Yup, that gigantic Dell box contained a huge color laser printer. But to my pleasant surprise, the 100 lbs 5130cdn isn’t nearly as boring and mundane as I thought it was going to be. I really don’t know if it’s the fastest printer in the world like Dell claims, but I do know that this printer could be a serious weapon in the hands of a comic book pirate. (I would like to think they exist)
Disclaimer: I don’t know jack about business-level printers. When Dell first asked me to look the world’s fastest color laser printer, I thought it was going to be a desktop model like Best Buy sells. Nope, the 5130cdn is a full scale, business printer with a monthly load throughput capacity of a 110,000 pages. This printer is serious business but for $1,549 I would expect nothing less.
I managed to get the printer set up after some issues with Windows 7. For some reason, this brand new printer doesn’t ship with Windows 7 drivers, instead I had share the printer on another computer and then the print speed wasn’t up to spec. But once Dell gave me the right drivers and assured me that I got a pre-production model and the retail version will have the compatible drivers, I was off to the races.
The printer is rated at 47ppm in both mono and color and I found those numbers to be accurate. With just a random text-only PDF, I was able to get about 39ppm when printing over a wireless network and exactly 47ppm via a direct USB connection. Even when the document has a splattering of color, the speed isn’t noticeably affected.
But let’s say you want to print a full-color comic book for some random reason. Just how fast is it then? Well, the 5130cdn managed to spit out the 38 pages in 1:38 as shown in the video above. Trust me, that’s fast considering each page is a full color image around 800KB in size. Try that with your inkjet and see what you get.
Dell has of course loaded this printer with a ton of new technology to get these results. It’s the first Dell printer to use ColorByDell, which is a total print quality solution that improves color saturation, sharpness, and print quality. Plus, the printer has a Cost Per Page of 1.04c per page for black and white, and 7.72c for color.
The 5130cdn is available starting today for $1,549, which includes a 3 year next business day on-site service contract. Let me warn you though, if you do buy this monster, its shipping weight is 120 lbs on a pallet and your wife won’t like it if it sits in the living room all evening.
Dell Launches World’s Fastest Color Laser Printer
3 New Commercial Printers Help Customers Boost Productivity & Lower TCO
ROUND ROCK, NOVEMBER 10, 2009 – Dell today announced three new commercial workgroup printers to help businesses of all sizes increase productivity and lower their total cost of printing. Printers available today include the Dell 5130cdn, the world’s fastest single function letter (LTR) size color laser printer, the Dell 7130cdn, Dell’s first LED color printer with tabloid size printing capability; and the Dell 3330dn, a single function monochrome laser printer for high performance class black and white printing. These new printers will be launched and available in Europe and the Middle East on November 24.
The Dell 5130cdn can print up to 47 single-side and 37.6 double-side LTR pages per minute (ppm) in both mono and color, making it the world’s fastest LTR size single-function color laser printer. The 5130cdn also premiers ColorbyDell, a total print quality solution that delivers improved color saturation and image sharpness and outstanding print quality. This is enabled through a combination of a powerful new image enhancement algorithm, advanced toner technology and improvements in print engine design. The Dell5130cdn also brings significant energy and cost savings by using a new toner formulation that fuses at a lower temperature, enabling a remarkable Cost Per Page (CPP) of 1.04c for black and white and 7.72c for color print outs[i]. With a maximum duty cycle up to 110,000 pages a month, the Dell 5130cdn provides outstanding reliability and is available today in the US from $1,549 with 3 Year Next Business Day (NBD) Onsite Service after remote diagnosis[ii].
To help companies reign in the costs of their color printing, Dell also announced the availability of Dell ColorTrack Pro—a remote administration tool for IT administrators to centrally monitor and control access to color printing on the Dell 5130cdn. Designed for workgroup environments, Dell ColorTrack Pro manages user access at the server level, to more easily control printing and toner costs.
“With a school district as large as ours, it’s important that we provide students, faculty and staff access to quality technology,” said Tim McNeese, Information Systems Director of Williamson County Schools. “After installing the new Dell 5130cdn printers, we noticed a big difference in the quality and speed of the printouts. The great value and high production rate helps our schools run smoothly and collaboratively,” he added.
The Dell 7130cdn is Dell’s first LED-based color printer with the ability to print up to tabloid-size, high quality Pantone® approved color prints, for more accurate color reproduction. With its ability to bring professional quality color printing in-house with lower costs and improved printing options, the Dell 7130cdn includes a rich feature set, including numerous paper handling options, a powerful processor and enhanced memory. This allows the printer to print the first page (First Print Out Time) as quickly as 6.5 seconds in both mono and color. The Dell 7130cdn is available today in the US from $2,799 with 1 Year Next Business Day (NBD) Onsite Service after Remote Diagnosis[iii].
“Dell’s new commercial printers add to a compelling portfolio of business color and mono printers for organizations of all sizes,” said Keith Kmetz, Vice President of Hardcopy Peripherals Solutions and Services at IDC. “The Dell 5130cdn revolutionizes speed and usability. And its user-friendly appeal makes it attractive to organizations looking for high quality color output at a low total cost of ownership,” he added.
On the black and white printing front, Dell announced the Dell 3330dn, a single-function black and white performance printer that can print up to 40 pages per minute (ppm), with a monthly duty cycle up to 80,000 pages. Built for high performance printing needs, the Dell 3330dn packs work-horse reliability, and includes paper drawer and memory expansion capabilities that grow with increasing business demands, all in a compact desktop size. The Dell 3330dn is currently available from today in the US from $599 with 1 year Advanced Exchange Service.
“Dell has always focused on efficiency, reducing costs and increasing productivity for businesses of all sizes, and today we have extended that same winning formula to the printing world,” said Mike Arterbury, Global Director Commercial Software & Peripherals at Dell Inc. “Our portfolio of printers provides customers with valuable and affordable choices and lower cost of printing, saving them time – and real money!” he added.
“Dell’s complete lineup of laser printers provide customers with outstanding value, world class reliability and ease of use to help them achieve more with less, with minimum downtime and complexity,” said C. K. Lim, General Manager of Dell’s Global Imaging Business.
Dell printers are available direct from Dell and from Dell’s more than 50,000 partners worldwide.
Printer Specifications
5130cdn Color Laser Printer 7130cdn Color Laser Printer 3330dn Mono Laser Printer List price US$ 1,549 (includes 3-yr NBD On-site Service after remote diagnosis) US$ 2,799 with 1-yr NBD Onsite Service after remote diagnosis US$599 with 1-yr NBD Advanced Exchange after remote diagnosis Consumables type Separated toner and drum unit Separated toner and drum unit Separated toner and drum unit Print Speed (Letter) Up to 47ppm in both mono and color (Actual print speed will vary with use) Up to 35ppm (actual print speed will vary with use) Up to 40ppm (actual print speed will vary with use) Duplex Print Standard Standard Standard Max. resolution Up to 1200 dpi x 1200 dpi Up to 1200 dpi x 1200 dpi Up to 1200×1200 dpi / 2400 IQ User interface 160 x 64 Mono Graphics backlit LCD text 128 x 64 Graphics backlit LCD text 4 line backlit LCD (text and graphics) 3-button + 5-way cursor keypad 6-button cluster 20 buttons keypad 1 LED: Status (green, yellow & red) 1 LED: Status (green, yellow & red) 1 two-tone LED Processor 800 MHz 1 GHz 466 MHz Connectivity High-speed USB 2.0, Gigabit Ethernet High-speed USB 2.0, Gigabit Ethernet USB 2.0 (Hi speed), Parallel, 10/100 Ethernet Print Language PCL® 5c, 5e/6 Emulation: 81 fonts Adobe® PostScript® 3: 136 fonts
PCL® 5c, PDF direct v1.4 , Adobe® PostScript® 3 Adobe® PostScript® 3 PCL® 5e, PCL 6, PCL XL, HBP (GDI), XPS (GDI) and PostScript® Level 3 Emulation Paper input (std/max) 700 / 2900 sheets 600 / 2100 sheets 250 / 850 sheets (550tray+MPT) Paper output (std/max) 500 / 1000 sheets 400 / 400 sheets 50 sheets Multi-purpose input 150 sheet 100 sheet 150 sheets Max. monthly duty cycle Up to 110,000 pages Up to 150,000 pages Up to 80,000 pages Size (W x D x H) 22.1” x 20.0” x 17.0” 25.2” x 26.2” x 15.7” 10.2″ x 16.6″ x 14.53″ Weight 99lbs (45kg) 145.2lbs (66 kg) 31.15 lb.
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For more details, please go to www.dell.com/printers
nice comicbook pirates i wonder if they exist? But did we really have to watch a printer print? thank god for the ff button
As someone who often has to print A LOT of stuff, I found that kinda fascinating…
Plus, its only 1:38 long..really? Cant sit still through that short clip? Ever tried 2010 Space Odyssey…sober?
The major question is how much does the ink cost and how many comic books can it print with each cartridge?
The toner cartridges hold enough for 18,000 pages of black and 12,000 of each color (at 5% on A4 paper coverage), so you should be able to print more than a few comic books (or whatever else you want to print) for quite a while without replacing them.
The 5130cdn and 713cdn both run at about 1 cent per page in black and under 8 cents per page in color, so it wouldn’t cost you too much either. Go ask the print shop down the street how much they’d charge you for color prints… huge savings if you’re going to print very much color when compared to inkjets or outsourced solution, even with the price of buying the printer.
Of course I’m totally unbiased…
Paul Nicholson
paul_nicholson@dell.com
Dell Printer Brand Manager
I hope at that price they don’t cripple they’re tones like Brother or HP. Having owned half a dozen various brands of laser printers, I’ve found that on most, the toner life cycles run out before the actual toner does. Brother’s have a nasty habit of running out of Cyan/Mag/Yellow even when only printing b/w. Fancy that. Thank God I found the hidden toner reset in the menu or I would have spent $$ on toner that was never needing replacement. I hope printer manufactures see that customer loyalty is worth more than pinching extra $$ from customers by spuriously setting up printers to run out of toner early.
We’ve never done it on any of our printers and have no plans to do so that I’m aware of. Totally counter to our way of doing business. Our printers will notify you when toner is getting low (some at 20%, some at 10% or 15%) but that is only a low toner warning to allow you to order a replacement cartridge. The printer will keep printing for sometime after that, and those warnings can be disabled entirely if you choose to do so.
Hi Paul,
i really like this but does the price of printer come with any of the drums and toner cartridges? Thanks,
Peter.
Yes, all Dell printers come ready to print out of the box. Full drums and standard capacity toner cartridges. The 5130cdn comes with 6,000 page color cartridges (6k each of cyan, magenta, and yellow) and a 9,000 page black cartridge.
Oh that’s brilliant!!!
Thanks for the speedy reply. I just tried calling dell in ireland but they were closed so this means i can go ahead and order now. Thanks.
Peter.
Exactly what I needed to know! Thanks for the info!
I just tried calling dell in ireland but they were closed so this means i can go ahead and order now. Thanks
I can’t find anywhere that it talks about the paper path. Can I print on 100lb Cover stock on this printer? If not, what’s the heaviest stock that will run through it? Thanks all!
It does have a snaking paper path, but it isn’t too bad.
Our spec sheet reads the following for media support:
Plain Paper: 60–80 gsm
Plain Thick Paper: 81–105 gsm
Covers: 106–162 gsm
Covers Thick: 163–216 gsm
Coated Normal: 106–162 gsm
Coated Thick: 163–216 gsm
Note that ‘inkjet’ coated media can’t be used. Any gloss/coated paper should be noted as “for laser printers” to withstand the heat of the laser printing process.
Hope that answers your question.
–Paul Nicholson
Dell Printer Brand Manager
Thanks Paul for the response. FYI. . .the 216 gsm converts to an 80 lb Cover weight, which is a decent thickness. One more question. The pictures in the ads on the Dell website show the printer with paper coming out with edge-to-edge, full-bleed printing. Does the printer actually print full-bleed? Thanks again. -Bill
Unfortunately, no. We’re working with our marketing guys to get that image fixed.
It can do pretty close to full-bleed: about a 0.15″ margin on each edge if my spec sheet reads correctly. Laser technology just doesn’t play well with trying to do a full-bleed, true borderless print. One of the few limitations.
–Paul Nicholson
Dell Printer Brand Manager
Will the 7130 print to the edge on an 8.5″ x 11″ page? What about 11″ x 17″? Does this change when printing duplex?
By the way, I did read the answer you gave just above my question. To clarify, I wasn’t sure if the 7130 was able to print to the edge of an 8.5″ x 11″ and 11″ x 17″ because the specs that I read state that the max printable area is 12″ x 46.9″.
@Sadie
Unfortunately due to technology limitations, the 7130cdn, like any laser/LED printer, cannot print to the edge. You’ll need to select an inkjet based printer to get true edge to edge printing. Some solid ink printers may be capable of this as well.
The 7130cdn can have margins down to as narrow as 0.15 inches though, so it does get pretty close!
Paul, thanks for the very quick response!
Hopefully you can help me with another issue I’m having with Dell.
I originally ordered my Dell 7130 on June 23 with 2nd Day Shipping and I was assured that my printer would arrive NO LATER than June 30. I was told that the printer was in stock and ready to ship. (I won’t go too much into this first issue, but why does it take Dell so long to process an order? Anytime I order from Dell and the product is in stock, it still takes 2 to 3 days to “process”. Seems extremely slow to me.) Either way, I was willing to wait until June 30.
Fast delivery was a very important requirement for me because I currently have the Dell 3130 and my toner was close to life. I have a big print job coming up that will be VERY COSTLY to have printed at a print shop, so I prefer to print it and finish it myself. This job was one of my main deciding factors for purchasing the 7130.
On June 28 I received an email from Dell saying my order has been delayed and new expected delivery date is July 6th. Well, this is no good because it is past my deadline for the print job. I called Dell and the lady I spoke to put in a service request (#18723477) to have my printer shipped out quicker, and said someone would contact me shortly.
I never heard back from Dell so I found a “Dell Registered Partner” that offered Next Day Delivery. I spoke to the owner and told him my situation. Before selling me the printer he called his contact at Dell who assured him that the printer IS in fact in stock and ready to ship. He explained to me that Dell always first fills orders that are Next Day Delivery and all other orders get put on hold until all of the expedited orders are filled. I was once again ASSURED that everything was in stock and ready to ship immediately with no delays. He even had me give him my credit card info right then and there because he said that doing so would save 4 hours compared to entering everything online through Paypal, and my order would go into the system that same day instead of the following day. I was desperate, he seemed sincere, I agreed. This all happened on 6/28/10. Delivery was possible on 6/30, but I was told to give until 7/1 just to be safe. I then canceled my order through Dell.
I received a production update on 6/30 stating that my printer was scheduled to ship today with delivery on 7/1.
Well, fast-forward to present time… Printer delayed! New delivery date is 7/8/10. No one knows what happened. Everyone is “just as surprised as I am” (more like shocked)! How is it that a printer can be in stock and ready to ship with next day delivery but get DELAYED AGAIN??
My 3130 ran out of toner two days ago and I’m left unable to print color copies. Did I mention that I own a business that is primarily print media. Now I’m forced to go to my competition and spend over $3000 on a job that would have cost me a fraction of that amount to print/finish myself. More importantly, I have to close my doors for half a day to drive into town and have this job completed.
For both of these orders to get delayed, it makes me feel like Dell really doesn’t care about losing my business. I’m just a small business and my orders can be pushed aside to allow other orders to get filled ahead of mine. I offered to pay extra to have shipping expedited, but was told that this is not necessary. I feel like I’m a good customer to Dell and my orders should be filled in a more timely (and respectable) manner. I currently use 2 different Dell Desktop Computers, a Dell Laptop, the Dell 3130 Laser Printer, plus purchased over $1200 in toner in the past few months alone. Factor in the cost of the 7130 and how quickly I go through toner, am I wrong for thinking that my business should be shown more appreciation than I’ve seen?
I’m sorry to bring this issue to you Paul, but I’m impressed with your promptness and you give me hope that Dell is still worth receiving my business. Please let me know if there is anything that you can do to help!
Thanks,
Sadie
@Sadie
Email me at paul_nicholson@dell.com if you don’t mind. I’ll do what I can to get you with a specialist who can expedite your order.
Short answer: my guess (and it is only a guess with the limited information above) is that some accessories on the order may have delayed it. We’ve had a couple of trays for the 7130cdn out of stock in a few cases recently, so that may have delayed your whole order shipping out.
Either way, email me with your contact info and we’ll get it resolved ASAP. I understand the predicament you’re in and I’ll do everything we can to get it resolved.
And BTW- Thanks for choosing Dell!
Paul Nicholson
Dell Printer Brand Manager
Paul,
I had purchased a Dell 5100CN refurbished printer directly from Dell outlet 4-5 years ago. We have not printed alot, in fact only 9500 pages (use another laser just for black and white), and have recently had spots along the left side of the pages showing up (every 1.5 inches). Called Dell support twice got different answers. Bottom line they are telling me they don’t know why, but with all the parts they told me to replace (the developer assembly is not even available) it would run $500-600, and that is without replacing any toner.
First I am surprised with that little use I am told to replace a number of parts and they said they still did not know if that would fix it. If I purchase your new 5130cdn will I experience the same thing. We are going to be printing alot more now. We are also thinking of printing a 4page newsletter which means duplex printing on 11×17, is the technology on the 7130 better than the 5130? With my experience with my 5100 I am a little hesitant to go back to Dell.
First off, let me apologize for your less than excellent experience with the 5100cn. BTW: Off the top of my head that sounds like a drum unit that has failed or been damaged in some way (since it is leaving a mark every 1.5 inches and that’s about the space a drum covers in one rotation), but as support told you, there are a few elements that could cause the problem just based on your quick description. If that is the case, the good news is that drums are a normal consumable item (they’ll need to be replaced occasionally) and are easily available and relatively inexpensive. If it turns out to be something else, like a developer or other part…it is unfortunate that printers in this class, when not under warranty, can be expensive to repair. That’s one of the reasons I always encourage customers to cover the printer under warranty for the expected use of the printer (usually 3-5 years depending on the customer). Besides covering any hardware failure, etc, it will also cover fuser maintenance kit replacement on all Dell laser printers. That’s a savings of hundreds of dollars over 3-5 years for most customers (fusers usually need to be replaced every 1.5-2 years depending on use). Other printer makers consider it a consumable and require you to buy the maintenance kits. We’ll cover it free if the printer is still under warranty.
To your other question: The 5100cn and the 5130cdn could barely be more different. They are entirely different printers with very different technologies. Everything from the size, speed, paper path, drum and consumable design, etc is all new. The 5130cdn and 7130cdn are perfect machines for high volume color prints. Very robust duty cycle, fabulous quality, and high speeds.
Between the new machines: the 7130cdn and 5130cdn do share many similar design elements, but vary in a few ways as well.
Does that answer your questions?
I hope you’ll consider us for your next printer purchase.