The Lexmark MB2442adwe ($549) is a monochrome all-in-one laser printer designed for use in small to medium-size offices.
Like its direct competitor, the Editors' Choice Brother MFC-L6700DW, it's made for work groups with medium to heavy-duty printing needs and is fast, prints well overall, and has an expandable paper capacity.
However, the Lexmark model costs a bit more to run in the long term, making the Brother a better value.
Aside from that, it's a viable alternative for laser-quality monochrome printing.
Relatively Small and High-Volume Ready
Measuring 18.4 by 15.7 by 16.9 inches (HWD) and weighing 42.8 pounds, the MB2442adwe is a couple inches smaller all the way around and a couple pounds lighter than Brother's MFC-L6700DW ($755.06 at Amazon) and MFC-L6800DW.
Canon's imageClass MF515dw, a higher-priced contender to the Lexmark model, is also a bit bigger and about 11 pounds heavier.
As for paper handling, the MB2442adwe comes out of the box ready to hold 350 sheets, split between a 250-sheet front drawer and a 100-sheet multipurpose tray that pulls down just above it.
You can expand the capacity up to 900 pages with either one 500-sheet or two 250-sheet drawers.
The cassettes come lockable and unlockable and run from about $150 up to about $300.
Copying, scanning, and faxing of multipage two-sided documents are handled via a 50-page single-pass auto-duplexing automatic document feeder (ADF).
While the Lexmark's paper capacity is respectable, all of the competitors mentioned here can hold more sheets out of the box.
The MB2442adwe's maximum monthly duty cycle is 100,000 pages, with a recommended monthly volume of up to 10,000 pages.
While that max duty cycle is on the low end of the other AIOs mentioned here, the Lexmark's recommended volume is higher than its competitors.
You can set the printer up, configure network and security options, run reports, and much more from the MB2442adwe's built-in secure (SSL, or Secure Socket Layer) web site, shown below.
Notice that in this case, you can execute functions, such as making copies, sending faxes, and so on, from the online portal, just as though you were standing in front of the printer working from the control panel, shown below.
Connectivity and Security
No matter what device, OS, or network protocol you're working from, you should have no problem connecting to the MB2442adwe.
Standard network interfaces include Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and connecting to a single PC via USB, but there is no peer-to-peer (Wi-Fi Direct, NFC, or Bluetooth) support for connecting your mobile devices.
You can also print from and scan to USB thumb drives via a port located on the right-front side of the chassis.
Nowadays, most smartphones and tablets support Wi-Fi, and like most other printer manufacturers, Lexmark makes a mobile app, called Lexmark Mobile Print, for connecting to and using its machines.
You also get Apple AirPrint and Google Cloud Print, as well as a "cloud connector" for linking to Box, Dropbox, OneDrive, and a few other sites.
These and most other connectivity options can be configured from either the control panel or the onboard web site.
Security features are extensive on the MB2442adwe.
You can protect printer access with a PIN at either the network or control panel level.
Other restrictions can be as infinite as you need—and then some.
You can also have the printer email you with warnings when several different events occur, such as failed login attempts, invalid PIN entries, or attempted schedule breaches, and more.
You can even lock users out automatically after a specified number of failed logins, and then, after a set period, have the printer automatically unlock the account again.
If you (or your IT people) are willing to take the time to tweak it, the MB2442adwe is capable of supporting a rather elaborate automated security system.
Midrange Print Speed
During my tests, the MB2442adwe printed our standard 12-page monochrome Microsoft Word text document at an average rate of 23.5 images per minute (or ipm, where each side is counted as an image) in two-sided mode and 40.5 pages per minute (ppm) in single-sided mode.
These numbers are just faster than Lexmark's ratings of 20ipm and 40ppm.
(I tested over Ethernet from our standard Intel Core i5-equipped testbed PC running Windows 10 Professional.) Note that since the MB2442adwe's default mode is duplex, we test, record, and report its duplex print times; we do not, however, perform these tests on machines that do not default to two-sided printing.
See How We Test Printers
The above scores are 7.1ppm behind the Brother MFC-L6700DW's and MFC-L6800DW's simplex speeds.
Canon's MF515dw ($668.99 at Amazon) also defaults to duplex; its two-sided print speed is 5.1ipm faster than the MB2442adwe's, while its simplex speed is a mere 0.8ppm quicker.
Next, I printed our complex color Acrobat, Excel, and PowerPoint business documents containing embedded charts, graphs, and other business graphics, as well as a few embedded photos, all of which the printer converts to grayscale.
Then, I combined those scores with the results from printing the all-text test document above, to come up with a score of 18.5ppm for printing our entire suite of business documents.
Here, the MB2442adwe fell slightly behind the other midrange laser printers in this group, with the Brother MFC-L6800DW leading the pack at 23.8ppm.
Excellent Text, Not-So-Great Grayscale
The MB2442adwe churned out highly-legible, well-shaped text—exactly what you'd expect from a laser printer—even at fonts down to 5 and 6 points.
Its grayscale graphics and photos, though, were a bit below average.
Streaking and banding, while not glaring or terribly unattractive, were present in nearly all dark backgrounds.
Gradients stepped, instead of flowing smoothly, from the one tint to the next, and hairlines (under 1 point) broke up, or didn't print uninterrupted from end to end.
This is not to say that the MB2442adwe's output is unattractive.
But other laser printers, especially the Canon MF515dw mentioned here, churn out much more pristine-looking monochrome graphics and images.
However, the Lexmark's output is more than suitable for in-house applications, receipts, quotes, and so many other types of documents that don't require stunning grayscale.
Slightly High Cost Per Page
If you buy the MB2442adwe's highest-yield (6,000 pages) recyclable toner cartridge, each page you print will cost about 2.4 cents.
These recyclable cartridges require that you send the empties back to Lexmark or participating resellers.
If you chose not to take part in the recycle program, your running costs will run close to 3 cents per page.
If you opt in to the recycling program, the MB2442adwe's running costs are about 1 cent higher than Brother's MFC-L6700DW and MFC-L6800DW, and about 0.1 cent lower than the Canon MF515dw's.
While 1 cent may not sound like a lot, it can add up over time if your office's print volume is high.
A Highly Capable Contender
Aside from its slightly high cost per page and somewhat under-par grayscale output, the Lexmark MB2442adwe is a respectable printer for your black-and-white output requirements.
It's fast and prints well overall, is expandable, and has a high duty cycle and recommended monthly print volume, as well as a single-pass ADF.
It's a highly capable monochrome laser AIO and a viable alternative to our current Editors' Choice, Brother's MFC-L6700DW, as a medium- to high-volume monochrome laser AIO.
The Bottom Line
The Lexmark MB2442adwe is fast, produces quality output, and has a high recommended monthly print volume, making it a solid monochrome AIO for small to medium-size offices.
