Lexmark C734dn Color Laser Printer

A few, mostly small, design problems are worth noting. The unlabeled latch that unfolds the 100-sheet MPT could easily be mistaken for the handle to pull out the main input tray. The USB/PictBridge port is a great convenience, but the LCD-based interface times out quickly, returning you to the main screen. There, it's not obvious that you must select the "Held jobs" option to return to the USB drive's directories.

My biggest complaint is with the toner-cartridge design. The photoconducting drums are arrayed on the inside of the printer's front panel and lie exposed as you lift and pull out the toner cartridges (each with another integrated drum) using small fingerholds. A butterfingered user could easily drop a cartridge right onto the drums. The cartridge bays lack instructions or prompts to help you insert replacements.

On the brighter side, the toner itself is cheap. The machine ships with 4000-page, starter-size black (K), cyan (C), magenta (M), and yellow (Y) cartridges. The standard-size replacements are inexpensive: the 8000-page black cartridge costs $134, or 1.7 cents per page, while each 6000-page color cartridge costs $212, or 3.5 cents per page. A page with all four colors would cost an economical 12.3 cents per page.

The Lexmark C734dn has a few quirks and a color palette in need of adjustment. Nevertheless, it offers the speed, features, and expandability to keep most mainstream offices happy for a while--and the cheap toner is icing on the cake.

--Melissa Riofrio