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Tektronix Phaser 740P

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PCQ Bureau
New Update

alt="Phaser 740P uses four toner cartridges--C, M, Y and K--to produce colors, as against the solid ink used by some other Phasers"

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The Phaser 740 is a new range of color-laser printers from

Tektronix. There are four printers in the series: 740L, 740P, 740N, and 740DX. We tested

the Phaser 740P and found it easy to set up and operate.  The printer comes with

drivers for Win 95/98/NT, Unix, Mac, and DOS. Drivers for OS2 can be downloaded from

Tektronix FTP site.

The printer supports Adobe PostScript-3 and PCL 5. It comes with

PhaserLink software that provides printer status, configuration, e-mail notification for

print errors. All this information is also displayed on the printer’s LCD panel.

color="#FFFFFF" size="2">Tektronix Phaser 740P

1200x1200 dpi color laser. Rs

250,300



Features: Prints in 1200x1200 dpi, in color and black and white; has

a wax film (fuser roll) that adds glaze to prints; supports Adobe PostScript 3 and PCL 5.



Pros: Bright colors, affordable price, easy to set up and operate.


Cons: Per print cost is high. Cleaning out paper jams can be time consuming.


Source: Tektronix (India), Tek Tower, Hayes Road, Bangalore 560025.  Tel:
80-2275577



Fax: 2275588


The Phaser 740P has a resolution of 1200x1200 dpi for

both black-and-white and color prints. It offers five printing modes from faster

speed/good quality printing to average speed/high quality printing. In Standard print mode

(600x600) on A4 paper, the printer did a good 13 pages per minute on text and 4 pages per

minute on full-page graphics. At 1200x1200 dpi it took one-and-a-half time of this. A

full-page color graphics took around 2.5 minutes to print.

The Phaser produces dazzling print quality, both in

black-and-white and color. Even in difficult gradient tests, it showed no banding, and the

colors were natural and rich. It doesn’t require any special paper to produce vivid

colors. There is a wax film (fuser roll) that adds glaze while printing. The printer was

able to produce 2-point text clearly.

The

cost and life of different Phaser components
Component Life Cost (Rs)
Imaging kit 60,000 images 20,562
Fuser 30,000 pages 21,622
Fuser roll 15,000 pages 6,997
Transfer kit 80,000 pages 2,867
Main charge grid 30,000 pages 2,835
Toner cartridge (color) Standard/hi-capacity 12,450/18,500
Toner cartridge (black) Standard/hi-capacity 6,200/8,550

The Phaser 740P handles a range of media including

glossy paper, transparencies, labels, card stocks, and T-shirt transfers. A thickness

switch needs to be manually set to different modes (thin, normal and thick) for different

media. Otherwise, there could be paper jams, particularly with thin media. Clearing jams

from the fuser is a tedious job as you have to clean the rollers on the fuser. A set of

alcohol wipes and an alcohol bottle to clean the paper trays accompanies the printer.

The cost per page of the printer is approximately Rs 9 for

color and Rs 3 for black, with standard cartridges.

The Phaser 740P is network-ready and features a built-in

10BaseT (100BaseT optional) Ethernet adapter. It also has a LocalTalk port for connecting

to a Mac. The printer has remote printing facility to allow printing over the Internet.

The printer is supported by a one-year onsite warranty that

also covers toner cartridges, upgrade kits and components. Priced at Rs 250,300, the

printer is good value for the corporate rupee.

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