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Unlike most inkjet printers if a laser says 22PPM it means 22PPM, the Lexmark T420D is no exception and I also got very acceptable figures when printing four up with a large database and all pages were printed with borders. Next I really pushed it, this printer has a built in Duplex unit, yes I mean built in, not a carbuncle that sticks out the back and not an optional extra. With this I achieved greater than the specifications state 14SPM (sides per minute), the specifications state up to 12SPM.

The only time you are unlikely to get up to the speeds quoted is if you print large high definition graphics and graphics can look good in monochrome.

See also: Laser printers

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The T420D is parallel and USB (there is a T420DN version that works on networks and that also has an Ethernet port) The drivers I was supplied with were a little tricky to install and it took two reboots before Windows was happy. After that it just churned out page after page with not a single problem. As supplied it has a paper tray and a drop down shelf that you could use for letterheads and envelopes.

For a unit with built in duplex it is not large, 44cm deep with cables inserted, 41cm wide and 26cm tall. Paper is delivered face down on top of the unit and more than 50 sheets should sit happily. The unit has drivers for both Postscript3 and PCL6.

The duplex works well, I have seen some with exaggerated second side margins, here with the testing four pages on one database with borders the second side was only 1mm out of synch and this was amazingly, raised. With duplex turned on paper emerges around 75% of the way out before being pulled back in to print the second side.

It comes with 16MB of memory and this was more than enough even for the range of graphics I printed which displayed an excellent range of grey scale. Dependant on printing mode 300x300DPI 600x600DPI or 1200 image quality are available. Time to first page was an excellent 10 seconds. It is stated to have a user cycle of up to 50000 pages a month and the high yield toner cartridge should be good for 10000 pages.

I had the unit for the best part of a month and was more than happy with it, despite using a range of paper weights and makes mixed together I never had a single paper jam. Images were crisp and clear and the text pages were excellent even with the 4up mode that trips up a lot of lasers. The price a not that cheap £410, but you also get nice attitude. If you need to be able to print double sided then this is certainly a strong contender.

Link : http://www.lexmark.co.uk/index_cms.html > Business Printing > Products > Mono Page Printers > T420D