Techno | Minolta Trade-in Promo

Wify received a letter from Minolta offering a trade-in promotion of any working set of the same brand.

We have a Minolta Magicolor QMS 2300DL Laser printer at home that we bought for our SOHO business almost 2 years ago.

The warranty of 3 years is already 2/3 spent and we're thinking of getting a replacement since it is a good offer for Minolta users.

Being a network-ready printer to share among 3 home users - Son, Wify and me, it offers cheaper running cost per copy, mono and colour.

Knowing fully it was Sunday, even Wify reminded me when she heard me calling, I called the NET-e hotline today anyway.

It was surprised to receive a reply at the other end of the line.

Ms Kerine picked up and answered all my enquiries patiently.

The promotion gives 2 models at a reasonably good price.

One is for a larger office-use central network printer called Magicolor 5430DL at a promotional price of S$999.00 from the usual S$1,749.00.

The other, more compact and caters for smaller office-use or even home is the Magicolor 2450 for S$599.00 from the usual S$899.00.

The only downside of this printer is the slow color prints of 5 pages per minute.

Both printers have the same print resolution of up to 2400 x 600 dpi, but the latter model has 128MB of memory as compare to only 64MB built-in for the bigger cousin.

We are so ready for Migicolor 2450, but the lady said they have only 1 set left. After which the promo ends for this model. Unsure if it really true or just a sales tactic.

She recommended the larger cousin as the promo price is a whopping S$750.00 discount, whilst the smaller one is at S$300.00.

I had to refer to the online review from my trusted adviser, PC Magazine and checked all 3 Minolta modes - our existing 2300DL and the candidates - 2450 and 5430DL.

Both 2300DL and 2450 scored high of 4 out of 5 points, with mono and colour graphics being high-end, while 5430DL had only 3. Colour graphics print was at laser quality's low-end spectrum.

Running cost per page is about the same for both 2450 and 5430DL at 11 cents for full colour A4-size paper and 2.2 cents for black prints.

The US PC Magazine reviewer M. Davis Stones said this, that did me justifications to select the Magicolor 2450 Color Laser Printer above any other colour-laser, even surpassed HP's:

"By today's standards, the Konica Minolta magicolor 2450 ($699 direct) is near the high end of the price range for a personal color laser. And with an engine rating of 20 pages per minute (ppm) for monochrome and 5 ppm for color, it obviously doesn't justify the price with speed.

Instead, it concentrates on output quality, producing unusually high-quality photos for a color laser. That makes it a good choice for a home office, small office, or workgroup—or indeed any individual user who puts a premium on professional-looking output."



Guess, I will be calling for the trade-in on Monday tomorrow for that "one last set."

An additional S$20.00 charge for delivery and trade-in, as well as S$80.00 for assisted installation if needed.

Else we will have to bring our existing printer to NET-e Sales Office at 57 Ubi Centre and self-collect the new one.

I will just have them sent to us and install it myself. Wish us luck!