By Ben Pate

Everyone knows that one of the best names in laser printing is Lexmark. Having been around since 1995, and becoming a publicly traded company that same year, they have since been known for their line of printers. These printers have been sold all over the world and are loved by nearly everyone. If you're looking for the greatest in laser printing then you really need to take a look at the Lexmark Optra r and Lexmark Optra R toner. This printer is great for monochrome printing and is fairly inexpensive at around $300. Just about anyone will be able to afford this printer.

The tray that comes standard with it will be able to hold 200-500 sheets easily, and that will be great for a normal work day. Not to mention that will be just perfect for anyone that is just printing from home. The one problem that some people will have with this printer is its lack of multifunction. You won't have the option of faxing or scanning anything. You also won't have any connectivity with digital cameras.

You will find out that the machine does support networking. As such you'll have no problem connecting to other computers on the network. The problem with this is that you won't have any wireless support whatsoever. What you will have though is Parallel, Ethernet, and Serial so even without the wireless you won't have any problems. Fortunately a lot of offices are still wired, and you'll be able to connect as many computers as you need to. No matter how many computers you connect though, you need to pay attention to the monthly duty cycle.

You'll discover sooner rather than later that Lexmark Optra R toner costs about $120, which isn't really good for a home based operation. If you are running a business however this will be fine. Toner cartridges can last for a very long time, and you can always shake them if they start to fade. So essentially, the price of the cartridge makes it great for business applications but not for home use.

Every single month this printer is capable of putting out 20, 000 to 49, 999 pages. This is usually for a small group so if you have anything more than a small group you might want to consider upgrading. You could also buy more printers and have one for each section. Whatever you do make sure that you do not go over the monthly duty cycle.

This printer is rather nice and with a white casing it's aesthetically pleasing. It can print on any type of paper almost and that of course includes A4 and Envelopes. Being monochrome you won't need to buy any sort of photo paper. Regular paper isn't expensive right now and you may end up paying $4-8 per pack.

The printer is capable of printing very fast, though not quite as fast as some other laser printers. Regardless, a speed of 16 pages per minute at a max resolution of 1200x1200 DPI is nothing to turn your nose up at. For it's price you won't find many printers that are comparable, considering that some you might find only print a whopping 10 ppm for twice the price.

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