Lexmark C543dn Color Laser Printer

Specification & Options

As a colour laser this is a machine of modest dimensions. A redesign has reduced its height and Lexmark has gone for a rather slab-like design in mid-grey and cream. Unusually, there’s no well in the top surface of the printer to act as an output tray. Instead, paper ends up on a raised section of the top cover, held in place by a paper stop at the back, and a slight dip at the front, where pages eject from the machine.

The C543dn's top speed of 2.8 ppm lagged much of the competition's by a wide margin. Color graphics and photos looked pretty natural on plain paper, but photos appeared surprisingly worse on Lexmark's own glossy laser paper: washed-out, grainy, and oddly tinged. The upshot: Stick to plain paper, and prepare for a wait.

The boxy printer's configuration has one nice bonus, standard automatic duplexing. Everything else is basic: a 250-sheet main input tray with a manual-feed slot, and a 100-sheet top output area. If you need more paper capacity, a 550-sheet second drawer costs $199. That seems pricey, but it includes a 100-sheet multipurpose feeder. The control panel is minimal but usable, with a two-line monochrome LCD and self-explanatory navigation buttons.