Lexmark C540n

Lexmark’s C540n is a colour single-function laser similar to the HP CP1525nw, but designed for greater speed and higher volumes.

The C540n boasts a 50% greater recommended monthly load than the CP1525nw (1500 pages), and a higher print speed at up to 20ppm both mono and colour. We could achieve a respectable 17ppm with mono text and line art. However, the same magazine pages the CP1525nw churned out at 7ppm, the C540n could only print at a low 4ppm.

Printing itself was fast, but riddled with pauses between pages – other printers connected to the same PC over the same wired network didn’t display this behaviour, so I’m placing the blame squarely on the C540n or its drivers. Either way, don’t expect fast colour prints.

Text is sharp and image quality is good, though not up to the same standard as HP’s lower-volume model.

The printer includes toner for 1000 pages, with the full cartridges offering 2500 pages black ($150 ex GST) and 2000 pages for each colour ($180 ex GST), giving a rough per-page cost of six cents/page monochrome, and 33 cents/page colour.

Despite its slow performance with image-heavy print jobs, the C540’s monthly load (25-75 pages per workday), large paper tray and high-capacity toner cartridges make it a good candidate for day-to-day colour printing of documents, reports containing tables and graphs, and other non-photographic material.