Kyocera 2160 P

The Color Laser Printer Guide: Vendor & Product Profiles

printers with more capacity,but we think that this is more

than adequate for most offices.

The drawers have built-in sensors that identify the size

of paper loaded in them, a nice plus for busy offices. You

can also feed 12" x 36" paper into this machine through

the 100-sheet tray, so you can make signage or small

posters, another nice plus.

Output capacity is decent. These models have 600

sheets of standard output, but they also offer an optional

finisher with stapling and hole punching. Some other

competitors have more elaborate output options for their

ledger-size color printers, but OKI Printing Solutions

does pretty well in this regard.

Consumables costs for black are very good (1.5¢ a page)

and about average in color.

These OKI machines are excellent business machines.

They make the most sense in office environments where

you need both monochrome and color capability,as well

as lots of speed and ledger-size paper. The image quality

is more than good enough for office users.

The biggest competition comes from Ricoh’s compara-

bly priced CL7300 family. The Ricoh model has some-

what more sophisticated finishing and output options,

including higher-capacity stapling and a mailbox. It is a

bit slower, especially in black. Ricoh’s color operating

costs are considerably lower as well. The Xerox Phaser

7400 series also offersspeed and features comparable to

those of this OKI family for similar pricing.

But that takes nothing away from the C9600/C9800

family.It still has adequate finishing, good input, and lots

of memory. These are among the cream of the crop in the

color laser-quality printer market.

Chartentries — pages 103–104

PANASONIC

Secaucus, NJ

800 742 8086

www.panasonic.com

Vendor Profile

Panasonic sells color printers under its own name using

engines made by its parent company, Matsushita. The

company also sells black-and-white printers, fax

machines, copiers, and scanners.

Panasonic sells its color laser printers through both tra-

ditional office equipment dealers — Panasonic copier

dealers,in particular — and wholesale printer channels.

Panasonic came back into the color laser market with

some impressive machines a few years ago. Since then,

they’ve upgraded those printer lines several times.

Product Profiles

Panasonic WORKiO KX-CL400

Panasonic WORKiO DP-CL18

18ppm full color

18ppm black & white

Sum-up: Solid low-cost workgroup printer series with good

features and moderate operating costs.

These models mark the latest generation of Panasonic’s

color laser printers. With 18ppm speed in both color and

black-and-white, they replace the WORKiO KX-CL500

and DP-CL21 series. The KX-CL400 is intended for

retail sales, while the DP-CL18 is sold by dealers. They

have similar but not identical features.

The base price for this line is $899, as Panasonic tries to

stay competitive in a market that keeps lowering prices

for color laser output. At 18ppm in color, this is a pretty

speedy platform for a sub-$1,000 printer.It also has built-

in Ethernet compatibility, making it an even better value.

Both models have some quite good standard features.

USB and parallel ports complement the Ethernet port.

(Wireless Ethernet is a third-party option.) They have

embedded Web servers with remote administration and

maintenance tools. Theyalso have PCL 5c as a standard

feature (PostScript is an option). And they offer an

optional 40GB internal hard drive.

Paper capacity is pretty good. You start with a 100-

sheet multipurpose bypass tray and 530-sheet paper tray.

You can add one or two additional 530-sheet trays. That’s

atotal of 1,690 sheets of paper capacity, quite good in

this price range. Output capacity is the usual 250 sheets.

The bypass tray can handle up to 110lb. card stock.

These printers start with 128MB, so they handle com-

plexjobs and/or duplex printing more easily. Memory

can be expanded to 512MB, appropriate for this class of

printer.

Consumables costs for the KX-CL400 are reasonable,

especially for the sub-$1,000 printer.We calculate the

black cost per page as around 2.1¢ and the color cost as

10.0¢, quite decent. You’ll have to negotiate with your

dealer about consumables costs if you buy the DP-CL18.

The other major difference between the models is that

duplexing is standard on the DP-CL18, optional on the

KX-CL400.

These printers are good bargains, but they exist in a

market with a race to the bottom in terms of price.What