Customer Reviews

Konica Minolta Magicolor 2430DL Color Laser Printer (5250221-100)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I recently purchased this printer from another retailer after doing quite a bit of research into colors laser printers. I purchased this printer due to the reviews, and because it was network-ready.

After setting up the printer, I had a small problem. The first print after powering on the printer would smudge and the toner would smear. It was as if the fuser wasn't hot enough to set the toner to the paper. I tried several different paper types, but the first print would always come out with bad results. After the first print, it was better, but still not perfect.

Not satisfied with the results, I set out to find the cause. I found the answer in a review of a different Konica Minolta printer here on Amazon.

Read this carefully:
The printer ships with 2 green switches in the "envelope" position. Unless you flip these two switches to the "paper" position you will get smearing and smudges. It is not readily apparent from the pictures-only instructions that are included with the printer that these should be flipped. They are green, and located on the left and right sides of the printer when you open the top cover near where the paper comes out. There is a picture of an envelope on the switch, but you cannot see it until after you've flipped it. Make absolutely sure you flip these or you will have problems. These switches control how tightly the paper is pushed against the fuser to set the toner.

After flipping the switches, I am very happy with the results from the printer. The colors are vibrant and the text is razor sharp.

I added some extra memory to the printer because I had an old 128MB DIMM laying around. Beware if you want to put more memory in the printer: you must have single-sided DIMMS (chips on one side of the module only). If you have a double-sided DIMM it will only recognize half the memory on the module. I didn't notice a difference after installing the extra memory since I had no problems printing large images at the highest quality anyway.

The standard warnings apply as with all laser printers. The unit ships with "starter" toner cartriges that are not full. When you repalce them, it will cost you quite a bit of money. Nothing unique to this printer, but still annoying. I believe the ones that ship with the printer will get you around 1500 pages. Also, it does not print photo-quality images, but no color laser will. Know what you're buying.

I highly recommend this printer for home use. It produces fast, high-quality images, razor-sharp text, it's network-ready, and has Linux drivers (not Postscript).

Okay...so I know I sound over ecstatic about this printer but, quite simply, that is because I really am!! For starters, I am a graphics professional and a REALLY finnicky, ultra picky person who also suffers from being too much of a perfectionist. Whenever I get something new that plays a somewhat critical part to what I do, I am EXTREMELY critical of it from the very beginning and look for the flaws from the word go. Once a few days/couple of weeks have passed and it has "passed" than I will keep it. The quality of the final output is very important to me, doing what I do. And I bet you are already asking yourself the question, "Well, if it is THAT critical, why not be prepared to spend a lot more if you really want quality so that you can get what you pay for? How can you expect such a low priced product to meet your high expectations?" Well, truth of the matter is that I am in the process of getting a house, so ANYTHING costs a LOT right now to me (money flies in all directions when you move into a new home...you know how it is) and so I was actually going to wait another year or so until I was able to spend a lot more on a really decent color laser (I have already waited a year or 2.) I have a really good color inkjet for proofs but I also really REALLY needed a color laser for everything else. Besides, my older black & white laser just died out on me a few months back and I was suffering financially now because printing out run of the mill stuff on my inkjet was burning a huge hole in my wallet because of the high prices of inkjet cartridges...especially when you have an inkjet printer like the R800 that has EIGHT cartridges. OUCH!! And even more importantly, I did not want to wear out the R800...I want to keep it for my top-notch proofs. Also, I could use a good color laser for small print runs...business cards...brochures...the regular stuff...but of course I wanted the quality to be VERY good at the same time! It would basically need to cover printing just about everything.
Well, then I came across a review of the Konica Minolta Magicolor 2430 DL in a Mac magazine...this excellent review really peaked my interest somewhat...especially because of the low price and the fact that there was currently a rebate going with it. I was still pretty suspicious because I couldn't quite believe that you could get a really good color laser for such a good price. Anyway...the rebate was only good until the end of the month and so I started to really consider it...especially since it was either NOW or not for a very very long time. I went on the net...read as many reviews as I could and decided to take the plunge and purchased from the local Staples. I decided that if I was really not happy, I could just return it within the next couple of days. Frankly, being as picky as I am, I was pretty sure I would be returning it. Well...setup was a cinch...about 10 minutes later (most of the time was spent unpacking the HEAVY printer and plugging it all in) the first print popped out and I took a really really close look. Hmmm....not bad I thought!! Then I went crazy printing out all sorts of different images....graphics...close-ups of people (skin tone is very important!)...text, you name it. The color accuracy is also essential of course. That night I was sold! Well, today out of curiosity I decided to do the ultimate test (of course I thought I was being completely ridiculous and would be sorely disappointed!!) and printed out a few prints on the approx. $7000 Phaser 7700 at work, then came out and printed out the same images on the Magicolor 2340 DL here at home. I could not believe my eyes!! My little (not so little actually) Magicolor won hands down!! Color was more accurate on the Magicolor, prints on the 7700 actually appeared more blotchy too. I then took the test prints around to a few others and asked them to tell me which prints they preferred (not telling them what image was from what printer of course)...guess what...they all preferred the prints from the 2430 DL. And all this from a $399 (after rebate) color laser!! Absolutely incredible!! (Note: If you can, for most accurate color results, make sure to convert images to CMYK first before printing, then turn "color matching" OFF on the printer.)

Contrary to the impression given in one of the other reviews here, this printer is perfectly compatible with Linux and Macintosh as well as Windows. It may not be a PostScript printer, but there are drivers for Linux available from the Konica Minolta site. Yes, it would be nice if it had PostScript on board, but I'm happy enough to have the computer do the rasterizing via GhostScript. I plugged the printer in via Ethernet, installed the drivers, and the Mac found the printer via Bonjour.

As far as photographic quality goes, on glossy paper the images are better than the glossy magazines on my coffee table, and with a cost per page less than a tenth of that of an inkjet. It has become my primary printer. For the occasional true photographic print, there are always camera stores.

What could be better? Give it PostScript and a duplexer and I'd declare it perfect. (There's an optional duplexer, but it's really expensive.)

I've been looking at color lasers for a while and was torn between Brother's color laser, Canon's new multifunction color laser, this model and the Magicolor 2400W.

I can't comment on the Canon or the Brother, but will comment on the differences between this model and the 2400W. For the typical $100 price difference, I would definitely recommend this model over the 2400W. An important difference between the two besides the network capability is expandable memory -- the other model (2400W) only has 32 MB memory and it is NOT expandable.

Ultimately, my choice was made very simple when I was in my local Office Depot 2 weeks ago. For some reason, they had this model priced the same as the 2400W. Setup was very simple, and the machine worked well right out of the box. Something during the driver installation process has led to the print menus being in Spanish and I haven't had time to address that yet; i is still easy enough to tell which box to check for color vs. black & white :)

Now, for its printing capability. Both Black and white and color print beautifully and quickly and look just as sharp as the prints my company produces at HQ on a much more expensive machine. I did experience some streaking on the page when I sent a 60 page black & white graphic print to the printer right after I set it up, for printing on color laser paper. Subsequent smaller black & white and color print jobs have printed beautifully with no problem, so I don't know whether the initial problem has gone away or if it could be related to indequate memory for a large print job.

Overall, I am very pleased -- easy setup, excellent print speed and quality and an unbelievable price.

It was worth the wait, because the Konica Minolta 2430DL is an excellent color laser printer for the money. And after we almost purchased the HP 2550, it was good that we first compared the actual print quality of various units in its class and even color laser printers that cost twice as much. The comparison tests regarding the acutal print quality and also the features put together with occasional exceptional discounts put the Konica Minolta Magicolor 2430DL Color Laser way ahead of the pack. No question about it, color is very important and the Konica Minolta 2430DL delivers all the way. While the HP e.g. did not produce authentic colors and tiny lines on the images in all the different printouts, the Konica Minolta 2430DL just reproduced/printed even color intensive images with quality. In comparison to the more expensive machines (color laser printers), you usually just get e.g. more paper capacity trays and maybe sometimes with certain units a few more pages per minute, plus network capability, but the Konica Minolta 2430DL has even the network capability already built in via Ethernet and that's a deal as competitive models charge a hundred or even a couple hundred bucks more for that feature. The setup for the 2430DL is easy and took only a few minutes and is virtually automatic. You can connect the 2430DL via USB cable to your PC or Mac and the USB cable is not included -- so don't forget to buy a quality USB cable.
Well, if you ever wanted or needed a great quality Color Laser printer at a really affordable low price, and if you didn't want to mess around with inkjet units, then the Konica Minolta Magicolor 2430DL Color Laser printer is an exellent choice with lots of features like 5 Color pages per minute and 20 B/W pages per minute, plus the refill cartridges are readily available and are not that expensive in comparison to most other color laser printers. So, you've got quality, speed, convenience and affordability -- it doesn't get any better than this when it comes to quality color printers.

For the money, this is a good printer. I purchased it over the Samsung CLP-510 because I got a better price at the time and didn't have a need for automatic duplexing (which is standard with the Samsung unit but not the Minolta).

Works fine with Mac OS X.

The problems with the 2430 DL:

Cheap plastic: The output flap broke within a week. The input paper tray has an equally cheap and breakable flap.

Paper jams: I've had multiple sheets pulled from the input tray at the same time. Also, I've had paper jam within the paper path. Perhaps using a different brand of paper would help alleviate these problems.

Envelope handling: You must open the printer to switch between envelopes and regular paper. Toner will not adhere to regular paper sheets if you forget to restore the settings after printing envelopes.

I've had this printer for almost a year now. I couldn't be more happy with it! The network setup is as easy as it comes. It prints fairly quick b/w and the color prints come out suprisingly well for a laser. I don't print a lot of photos on it. If you're looking for high quality photo prints, buy a photo printer! It takes the printer 10-15secs to come out of power-saving mode when you send a print job to the printer. As other people have commented, when printing, it makes a series of mechanical whirrs and clunks, but it's not that loud. It also makes a series of whirrs and clunks every time the printer goes into power save mode. The print quality is great: it puts out sharp, smear-free text and pictures come out fairly well too, of course not photo inkjet quality. At 20ppm b/w and 5ppm in color, it's plenty quick for my needs.

Overall, I couldn't be happier with my 2430DL. It's been a quality and reliable color laser for a great price. I highly recommend it!

We bought this little printer shortly before Christmas and everyday I am more and more pleased with the decision.
After going through several printers in recent years, I had pretty much decided to stick with HP products - but the reviews here and the price tag convinced me to give this little Minolta a try.
WOW! The print quality was great! Better than I would have expected from a similar HP printer - even on plain paper!
The setup was quick and easy. While the minimal printed materials were predictably funny (VERY bad translations into English) - the full pdf manual on the CD was great.
The on-line printer status is nice and includes how much toner and other consumables are left.
Overall, a surprisingly good value. Nice features, small size, and GREAT prints.

The printer set up easily, etc. The problem is it smears on an erratic basis. I have tried different kinds of paper and different settings. The only setting that won't result in a smear is "glossy" paper, which slows the printer way down. I have used it enough to change cartidges and this did not take care of the problem.

I regret this purchase. I had read about the smearing problem on the 2400 but hadn't read about it here. If I had it to do all over I would not have bought this printer.

P.S. I found the problem. If you lift the lid there are two latches. The raised position is for heavy envelopes, etc. and the lowered position is for paper. The printer came with one lever up and one lever down, which created my horrible smearing problem. Considering the consequences, Konica should have been very clear about positioning these levers in their materials.

We've had our 2430DL for a couple weeks only. Up to this point it has met our expectations. The graphics come out very nice and photos do too. We mainly use ours for graphics and letter head, which it works perfect for. It does take a little bit to warm up and is somewhat noisy so that is why I gave it a four. Overall we are very happy with it.