By Ben Pate

The Dell 3100cn weighs a hefty 72 pounds, but the great output, and its rapid grayscale speeds outweigh the poundage. This color laser printer does a wonderful printing job; its color graphics are outstanding, with photographic detail that you might expect to get from an inkjet printer. The black text, which is the common use for a laser printer has clarity that ranks among the best in its class. The Dell 3100cn is a sensible buy for a network able printer. Be sure to also check out Dell 3100cn toner.

Dell 3100cn toner cartridges have an output of 4000 pages. The replacement cartridges are well priced when you consider the output that it provides. The prices make the 3100cn cost effective to for use. You can buy the toner cartridges in packs of four from Dell's Web site which can save you even more money. They cartridges are quite easy to replace.

This Dell printer has a large 400 sheet paper tray and four 4,000-page toner drums. You can purchase an extra 500 sheet paper tray which will increase the paper capacity. You can also add a "duplexer" that allows for two sided printing; with this unit, the driver software lets you shrink several documents to fit onto one sheet of paper.

The Dell 3100cn only has three front mounted buttons below the LCD screen; they are the menu, cancel, and select buttons. The select button is surrounded by four way arrow keys. This makes adjustments into a menu choosing method, and some of the functions and adjustments require a few steps rather than on push of a button. This can be daunting for some, but it really is easy to learn.

The Dell 3100cn has a weight of around 72 pounds which is not a light weight, but with the high quality output, and the fast grayscale speeds the weight of the machine is just a number of little consequence. This color laser printer does a high quality printing job; the color graphics are exceptional, it has photographic detail that you might expect from an inkjet printer.. The black text printing, which is most commonly used in office settings, is superior. The Dell 3100cn has a grayscale text speed of 22ppm which proves that this Dell is well suited to a heavy text printing environment, like a small office setting.

The front panel which houses the LCD screen also has three buttons which are for menu, cancel, and select, and then there are surrounded by four way arrow buttons which makes the functions and commands easy to use and you can make any needed adjustments in this easy control panel interface. There are certain commands and settings that take a few steps to complete but for all the functions and options that this printer has; this still makes the Dell 3100cn a one of the best priced printers in its class.

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