Laser printers are the best option for small organisations that want speedy prints, low running costs and efficiency in the workplace.
They are cheaper, faster and cleaner to run than inkjets, though obviously you pay more for these efficiencies and more for replacements, too. At just over £200, the E340 represents the bottom end of Lexmark's range in business printing terms, with the rest of its business printers scaling up and away towards monstrous enterpriselevel machines. In this context, the E340 is a no-frills printer that gets on well with small group jobs and can be relied on for speedy, professional black-andwhite document printing.
For a good comparison, sit the E340 next to HP's equivalently priced mono laser, the HP 1320. We think this highlights the virtues of the former. HP is the market leader in this sector, but the E340 gives the Goliath a serious run for its money. Aside from being more compact and a bit cheaper to buy, the E340 simply looks more pleasing to the eye, with its squat Humvee lines and black and grey casing. It looks reliable and sturdy and, true to form, has power in abundance.
More power
Lexmark has improved the processor speed over the previous E332n from 200MHz to the E340's 366MHz, with 32MB of RAM and options to raise this to 160MB if needs be. This new level is three times the chip speed of the HP 1320 and, perhaps unsurprisingly, will produces faster print times, too.
The E340 will run out pages at between 28-32 pages per minute depending on the print set-up, which compares to just 21 pages for the HP 1320. In reality, it's hard to think of a home-business situation where you would need faster printing than either of those speeds, but for small businesses the faster batch time could be reason buy.
Where this printer is likely to be used the most is for printing small jobs, such as letters and the like, and running small batches of between one and four pages at a time. Here another favourable time is achieved. The E340 prints the first sheet in just 7.5 seconds, which is about a second faster than the HP.
