Dell 5230n

A black & white laser printer, the Dell 5230n is very much a pro machine. Designed to print large volumes (200,000 pages per month), the accent here is on productivity for large work groups with very rapid print speeds and low cost per page. It also promises to give pro quality, be simple to configure and intuitive to use. Let's see what it can do!

Hardware

When you it get it out the box, you can be sure it'll attract the odd remark: "it's like something straight out the 1960s", "an elephant" or "post-Soviet tank" if our experience here in editorial is anything to go by! Yes, it's a bit of a brute, not to mention austere. Behind this robust exterior hides a standard printer, whose capacities you'll be able to extend. Its 128 MB memory, enough to service a workgroup of twenty people, can be extended to a maximum of 640 MB. With Ethernet connectivity, it also supports PCL and PS print languages.

Navigation is easy and simple and the screen displays the actions required, such as "paper jam, remove sheet". Nice and practical.

Speeds: a record for a black & white laser

Our rating for speeds takes into account the slow start-up time from off position (see inset), which is why the Dell 5230n only has four stars instead of five. It holds to the promise of 43 pages per minute announced in the spec. This is very impressive, unequalled by any of the other black & white lasers we've tested. Most so-called "rapid" printers hit a ceiling at around 30 ppm.

Looking across all the categories of printer we've tested, only the multifunction 5130cdn, also from Dell, does better with 46 ppm.

Quality

The quality of the black & white prints is very decent. For text alone, this printer does perfectly. The only slight fault, which meant we couldn't give it a five-star rating here, is that the letters could do with having a bit more depth and the contours lack a little precision on our test graph.

Energy consumption & Noise levels

When printing this printer consumes 195 Watts, which is very reasonable for a laser printer. Standby consumption is too high however: 11 W while the multifunction pro model, the 5130cdn only consumes 5 W.

In standard mode, it's among the noisiest we've measured at 55 dB(A). Nevertheless , it does also offer a quiet mode which cuts noise down to 49 dB (A) but speeds then drop to 21 ppm from 43 ppm.

We're in the habit of recommending high capacity cartridges, which, while implying more of an initial outlay, give better value over time. The cartridges on offer here are no exception to the rule and we advise you to go for the large format "use and return" cartridges. They will give you an economical, green solution, with Dell taking used cartridges off you in return for a reduced bill.
Cost per page varies from 2 pence to 0.9 pence depending on which size and option you go for. Note that 0.9 pence, with the large format coupled with Dell's cartridge return program, is among the lowest we've measured.

ISO lifespan for text

High capacity ISO lifespan for text

Cartridge	Price	ISO lifespan	Cost per page
Black	£281	21 000	1.3 pence
Black "use and return" option	£201	21 000	0.9 pence