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General performance
Warm-up (4.15)
The X342n came to Ready status in 45 seconds, much quicker than the HP Color Laserjet 3600n, but worse than the three all-in-one inkjet printers in the lab. This extended warm-up time is common with toner printers, as the printer needs to reach an optimal temperature for affixing the toner to the page.
Power Usage (4.47)
Power scores are determined by factoring in the amount of power a printer uses in three different modes—Off, Ready, and Printing. We measure this with the use of a watt meter. The Lexmark scored low in this test, as is often the case with laser printers. They use more power than an inkjet because of the need to maintain a minimum temperature to adhere the toner to the paper.
As with the warm-up test, the Lexmark X342n scored better than the color laser printer we’ve tested, but worse than all the inkjet and dye sublimation printers. It used 17 watts in Ready mode, compared to 26 for the HP 3600n. This dropped down to 13 watts in power save mode (what we call idle). The X342n used a mean of 310 watts when printing, with a range from 48 to 667. We also test self-cleaning mode, but self-cleaning is not possible with the X342n. The User’s Guide illustrates instructions on how to manually clean the printer inside if the print quality is not up to snuff.
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Power Usage (watts)
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Off
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Idle
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Ready
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Printing
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Self-Cleaning
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Lexmark X342n
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0
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13
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17
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310
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n/a
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HP CLJ 3600n
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0
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12
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26
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606
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379
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Canon Pixma MP600
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0
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1
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5
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16
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14.5
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HP Photosmart 5180
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4
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5
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5
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12
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20
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Kodak EasyShare 5300
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6
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6
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13
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24
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30.5
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Document Speed/Timing (7.39)
We test print speed on the highest quality setting, and we subtract the first print from our calculations, as this takes into account spool times. As a result, our print speeds are not directly comparable to the manufacturer’s reported speeds, which are typically conducted using normal or draft mode.
Nonetheless, the Lexmark X342n performed well in our black text printing test, with a respectable rate of more than 24 pages per minute (ppm). A more expensive toner printer, the HP Color Laserjet 3600n was only able to print about 12 ppm. This is an even more impressive score considering that the X342n’s 150 MHz processor speed is less than half that of the 3600n (360 MHz).
Graphics speeds, printed in grayscale, were much slower. Our timed rate was 3.96 ppm. This is what drags the X342n’s score down below that of the HP 3600n, which was actually able to print color documents at 15 ppm, faster than its own text printing rate.
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Document Print Speeds
in Pages per Minute (ppm)
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8.5" x 11" Text
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8.5" x 11" Graphics
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Lexmark X342n
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24.38
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3.96
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HP CLJ 3600n
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12.41
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15.00
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Canon Pixma MP600
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2.81
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1.35
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HP Photosmart 5180
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6.00
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2.57
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Kodak EasyShare 5300
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1.59
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1.33
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Document Quality
Text (6.00)
Text documents printed with the X342n reproduced well, but not quite as crisp as documents printed with the HP Color Laserjet 3600n, another laser printer that recently passed through our lab. As can be seen in the examples below, letter edges are sharp, but not quite as rich or sharp as the 3600.
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Lexmark X342n
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HP3600n
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