Laser Printer Roundup : Dell 1235cn
4. Dell 1235cn
Scanner and copier
The scanner isn't really this model's strong point. For one thing, it's slow. You need to wait 18 seconds just for a preview scan and almost 20 seconds for a colour scan of 4 x 6'' photo print at 300 dpi. For another, the quality isn't there either. The colours have a strong tendency to be dominated by warm tones and the sharpness of the details is disappointing. When photocopying, a black and white document takes around 20 seconds; you'll need to wait around twice as long (45 seconds) for a colour document.
- 1235cn Multifunction...
Handling
The Dell 1235cn is a colour multifunction laser printer which includes a fax machine. From the outside, it looks just like the Samsung CLX-3175fw that we tested a few months ago. But we're glad we put through the same bank of tests, because although the two printers might look like each other, they produce very different results.
| Specifications | ||||
| Resolution | 600 x 600 ppp | Number of Cartridges | 4 | |
| Speed B&W/Color | 16/4 ppm | Number of Base Colors | 4 | |
| Ink Drop Size | Picolitres | Scanner/Copier/Fax | Yes / Yes / Yes |
The printer is made up of a main paper tray that can hold 150 pages and a sheet feeder that can hold 15 pages. With 128 MB of internal memory, it will easily be able to keep up with the printing needs of a small team in an office.
It includes an Ethernet port, but doesn't have WiFi. Unfortunately, the list of missing features doesn't stop there, as there's no double-sided printing mode or Linux support either.
Speeds
Although the printer can reach decent speeds when printing in black and white, its performance in colour is a little less impressive.
Just like the Samsung we mentioned above, the 1235cn prints at 16 pages per minute (ppm) in black and white and 4 ppm in colour, and it's this second figure that puts it behind some inkjet printers.
What annoyed us the most was the time it took to produce the first page. Once the printer is already warmed up from a previous document, it only takes a speedy 11 seconds. If, on the other hand, it starts in standby, then you need to wait 48 seconds for the first page to arrive. And it's over a minute for the first document you print after switching it on.
Noise and Energy Consumption
On standby, the 1235cn uses about 7.5 W, which isn't much at all, for a laser printer at least; we'd still have preferred less, though. That shoots up when it's printing though, reaching 500 W.
When we set it up at a distance of one metre in our testing room to check the noise levels, we measured a very noisy 66 dB.
Printing Quality
As we mentioned, the 1235cn looks a lot like Samsung's CLX-3175fw. But the quality of the documents printed on the Dell printer is very different and unfortunately a long way from meeting our expectations. The colours are generally accurate enough, even if the contrast is a little too extreme. The gradients in our test documents were very well reproduced with a smooth range of colours. Text lacks detail and characters run into one another, especially in our test document with black characters on a yellow background. Solid blocks of colour are even, however.
Black and white text is very clear and the staircase effect around the edges of the characters is very minimal. The curves in the characters are clean and well-drawn.
Cost per page
The toner and the drum are separate, and, as usual, the cartridges supplied with the printer aren't entirely full. The supplied black toner cartridge lasts for 1000 pages and the various colours 700 pages each.
The 1235cn has a high cost per page and is one of the most expensive laser printers to run.
| Pluses | Minuses |
|---|---|
-Black and white printing speeds -Network port | -Overall quality -Colour printing speeds -Expensive to run |
 The 1235cn is slow at printing in colour, produces disappointing results, uses a lot of power and is noisy! In black and white, though, it's fast and accurate, and just right for a small workgroup. | |
I have the scx-4500w and the review is pretty correct, setting up that Wifi make me want to pull my fingernails out.
My biggest pet peeve is the "scan to pc" button doesn't work as its said to. It will work, if it is in Ad-hoc mode, but if its on the network then you will need to open a program do it, it still works but it takes 5 times longer. Overall a great printer though, its certainly far from an eyesore and fits perfectly on my small filecabinet.
Quote from the Dell 2335dn page: "but when it's printing, that rises to an average of 850 W--contrast that to the 20 W required by an inkjet."
You probably meant 85 w? I'm pretty scared if you didn't.
I wouldn't doubt 850 watts, some of the others hit 600....
Any chance to do a review on the Brother MFC Series MFC-9120CN. It just came out and I can't find anything on it.
Precisely as the conclusions of the reviewer, I have tested the Samsung SCX-4500W and immediately run into several problems during configuration. I cannot see how the average user will get the machine to work with full functionality. Scanning is extremely weird, requiring you to start programs on the computer, click buttons and run back and forth to the machine to feed the document. It should simply scan to email or to a file share by pressing ONE button! For the record I have tested this device with Windows, Mac, and Linux.
I believe that the manufacturer of the SCX-4500W would clearly benefit from releasing the software of as open source. The original software and documentation has so many flaws and limitations despite the fact that the product has been on the market for perhaps more that a year. No updates seem to be available. Shall I conclude that further development has been stopped?
There is much more that could be done with a beautiful machine like this if the software and documentation are improved!