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More…Dell's Color Laser Printer 1320c offers surprisingly good color quality for a low acquisition price. Its toner is expensive, however, and its control panel is confusing.
Dell Dell Color Laser Printer 1320c
Pricing
$126.90 From 1 Vendor Get Best Prices »
- Spec Navigator
- Core Components
- Media Handling
- Network
- Connectivity
- Platform Support
- Dimensions
- General Features
- Green
- Included Hardware
- Included Software
- Resolutions
- Scanning
- Faxing
Media Handling
| Manual Feed Slot | Yes |
| Maximum Number of Input Trays | 1 |
| Maximum paper size, height | 14.0 inches |
| Maximum Sheets With All Paper Trays | 250 |
| Output Tray Capacity | 150 |
| Standard Number of Input Trays | 1 |
| Maximum paper size, width | 8.5 inches |
| Standard input sheet capacity | 250 |
| Duplex printing | No |
Platform Support
| Operating System Support |
|
General Features
| Printer Emulation Type | Host based Printing system |
| Media slots | |
| PictBridge compatible | No |
Included Hardware
| Included Hardware |
|
3
2 User Reviews Add your own »
$126.90
From 1 Vendor
Get Best Prices »
- Lab Tested
- How We Test Printers »
Pros
Great photo quality; easy setup
Toner cartridges are easy to replace
Cons
High toner cost per page
Confusing control panel
Bottom Line
A low price and great-looking photo quality help this model stand out, but its toner cartridges are expensive.
Dell Color Laser Printer 1320c
Dell Color Laser Printer 1320c Review, by Melissa Riofrio August 13, 2007
Setting up the printer is very easy. The documentation (a printed setup poster and owner's manual, plus an HTML-based user guide) is thorough. The included CD offers an automated setup process, and live-action videos illustrate all the steps. Inserting the PHD (Print Head Device) unit is the one tricky part, as it's heavy and the handles are small. You also have to heft this thing over the transfer belt, which lies belly-up within the opened front cover. Though many color lasers have a similar design, they don't require you to maneuver something so heavy within this space. Dell says the transfer belt can handle a scratch or two and that you'll rarely, if ever, have to move the PHD unit.
The unusual toner-cartridge design is the other reason why Dell thinks you shouldn't worry too much about the transfer belt's welfare. Many printers force you to expose their innards to replace toner; with the Color Laser Printer 1320c, you simply open a side door and slide a cartridge into its keyed slot. The downside: The toner cartridges are rated for merely 1000 pages in the standard size or 2000 pages in the high-capacity size (per Dell's specs). Those small capacities translate into higher costs for both black and color pages--at best, 3 cents for a half-page of black text and 15 cents for a page with small amounts of black plus all three colors. Low-volume users may not notice for a while, but a busier office will feel the pinch pretty quickly.
The front control panel is minimalist to a fault. It consists of two clearly labeled buttons and seven LEDs, most placed in specific locations in and around a line drawing of the printer. The LEDs change color or blink to communicate the status of the printer or its various parts. The dozens of possible LED combinations take up several pages' worth of explanation in the user guide--many would be indecipherable otherwise. The best way for a printer to communicate is in human language, with words running across a display; I'm sure it's pricier to design, but it's easier for the user. To Dell's credit, the other user resources, such as the status monitor and some maintenance and diagnostic tools, are nicely designed. The driver offers a wealth of features in an accessible format.
Inkjets still tend to handle color better than lasers do, but the Color Laser Printer 1320c strikes an impressive balance. It plodded through plain-text documents at a mere 12.4 pages per minute; all fonts looked slightly thick but otherwise precise. High-resolution photos printed quickly--3.1 ppm on average--and looked surprisingly smooth; colors seemed a tad bluish but essentially natural.
The Color Laser Printer 1320c is best suited for a small or low-volume office. Because its paper capacity is limited (just one main input tray and a single-sheet multipurpose slot) and its toner is pricey, a larger or growing office should consider its cousin, the Color Laser Printer 3110cn, which is expandable and has higher cartridge and paper capacity.
Melissa Riofrio
Show Less 
0 Comments | 0 Topics | Print Only This Review
PCWorld Lab Results
- Rating Breakdown
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78
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63
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79
- See Complete Lab Results »
Performance Comparison with Similar Printers
78
74
82
82
Performance
| 300dpi Line Art Image (secs) | 16.62 |
| 4 by 6 Color Photo (secs) | 19.27 |
| 4 by 6 Grayscale Photo (secs) | 17.73 |
| Color Output Quality | Superior |
| Color Photo Quality | Very Good |
| Copy Output Quality | n/a |
| Copy Quality | n/a |
| Grayscale Glossy Output Quality | n/a |
| Grayscale Output Quality | Good |
| Line Art Output Quality | Very Good |
| One-Page Webpage (secs) | 16.86 |
| Overall Scan Quality | n/a |
| Sports Action Shot (secs) | 19.39 |
| Ten-Page Word Document | 62.76 |
| Ten-Page Word Document (secs) | 62.76 |
| Tested Color Speed (ppm) | 4.2 |
| Tested Glossy Photo Speed (ppm) | 3.1 |
| Tested Grayscale Speed (ppm) | 3.4 |
| Tested Lineart Speed (ppm) | 3.6 |
| Tested Text Speed (ppm) | 12.4 |
| Text Output Quality | Very Good |
| Three-Page Word Document | 27.45 |
| Three-Page Word Document (secs) | 27.45 |
| Two-Page Excel Document | 21.68 |
| Two-Page Excel Document (secs) | 21.68 |
Text Printing
| Text output quality | Very Good |
User Reviews
Review Now! Already own it? Tell us What You Think
User Reviews From Around the Web
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Reviewed by: brycepgh
Strengths: small form factor, price, DPI, web server
Weaknesses: Extra tray is pricey, the manual feed opening could be bigger
Overall: Great printer. Supplies are reasonable (and now available at retail stores), good features, PCL and PS drivers included. You can also check the toner levels if you hit the printer's IP in your web browser, very helpful!
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Reviewed by: npasic
Strengths: quality, network capability, easy to setup
Weaknesses: Output is alittle slow and paper jams take a couple of tries to clear, no LCD screen
Overall: This is a great printer. It produces nice crisp pages at a economical price. We use it ~1000 pages per quarter, so our usage is not high. I would definitely recommend for a small office that wants to produce color without going through a print shop.
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