brad's Experience

Hello. The QMS-Minolta Magicolor 2350 EN is an outstanding printer. It's the best printer that I've ever had.

Previous to this purchase, I had two other lasers - both monochrome. I had a QMS-Minolta PagePro 1150 and still have a Samsung ML-1430.

I've also had several inkjets over the years, including most recently, an Epson Stylus Photo 820. The 820 is the worst printer I've ever owned. It cost $100 and I had inkjets that cost $50 that put it to shame.

But back to the 2350.

I bought this thing because I wanted a machine that was network ready, would work with Macs and Windows, and would print photo-quality prints. Photos were a must.

I fiddled around with ideas of external print servers and using less expensive printers, but I could never find the right combination of features. Typically, the print server or the printer wouldn't work with my Mac.

But eventually, after some serious research, I stumbled upon the 2350 and a comparable HP color laser. The HP model (forget the model number) was basically the same machine, except it cost around $200-300 more.

I did research on product reviews by independent sources. I chatted with a Minolta representative on its website. I asked a lot of questions. I check out the specs.

This thing can crank out 1200x600 DPI. That's serious business when you're considering printing photos. That rivals some of the best inkjets around, and inkjets can't be network-ready or easily installable on a home network with Macs, Windows, and Linux.

You can install this thing with 10/100 Ethernet, USB, or parallel. Go first class or be a legacy guy; anyway you want to go.

The Ethernet was the key for me because I didn't want to have to rely on one machine to act as the print server. I wanted an internal print server on the printer itself, and the 2350 provides for this.

There are many printing variables. The driver is comprehensive, although I have yet to figure out how to do everything on my Mac. On the PC side, the options seem countless. You can set things like quality of prints (plain, photographic, etc.), set paper settings (plain, other, glossy), and on and on. It really gets the job done. I've printed high-quality photos to glossy paper by adjusting the settings on the printer and the driver on the computer (thick stock paper). No worries.

This machine really kicks rear compared to its competitors. I got it for $825.00 shipped, and the next comparable brand was HP, offering similar features, and the cheapest I could find that thing was for around $1,100. That's quite a premium. From what I've read, most people who have used both models prefer the QMS-Minolta.

The documentation is a bit skimpy. The paper manual is close to worthless. You really need to dig into the PDF file on the provided CD-ROM to find out the fine details and how to configure your machine.

But as for installation, the paper manual at least gets you that far. It took a bit for me to figure out the IP settings for putting it on my network and having my machines recognize it, but after I did some thinking instead of being a dummy and just reading from the manual, I figured it out and everything was presto.

You can use this printer will all kinds of paper and all kinds of paper media (as far as I know). It claims ability to process letters and legal paper. I believe the claims, although I haven't yet tried those functions.

It truly is impressive that you can produce such quality photo prints from a laser like this. If it wasn't for this machine, I'd have to buy a $400 inkjet that would only serve one purpose - printing photos. Instead, I have a color laser that I can use for all kinds of color documents, including photos, and on virtually all platforms (Windows and Mac for sure and I think it works with flavors of Linux).

If you plan to connect your color laser by USB or parallel, I wouldn't bother with this machine. You can get a cheaper QMS-Minolta model of the Magicolor for about $400 and it won't have the Ethernet connection. It may not print photos, but if all you're looking for is a color laser, this machine is a bit high-end for most people. You really have to want the photo capabilities, the network-ready functionality, and the platform options.

So far, after about six weeks, absolutely no problems. It's a bit noisy, I will say that. Takes about 90 seconds to warm up. The footprint is very small for a machine of this caliber. It's about 18x18x18".

I can't recommend this thing enough. You can waste money on your HP model if you really want, but you're not going to get any more of a machine. I had a Minolta laser before - the monochrome - and it was outstanding. I had to get rid of it because it wouldn't work with a Mac. My Samsung ML-1430 works on both platforms and it's great for black & white documents.

I highly recommend the QMS-Minolta Magicolor 2350 EN.

Yours, brad.