 8 pages/min - B/W - Letter A Size (8.5 in x 11 in), up to 8 pages/min - Color - A4 (8.25 in x 11.7 in), up to 31 pages/min - B/W - A4 (8.25 in x 11.7 in), up to 31 pages/min - Color - Letter A Size (8.5 in x 11 in)
Built-in Devices Status LCD
Connectivity Technology Wired
Interface Ethernet 10/100Base-TX, USB
Max Resolution ( B&W ) 1200 dpi x 600 dpi
Max Resolution ( Color ) 1200 dpi x 600 dpi
First Print Out Time B/W 13 sec
First Print Out Time Color 19 sec
Media Handling 250-sheet input tray
Processor
Processor 200 MHz
RAM
RAM Installed ( Max ) 64 MB / 64 MB (max)
Media Handling
Media Type Plain paper, Cards, Transparencies, Glossy paper, Labels, Envelopes
Max Media Size (Custom) 8.5 in x 14 in
Media Sizes Letter A Size (8.5 in x 11 in), JIS B5 (7.17 in x 10.12 in), Legal (8.5 in x 14 in), A5 (5.83 in x 8.25 in), Executive (7.25 in x 10.5 in), Folio (8.5 in x 13 in), A4 (8.25 in x 11.7 in)
Envelope Sizes International B5 (6.93 in x 9.83 in), International DL (4.33 in x 8.66 in), Com-10 (4.13 in x 9.5 in)
Total Media Capacity 250 sheets
Media Feeder(s) 1 x Autoload - 250 sheets
Max Media Capacity 780 sheets
Output Trays Capacity 250 sheets
Duty Cycle
Monthly Duty Cycle 35000 pages
Telecom
Modem None
Networking
Networking Print server
Connectivity Technology Wired
Data Link Protocol Ethernet, Fast Ethernet
Network / Transport Protocol NTP, AppleTalk, LPR/LPD, TCP/IP
Remote Management Protocol HTTP, IPP, SNMP 2c, SNMP 1

Scanner
Type None

Lexmark C500n Color Laser Printer

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Printer

Processor

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