Each manufacturer focuses on certain qualities when producing a device. HP, for example, builds a good all-round device for offices. Ricoh doesn't spend much time designing devices or making them user friendly, but generally delivers reliability and professional equipment. Dell took a rather different approach when creating the 2130cn. Their main goal was to sell a user-friendly device for the small office environment.



There are many good points to this printer, and just a few bad points. But for some users, the bad points are so significant they might overshadow the good ones. It's quite easy to spot the Dell 2130cn color laser printer in an office. This is because you'll be wondering why the printer isn't the usual white/grey/yellow color you're so used to. The whole printer is black and cube shaped.

It features a backlit LCD display on the top side and seven buttons right in front of LCD for menu navigation. Initially you'll get a 250 sheet paper tray right at the bottom of the front panel. The user can also buy a second 250 sheet tray that goes right under the printer. Another thing that you might want to consider purchasing is the duplexer that the 2130cn doesn't include. There is a very high chance that you will want a duplexer because it will save paper and money, since it's printing on both sides of a sheet.

All consumables, optionals, accessories have a very high price tag. While the initial price for purchasing the printer isn't too affordable to begin with, what you'll end up spending after you've purchased it is significantly more annoying. And you'll kind of have to spend extra, not only for ink replacement, but for the extra paper tray as well, that you'll more than likely want. This is probably the biggest inconvenient the 2130cn has and about the only reason why you might want to avoid it. If you're not prepared to sink some money into it after purchase, it's probably best you looked somewhere else when choosing an office printer.

The toner cartridges are possitioned in an interesting manner. On the right side of the device you'll find a door, and when you open it you'll discover the four toner cartridges aligned vertically. The drum unit is found on the front, behind a fold-down cover. With this layout it's basically very easy to replace all consumables.

The speed of the printer is average, 20 pages per minute for black and 16 pages per minute for color. The quality of prints (both color and mono, images or text) is satisfying as well. It won't compete with photo printers but it produces sharp, clean text which is exactly what an office needs from a device. The device ships with a black cartridge that will last for 2500 pages and three color ones that last for 1000 pages. Everyone in the office will probably be happy with the quality, speed and functionality of the Dell 2130cn color laser printer, that is probably until you'll have to replace that costly ink.