Lexmark B3340DW
It’s a fast text printer, but there’s little else to recommend the B3340DW
Lexmark’s B3340DW is a compact mono laser printer, aimed at small and home offices. Its basic and rather clumsy looks are somewhat deceptive, as they disguise a printer that’s a rung or two up from entry level. The B3340DW has a claimed 38ppm top speed and is covered by a three-year warranty once you register it with Lexmark.
As the DW suffix suggests, this printer supports Wi-Fi, and can make automatic duplex prints.
Its paper handling features aren’t bad either, as there’s a 250-sheet cassette and 100-sheet multipurpose feed. Lexmark even says this printer can handle a 50,000-page one-off monthly maximum, although it recommends a more prosaic duty of 500 to 5,000 pages.
The B3340DW has a two-line mono display fixed flat on its upper panel. This takes a while to get going when you first switch it on, and seems unnecessary given it isn’t accompanied by a USB host port, but is helpful when you first connect to a wireless network.
This is a fast text printer, reaching an impressive 30.6ppm on our 25-page test, the joint fastest device in this group test. It hit 33ppm over 50 pages, faster even than the Labs-winning
Brother HL-L9340CDN.
In truth, however, this printer doesn’t have much else going for it. It rather laboured over our graphics tests, producing greyscale pages at only 12ppm, and reaching a modest 8.6ipm when duplexing. Photos were quicker, with two 10 x 8in prints completed in just 20 seconds, but the results weren’t especially impressive: graphics were a shade too dark and had subtle fine banding. In addition, the printer’s half-toning gave a slightly grainy impression that reminded us of charcoal shading.
We wish we could point to low running costs, but despite a 40,000page drum and an extra-high yield toner rated for 6,000 prints, these still work out at 2p per page. That’s not excessive in this class, but it would certainly add up quickly if the printer saw heavy use. That’s unfortunate given the B3340DW would otherwise be well suited to producing a lot of black text in a hurry.