Minolta-QMS Magicolor 2300 DL

Reviewed by: nitestar95

Duration of ownership:

Strengths: Pretty prints on plain paper; using a 5 MP camera you can see the blades of grass clearly on a standard 8 1/2 x 11 full page blow up of a picture. No banding or artifacts.

Weaknesses: The printer tells you toner is empty even though it is not. You will throw away about 25% of the money spent on consumables because the printer won't let you use all the toner that's in the cartridge.

Overall Evaluation: Nice prints but as above, they screw you by having the printer cut you off while there is still a lot of toner in the cartridge. After replacing several, I couldn't understand how I was going through so much toner; I opened the cartridge and found it about 25% full. But the cartridge must have some type of chip in it that tells the printer that it's empty, so there's no way to use that cartridge again until minolta 'resets' it somehow. Each cartridge cost me about $80; that means every cartridge I buy I wind up throwing away $20. So far, estimates $120 tossed into the trash because the printer 'thinks' that there's no toner left. I won't buy another printer from these folks.