Product Roundup: Best Impressions
Fit to Print
Anything that appears on the printed page and meeting-room screen leaves a lasting impression about you and your company.
New, cost-effective printers make it easy to have just the right unit for every key application. For high-volume, high-speed output of presentation handouts, brochures and direct-mail pieces, the Minolta-QMS magiccolor 2300 DL combines low cost of ownership with supersharp laser hardcopy. The sub-$900, Windows-compatible unit is equipped with USB, parallel, and Ethernet interfaces (for color printing via your computer network) and a 200-sheet paper tray. Options include a 500-sheet feeder, an automatic duplexer for two-sided printing, and additional memory (up to 384 MB).
If you need to revise handouts on the road, or to print out that important letter or photo in your hotel room, check out the ultraportable Canon i70 portable inkjet printer. This compact sub-$250 marvel measures less than 12.5" x 7" x 2", making it small enough to fit in the accessory compartment of most laptop cases. The i70 turns out crisp color graphics pages at around nine pages per minute, and 4" x 6" photos in about a minute and a half.
Dye-sublimation printers offer very-high-quality, continuous-tone photo reproduction, and dry prints suitable for instant delivery at meetings and exhibitions. The compact, versatile Olympus P-10 (less than $250) prints 4" x 6" photos, and the impressive Olympus P-440 (around $600) delivers beautiful prints up to 8" x 10" in about 75 seconds. Sony also produces a top-notch, small, dye-sub photo printer, the sub-$350 model DPP-EX7, and similar units are available from Panasonic (SV-P20), Canon (CP-200 and CP-300), and other manufacturers.
When shopping for a portable printer, look for one that supports PictBridge, a new industry standard that enables direct connection to any PictBridge-compliant digital camera.
High-Impact Bargains
Portable projectors that can help create a big impression are more affordable than ever. Several fine projectors sell for less than $1,000, including the Toshiba TLP-S10U which delivers 1200 ANSI lumens of brightness and weighs only 4.8 lb. Other notables include NEC's easy-to-use 6.6-lb. model VT46, the InFocus X-1 with Faroudja chip for better video, the versatile Epson S-1, and Dell's high-contrast 2100MP. While these machines are not the brightest, lightest, or highest resolution projectors on the market, they are all first-rate, easy-to-use, native-SVGA portables that should satisfy most requirements in the office, on the road, and at home.
Great Color Comes in Small Packages
The magicolor 2300 DL color laser printer is small in size and big in color. This compact printer sports a streamlined design that makes it a perfect fit for small and home office spaces, yet it doesn't skimp on performance features. In fact, the magicolor 2300 DL includes built-in 10/100BaseTX Ethernet, USB, and parallel interfaces, 2400 dpi print quality, and speeds of up to 16 pages per minute in B&W and 4 pages in color. Compatible with Windows(R) operating systems, the magicolor 2300 DL is a smart office companion.
For more information on this color laser printer and other MINOLTA-QMS products, call 1-800-523-2696, or visit www.minolta-qms.com.
