The Lexmark E460dw is a monochrome laser printer geared toward midsize businesses that demand a high output device that can print documents as quickly as possible. It’s a single function printer, so it can’t fax, copy, or scan, but it does offer wireless printing via a built-in wireless print server. The price tag of $700 makes it an expensive choices among the competitors. For about half the price, you can get a similar quality and functionality printer on the market.
The shape of the device is the standard cube with the printer output tray on top of the box and a wide front panel with a spread of menu buttons and a 3-inch grayscale LCD that sits flush against the front face. The backlit display adds a convenient touch to the user experience, showing you operational messaging, status updates, and printer settings.
Another benefit to the E460DW is that the back features a built-in 802.11b/g/n wireless print server and antenna to sniff out local Wi-Fi networks. There’s an Ethernet port on the back as well for connecting to a wired network. You set up your preferred connection method during the initial connection, choosing between local, wired, and wireless. All three require you to connect the printer to a host computer at first with a USB 2.0 cord. We were able to establish a connection to our wireless network in the lab in less than 5 minutes using the instructions on the driver. The software automatically detects an IP address–all you have to do is specify a security protocol (WEP or WPA/WPA2) and enter in your password.
The Lexmark E460dw ships with a high-yield 9,000 page toner cartridge, and replacement high-yield toner cartridges cost $229. That comes out to about 2 cents per page, which is the industry average for a single-function monochrome laser printer. Also, according to Lexmark, the printer can print up to 80,000 pages per month, which should be more than enough to handle the output volume of most small to midsize businesses.