Customer Reviews

Konica Minolta magicolor 2300W Color Laser Printer

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Seems to be a great printer, drivers work well, no XP trouble. Prints slow (One page per 50-60 seconds) with long pauses between pages, till the entire print job is spooled, then easily meets the specs of 4 pages per minute. TIP: Since I routinely print 200-300 pages per job, I set the driver to NOT print first copy till the entire job spools; The job spools much more rapidly and then the printer prints continuously. Now I am much more than pleased.
Had it for about 45 days and have done about 2000-3000 bochures so far. Print quality is excellent to my eye.

Spec alert! You cannot upgrade the memory of this printer, in spite of what the specs say on Amazon! 32megs is built in, and that is what you have to live with.

After multiple trips to Kinko's paying a fortune for color printing, I decided the new generation of personal color lasers made it time to buy.

With an important print job coming up, my research period was short. After leaning towards the HP personal color laser (based simply on HP reputation), I discovered this beauty. My decision was certainly swayed by its much higher print resolution -- after all, anyone willing to pay the price of a personal color laser is someone who's interested in print quality. However, I was also impressed by advertised print speed and cost.

Well, I was not disappointed on any front. The color graphics are incredible. While this is not a 'photo quality' printer (and, in fact, cannot even use special glossy papers), it produces superior printed material that's well suited for any professional business presentation. Even photos print with what I would call very high quality.

As mentioned in previous reviews, start time can be slow if it starts from 'sleep' mode and has to spool a big job. But once it's gets cranking, watch out! It speeds through jobs quickly. (One interesting concept I got from my resesarch was the difference in print speed for black vs. color pages in a color laser printer. For a color page, it actually makes 4 passes over the page, once for each toner color. For black printing, it's simply one pass, hence the drastic difference in speed.)

With a PC World article estimating costs per sheet for color printing at around $0.18 for an ink jet printer and under $0.03 for color laser, you have a great feeling each time a color sheet lands on the output tray!

So far, my only complaint is the inability to handle non-standard sized print media. Its 'universal' input tray gives you the impression you should be able to use any size media that fits in the tray. However, the manual makes it clear that it's only designed for approved sizes and types of print media. I found this to be true when I attempted to print invitation size envelopes, which is impossible to do (they immediately jam). Also, lack of a 'single feed' slot for envelopes is missed.

However, all-in-all, this is a great printer which produces superior output. I've gotten many compliments on the printed material I've produced. Any soho person with print needs cannot help but be impressed by this unit. And believe me, the 'sticker shock' I had after leaving Kinko's each time is NOT missed!

Unlike what somebody said previously in these reviews, you can upgrade the memory for this printer. I purchased a 256MB DIMM and upgraded the stock/onboard 32MB to 288MB. As I print over the network to this printer from multiple PC's, the extra memory should help spooling big documents.

Overall, I love the price for the features. My only gripe is that I do tend to see long pauses between jobs, and warm-up time to start a job after power-saving mode is often a full minute or so.

So, if you're not in a hurry, this is a great printer!

For the price, I can deal with the wait. :)

Here's the bad news (which by the way is not so bad, so please, read on) - It weighs a ton. I had not realized how heavy these things are. No big deal. I managed to pick it up on my own while my husband was out of town. So is this bad news? Could certainly be worse.

One more thing, it pulls 15 amps of electricity and that's alot. At first, I plugged it into a power strip which is surge protected and when I turned on the printer it required so much electricity that it turned off my computer. This baby needs its own outlet. And, I will probably have to call an electrician to correct the problem or at least look at the plug to make sure I don't cause a fire one day. But so what, it's a powerful machine and that's what I am looking for. It's just something to consider.

Now to the good news: I am extremely pleased with the quality print for the price I paid. I printed some sample color brochures and they looked wonderful.

Some may have mentioned the speed in other reviews but ya' know it's a whole lot faster than my bubble jet and I don't have to wait several hours to print a large document.

It's incredibly user friendly. I had absolutely NO problems with the drivers and because it has a parallel port and usb port you don't have to go out and buy a new computer or a bunch of extra "stuff" to plug it into your computer.

It's a cute machine, and I feel very confident that it will suit my home and small business needs.

For the price I recommend it!! For once I am happy to say that you don't get what you pay for, you get more!
thanks!

Pros: good price, fast mono printing, O.K. color graphic.
Cons: _ cheapo design
_ limited memory, unupgradeable (unexpandable)
_ do not support any kind of print server (I am really frustrated @ this problem)
_ noisy, It keeps screaming until you put it in standby mode. When printing, it sounds like a dryer machine is running.
_ power thirsty
_ bad on photo quality (I don't understand why someone said this one gives out a good photo quality. My photo was printed out with terrible white background, and picture is dotty)

I just don't want to be so mean to Konica, so I gives it 3 stars due to it good price. Otherwise, I don't recommend this printer. I recommend Dell 3100cn

This printer was purchased as the main printer on a small home network (5 computers). This is the first color laser I have owned so I did not know what to expect.
1. It is heavy and requires more space than I thought.
2. I have yet be able to use it through the printserver. 2 other printers are online with the network.
3. Changing the spool settings speeded it up somewhat but still slow.
4. Noisy and warm up takes awhile.
5. Quality is good, price per copy seems to be good.
6. Would probably buy it again

I have had the printer for only a few days so far, and it has been the best printer for the price. It is also the smallest color laser printer i have seen so far. When it comes to speed the printer has it and this has been the best laser printer for color pictures that i have ever used. The print quility is far greater than any other color laser printer i have used in the past.

Seems to be a great printer, drivers work well, no XP trouble. Prints slow (One page per 50-60 seconds) with long pauses between pages, till the entire print job is spooled, then easily meets the specs of 4 pages per minute. TIP: Since I routinely print 200-300 pages per job, I set the driver to NOT print first copy till the entire job spools; The job spools much more rapidly and then the printer prints continuously. Now I am much more than pleased.
Had it for about 45 days and have done about 2000-3000 bochures so far. Print quality is excellent to my eye.

Finaly found a print server that works with the Minolta Magicolour 2300W. Although not on the published compatability list I took a chance and bought the EDIMAX GDI Print Server Model PS-1216U. This print server is available for aprox $30.00 US.. + shipping... The server comes with a CD which includes SW to install drivers which links Minolta GDI driver with the Print Server...The server uses a usb2 interface to connect with the GDI prnter. I now have it working and have printed a few pages from my WinXP pc.. So far so good....The product claims includes suport for Win 2K, vista and windows 7 .. but I did not test these... The server has a built in webpage for device configuration... The server can also be setup using the included setup/installation software.

I purchased this with hesitation after reading mixed reviews about its compatibility with print servers. I hooked it up to a Linksys PSUS4 and it worked flawlessly out of the box, no changes required. Output quality is excellent, and print speed is good after it warms up. Recommended.