Lexmark E323 Printer Review
The Lexmark E323 laser printer is designed for the home or small office user. Its compact frame and affordable price are perfect for small office users, but it doesn't skimp on speed or quality, either. It is monochrome, so if looking for a personal color printer, perhaps the HP 1600 toner printer will be better.
The Lexmark E323 laser printer measures a slim 8.7 inches by 15.4 inches by 14.2 inches, and weighs only 19.8 pounds. This will particularly appeal to users with tight office spaces. Amazingly, even with its small size, it has 250 sheets of paper capacity, more than average for its price point. A 200 mhz processor allows the unit to do its own processing, without relying on a host computer, and its 16 MB of RAM can be expanded to a maximum of 144 MB if needed.
The unit connects via USB or parallel, but there is a network upgrade option available, which gives it an ethernet port for connecting directly to a network. This allows the unit to be shared among multiple computers. Fair warning, however, that it is not intended for a large number of users. Still, its paper capacity can be upgraded with an additional 250-sheet drawer, and it could accommodate a small office of networked users quite well, similar to its competition, the HP P2015 toner printer.
Lexmark E323 toner cartridges have a capacity of 3,000 pages for each black printer toner cartridge. High-yield laser toner cartridges are available, with a capacity of 6,000 pages. While the upfront cost of the high-yield cartridges are higher, the cost per page is lower, making it the most economical option.
Print quality is quite good for the price. Text is sharp, with well-formed characters that lose only a slight amount of clarity at the smallest font sizes. Graphics quality is below average, but still quite usable. Print speed is up to 20 pages per minute.
Overall, small offices will find a lot to like in the Lexmark E323. Its fast speed, good print quality, and expandability options give it room to grow.