Lexmark C524 Toner Cartridges

Lexmark C524 Printer Review

The Lexmark C524n color laser printer is designed for a small or medium-sized office with networking needs. Its high paper capacity and monthly duty cycle make it a great choice for high volume use.

The size may be somewhat large for a small office, but its design is not as bulky or heavy as some competing models. At 19 inches high and 16.1 inches deep, and weighing 57 pounds, it won't be easy to move, but is small enough to fit in relatively small areas.

The Lexmark C524 color laser printer is ready to be a workhorse in a high volume environment and take on direct competition like the Canon MF6590 toner printer. It features an ethernet connection for easy sharing across multiple computers, and network setup is simple with the included instructions and software. It also features a roomy 250 sheet input tray as well as a 100 sheet multipurpose tray. Should you need more capacity, a 500 sheet tray is available as an optional upgrade. The unit also supports duplexing (double-sided printing) which can save paper, and therefore costs.

Lexmark C524n toner cartridges have a capacity of 4,000 pages for black and 3,000 for each color laser toner cartridge, but high-yield printer toner cartridges are available in capacities of 8,000 for black and 5,000 for color, saving money in the long run. They are comparible to HP 3550 toner.

The unit boasts print speeds of around 20 pages per minute in both color and black prints. Print quality is excellent, especially for text (the bulk of printing for any laser model). Text is sharp and readable even at very small fonts. Photo quality is lacking, but this is a common problem for most lasers. Users who need good photo printing quality would do well to purchase a dedicated photo printer for this purpose. Graphics quality, always a challenge for lasers, is a little worse than expected, with a wide range of problems from shading problems to gaps in lines.

Overall, the Lexmark C524n is a solid workhorse that will perform well in almost any office environment. Included networking and duplexing as well as sharp text quality are impressive, while poor graphics and photo quality may be a problem for some users.