Dell 2145cn colour laser

Dell’s 2145cn is a mid-range multifunction device, designed for small office and modest workgroup use, but includes several, big-machine functions. Unusually, it’s also built around a colour laser engine. Dell 2415cn multifunction printer Dell’s 2145cn: multifunctional with duplex printing and scanning There’s only one …

[Anonymous Coward]

But does it do the yellow pixel tracking trick?

per <http://www.eff.org/issues/printers>.

[Fred Flintstone]

@ Yellow pixel

Easy to check - copy some cash, hand it out, wait.. I'd actually like to see those pixels - never spotted them, but then again, I never really looked..

[Nigel 11]

Running cost not high?

"Using the high-yield figures gives costs per page of 2.51p for a black page and 10.5p for a colour one. Neither of these page costs is particularly high, when compared with other machines aimed at the same market. "

OUCH! Run a mile!

Seriously, if that's for industry-standard 5% coverage, it is considerably higher than for an HP Officejet 8500 MFC, which will also give you much superior colour reproduction for half the starting price. Which just leaves speed as its advantage.

I think Colour Laser printing may be a dead technology, except for high volume printers costing a good four figures. Mono headed the same way, though it can still save on ink/toner if you really never want colour.

[Nigel 11]

Yellow pixels @Fred Flintstone

Oh,they are there all right, to catch any very stupid wannabe-forgers.

The problem for a forger reduces to how to acquire a printer in such a way that its unique serial number doesn't lead to his arrest. Since a forger is by definition willing to break the law, this is not much of a problem. And before he distributes any of his forged currency, he will of course have disposed of the incriminating printer in a similarly untraceable manner.

Makes you wonder whether they were really trying to catch feedleminded forgers at all, doesn't it. Or is it just another sign of an incipient police state, such as ID and "child protection" and DNA databases, omnipresent CCTV, the government putting itself above the law, and attempting to define everyone except themselves as guilty until we prove ourselves innocent?

And do the powers that be have access to black printers with programmable serial numbers? I'd be very surprised if not. Watch out for someone being smeared by the "fixed at manufacture" serial number of his printer and a matching pattern of yellow pixels on a letter that he denies writing. It's only a matter of time.

Yes, that's a black helicopter. With yellow microdots.

[Neoc]

Duplex, rare?

"Indeed, duplex scanners are rare on machines in this price-range."

But, apparently, they are easy to find on much cheaper machines - I (and in fact a few of my friends/family) have a Canon MP-8xx which does quite a nice job of scanning duplex, at well under the 500-odd quids this thing costs.

[Il Midga di Macaroni]

@Nigel 11

Colour laser a dead technology? What is in the wings to replace it? Wet inks are a thoroughly troublesome technology (leaving pages to dry, taking as long as an old dot matrix to output a page, tiny cartridges due to the problem of ink drying out, etc) and offset printing isn't exactly suited to a home or office setting.

I would be more inclined to say inkjet tech is ready to be superseded!

[Chris Cartledge]

Electricity cost

The running costs quoted are incomplete. In Powersave mode, Dell says that it uses "18W or less" so it will cost up to £18 per year just to have it plugged in.