Laser Printer - Kyocera 2160 Printer Manual

require special ones that cost more than the regular vari-
ety. Printing on transparencies always runs slower than
on regular paper.
Interfaces & network connectivity
Older color printers come with parallel interfaces stan-
dard. This ensures that they are compatible with all
Windows PCs. More common on newer machines is a
Universal Serial Bus (USB) port, which is used for direct
connection to a PC (or a Mac). USB interfaces, especial-
ly the now widely used Version 2.0, provide faster data
flow than parallel interfaces and are "hot-swappable."
That means you can connect or disconnect the printer
without restarting your computer. It also can be used
with Macintosh computers.
All workgroup color printers can be fitted with network
interface cards that allow you to connect them directly to
Ethernet. This is a standard feature on most printers in
this guide. Also optionally available — though increas-
ingly less important — are Token Ring network inter-
faces.
Some newer models are offering wireless connectivity:
either the Ethernet-based IEEE 802.11b (sometimes
known as "Wi-Fi") or (less commonly) the infrared
Bluetooth. We discuss these in more detail in the Business
Ink Jet Printer Guide in this volume
Buying a Color

Laser Printer

Recent price reductions have helped make color laser
printers more mainstream devices, and this has meant
that they are easier to buy than before. Previously, a lot of
places you could turn to for black-and-white laser print-
ers simply did not sell color models. Today, any reseller
that handles faster black-and-white printers — for exam-
ple, 24–40ppm models — is likely to offer one or more
color models as well.
This is a market where vendors generally sell through
distributors that supply the computer dealer channel. As
a rule, vendors do not maintain a network of authorized
dealers that are supplied direct. An exception is when
some manufacturers that are also in the copier business
sell color lasers through their copier dealers as well as
through the main computer printer channel.
In the past, vendors haven't dealt directly with end
users, except when pursuing the very largest accounts.
This has changed, however, with the advent of purchas-
ing over the Internet.
Certain vendors — Hewlett-Packard (www.hp.com)
Entire Contents © 2006 Progressive Business Publications. Copying of Pages Prohibited. To Order: 800 247 2185 or www.betterbuys.com
(pages 125–130).
The Color Laser Printer Guide: Industry Briefing
and Lexmark (www.lexmarkstore.com) among them —
will sell end users just about any of their color laser
machines from their own sites on the Web. Xerox tends
to direct customers to reseller sites or to brick-and-mortar
dealerships for most color lasers.
Still other vendors do little or no direct selling over the
Internet, although their color laser products are available
on online reseller sites. Some of these sites are multi-line
resellers, such as Zones (www.zones.com), Computer
Discount Warehouse
Connection (www.pcconnection.com) — while others
are the online shop windows of in-store retailers such as
Staples (www.staples.com)
(www.bestbuy.com). The latter sites have a much smaller
selection of color laser printers than the former.
Some of the online vendors also offer printer leases,
extended warranties, and additional services, such as
installation by a local dealer. Generally speaking, you
may not get the very lowest prices on the vendors' sites.
(After all, they can't undersell their retail vendors and
resellers.) But their prices are a good reference point to
start from. They also may include rebates and special
offers.
We can't stress enough, however, the importance of see-
ing color output with your own eyes, especially if you are
going to do more than just add color to text-based docu-
ments. It's not a good idea, in our opinion, to buy a color
printer over the Web without seeing a few hard-copy sam-
ples first.
Warranties and consumables
Most color laser models have warranties that include one
year of onsite service. However, a few models through
copier companies bear 90-day warranties. You'll need to
contract with a dealer for a service contract beyond that
period.
Keep in mind that there is less competition in the mar-
ket for color supplies than in the black-and-white supplies
market. Resellers do, however, compete on price over the
"official" supplies for the most popular brands; consum-
ables for the HP Color LaserJet series tend to be dis-
counted most of all. And naturally, consumables are also
widely available over the Web.
Because actual, or "street," prices for color printer con-
sumables vary widely, we don't attempt in our
Consumables Costs at-a-Glance charts (see the Vendor &
Product Profiles section beginning on page 3) to report
these prices. Instead, we give you the "list" prices at
which vendors suggest that consumables be sold or the
"Web" prices on the vendors' own Website. These prices
will give you an idea, although not a perfect one, of
which printers are the most economical to run. 
(www.cdw.com), and
and Best
PC
Buy
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