The Konica Minolta magicolor 2430 color laser printer is designed for the small or medium office environment. Its print quality and speed are excellent, and its built-in ethernet makes it easy to incorporate into a network.
Given the price of the Konica 2430 color laser printer, also known as the QMS 2430 or Konica 2430DL, it may appeal to personal users and small offices looking to replace an inkjet model with a color laser. While it makes a good choice for this task, it is worth noting that its design is considerably bigger and bulkier than the average inkjet, requiring a much larger footprint. The unit measures 13.4 inches by 19.8 inches by 16.9 inches, and weighing around 39 pounds with the toner cartridges, it will take up a considerable amount of space in an office, and is not easily movable without some help.
Setup is easy, involving removing packing materials, some plastic tabs, and tape, then connecting cables and installing software, which is a similar procedure for other manufacturer printers like the HP 1500 toner printer. Although setting it up is quite easy, the instructions are a bit difficult to follow, as the manual includes only pictures of each step, with no descriptions of what is to be done. This is no doubt done to be easily followed by users in any language, but it makes the process more difficult, as the pictures are not always clear. The unit includes driver support for modern versions of Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.
The control panel is simple, but effective. It includes a two-line LCD display for relaying information and navigating the unit's menu. Five buttons and a cancel button are included for menu navigation. The display shows the remaining amount in each toner cartridge when not displaying other info, a nice feature.
Print speed is quite fast, at up to 20 pages per minute in black and 5 pages per minute in color. Print quality is excellent. Text is sharp and defined, even at small font sizes. Graphics and photo quality, while not as good as a dedicated photo inkjet, are surprisingly good for a laser.
Konica Minolta magicolor 2430 toner cartridges have a standard capacity of 1,500 pages for each color laser toner cartridge, as well as high yield versions. The high yield printer toner cartridges have a capacity of 4,500 pages for both the color and the black Minolta 2430 toner cartridges. The cartridges are similar in capacity to the LaserJet 2550 toner cartridges, but are more expensive, giving the unit a higher cost per page by comparison.
Overall, the Konica magicolor 2430 is a solid color laser printer that supports most operating systems. Great print quality and fast speeds make it a great choice for the small office.
