Lexmark C540N Color Laser Printer

 (9 customer reviews)

This is by far the best printer I have owned. For a color laser it is small and convenient. Setup was very easy including installing it on our home network. I also like the toner tanks instead of the usual roller tanks. It is also comparatively lightweight compared to some of the monster size color lasers available. I choose color laser to avoid the inkjet rip-offs. Print quality is excellent for both color and text, the unit is quiet and comletely silent in standby. There's an eco mode meaning it uses almost no power in standby-mode (about 14W). It works great with both XP and Vista.

--------------Update - 8 months of use -------------------
The print quality is exellent but the toner cost will ruin you. We have printed about 1,100 pages and already used up the toner that came with the unit and one set of new toners with 2,500 page capacity. Obviously the toners won't give you 2,500 pages - my guess is that our's has given us about 600 or so. Most of what we print is...Read more

Let's get the pros out of the way first:

- The setup is easy and straightforward

- The print quality is pretty good for a printer in this price range

- Speed is acceptable, even in color

- It's not as noisy or bulky as other color lasers I've owned

Now for the rest.

This printer is obviously designed for *very* light duty printing. The specs say the paper tray will hold 250 pages but I couldn't get more than about 200 in without bending paper. The specs also claim the output area will hold 100 pages, and that's nonsense. I printed a 74 page manual, and got a jam after 52 pages.

And that's when the fun began...

I cleared the jam, but the printer refused to recognize that the jam was cleared. It kept insisting the jam was still there.

At the same time, the Lexmark Status Monitor just quit working. I got Vista's dreaded "This program has stopped working" dialog. (I'm on 64 bit Vista...Read more

Let me first preface my review. I am looking specifically at what it can do and how well it does it in relation to it's competitors. My experience with printers is extensive. I research printer's capabilities before homing in on the one that I want and need. I own 5, purchase a new one for improved capabilities and quality for different custom marketing pieces. This one produces an awesome, "digital print quality" with automatic duplexing with print speed of 21 to 25 ppm. I just wish it would print tabloid. I have always been an Epson, HP and Minolta person. This is my first Lexmark. I use printers wirelessly and this one does that too. It has adequate RAM for large file printing but you can upgrade from the 128 to 512. I'm an intensive graphics user and so far I see no need to upgrade. This is IT!!!! This is the printer I've been looking for with the quality, speed and price point. You can find replacement cartridges online fairly reasonable but I've also found bottles...Read more