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Lexmark MS415dn Pro Review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £295
inc VAT

Impressive printer with fast speeds and great print quality, just a shame it isn't cheaper to run

It’s been a while since we’ve reviewed a Lexmark printer, so we were glad to see the MS415dn, a mono laser printer designed for moderate use in small businesses. It’s not entry-level either, with a high 38 pages per minute (ppm) print speed, and a recommended monthly duty of up to 7,200 pages.

It even has a built in duplexer for automatic double-sided printing, and Gigabit Ethernet. Sadly, though, there’s no Wi-Fi support. We’re reviewing the Pro version, which comes with a three-year onsite warranty. The standard printer has a one-year return-to-base warranty.

LEXMARK MS415dn Pro controls

The MS415dn Pro looks neat and feels chunky and robust. The 250-sheet paper cassette moves in and out without the clatter we hear from some printers, and the paper guides inside it feel tough enough to last. The 50-sheet multipurpose tray pulls down from the front then extends outwards. It also feels sturdy, but you need to make sure it’s properly retracted before it’ll fold away. You can buy a second 250-sheet tray (£129, www.lexmark.com/GB), or spend a bit more to add a 550-sheet tray (£169, www.lexmark.com/GB) to give you a total input capacity of 850 pages.

LEXMARK MS415dn Pro front

Switch on the MS415dn and there’s quite a wait before it’s ready to print, although the sharp colour screen displays a progress meter while it boots. Once ready, the MS415dn prints a full status summary, including its IP address, which is a real help if you plan to use its web interface to configure features. The screen and alphanumeric keypad are useful, but the lack of a USB port for direct printing is an unwelcome omission at this price.

Happily, though, the MS415dn is impressively quick to begin printing from standby, delivering a first page in just seven seconds. This quick acceleration helped it deliver our 25-page text test at a blistering 33.3ppm, and when tested over 100 pages it reached 37.3ppm. It was also quick to produce greyscale graphics, completing our 24-page test run at 21.2ppm.

This result would have been faster, but the printer paused momentarily before each of the four pages containing Powerpoint slides. For such a fast printer the MS415dn is unusually quiet, helped by unobtrusive cooling fans which stop immediately after a job. Across text, graphics and photos, print quality was about as good as we’ve seen from a mono laser.

Lexmark MS415dn Pro web interface

There’s plenty you can control via the web interface

The MS415dn uses a drum rated for 60,000 pages, and toner is available in 5,000-page high yield or 10,000-page extra-high-yield supplies. Even using the latter, costs work out at just under 1.6p per page, which is a bit higher than ideal. This is a fine choice for a business needing a no-nonsense mono laser, but with lower running costs it would be perfect.

Resolution
Maximum native resolution1,200×1,200dpi
Maximum enhanced resolution2,400dpi
Quoted speeds
Quoted speed, A438ppm
Quoted warm-up time0s
Quoted time to first page7s
Total quoted time to first print7s
Tested speeds
First page from sleep10s
Letter – time to first page7s
25-page text document – total time45s (33.3ppm)
24-page mixed text and graphics document – total time1m 8s (21.2ppm)
Two greyscale 10×8″ photos – total time16s
Six greyscale 6×4″ photos – total time19s
Physical and environmental
Standard interfacesUSB, 10/100/1000 Ethernet
Optional interfacesMarkNet N8352 802.11b/g/n wireless (£33)
Dimensions (HxWxD)263x399x382mm
Weight14.2kg
Noise54dB(A)
Duty cycle (pages per month)80,000 pages max, 750-7,200 pages recommended
Power consumption standby3W
Power consumption idle8W
Power consumption active756W
Paper handling
Maximum paper sizeA4/legal
Maximum paper weight163gsm
Standard paper inputs (capacity)2 (300)
Maximum paper inputs (capacity)3 (850)
Output tray capacity150 sheets
DuplexYes
General
TechnologyMono laser
Language(s)PCL 5e, PCL 6, PostScript 3, PDF 1.7
Supported operating systemsWindows XP or later, Mac OS X 10.6 or later, Novell NetWare, Citrix MetaFrame, various UNIX and Linux distributions
Memory, standard (max)256MB (256MB)
Other features and optionsNone
Buying information
Price inc VAT£295
Price per A4 page inc VAT1.6p
Price 2nd paper cassette inc VAT35S0267 250-sheet paper tray £118, 35S0567 550-sheet paper tray £152
Capacity of supplied black toner (pages)3,000 pages
Capacity of supplied drum/s (pages)60,000 pages
Estimated total ownership cost – three years’ light use (3,600 mono pages)£425.88
Estimated total ownership cost – three years’ medium use (21,000 mono pages)£577.55
Estimated total ownership cost – three years’ heavy use (108,000 mono pages)£1,971.14
Warranty duration and termsThree years onsite 
Supplierwww.printerland.co.uk
Detailswww.lexmark.co.uk
Part code3082211

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