Kyocera 2160 - page 38

The Color Laser Printer Guide: Vendor & Product Profiles

Then you add the reasonable 8ppm color speed and

you’ve got a very affordable mixed-use, network-ready

machine.

Other features are pretty good. First, the resolution is a

good 1,200 x 600dpi. PostScript is a standard feature.

Memory starts at 128MB and can be expanded to

384MB. An optional hard disk is available. A 300MHz

processor offers decent performance.

Duplexing is another option. Wireless Ethernet (Wi-Fi)

is optional as well. You can also upgrade this unit to a

multifunctional, with the IS100E option (outlined in the

text below).

This unit comes with a 250-sheet paper supply stan-

dard, and you can add an optional 530-sheet paper tray.

Output is limited to 250 sheets.

The printer has an optional scanner/copier unit, called

the Ricoh IS100E Flatbed Color Scanner.This CCD unit

scans at 9ppm at 600dpi and has a 25-sheet, legal-size

document feeder, along with a flatbed platen. The list

price is $1,499. This unit supports scan-to-email (it can

hold 2,000 email addresses) and scan-to-PDF, and it’s

connected to the printer through a parallel port or

Ethernet interface.

The biggest drawback is the cost per page. The 13.9¢

cost per color page and 3.1¢ for black-and-white are high.

That’s particularly striking given the black-and-white

printing speed. Of course, these are list prices, and you

should be able to negotiate a much better price with your

dealer — before you buy the machine.

The CL1000N is based on what was originally an

Hitachi engine. (Ricoh bought out Hitachi’s printer oper-

ations.) It’s essentially the same machine as the Brother

HL-2700CN. While prices are hard to compare (Ricoh

shows list price only), they seem to be in the same gener-

al ballpark. The Ricoh model comes with more memory.

The consumables costs appear to be somewhat higher on

the Ricoh machines. Otherwise, the models are pretty

similar.

All in all, this is a very strong small workgroup printer.

It’s relatively inexpensive, but it has some strong features.

You should be able to drive a better deal with your Ricoh

dealer than the list price on this machine.

Chart entry — page 106

Ricoh Aficio CL3500N

22ppm full color

22ppm black & white

Sum-up: Respectable color performance at a low price point.

The new Aficio CL3500N ($999) is a strong new model

in Ricoh’s color laser printer line. It follows a current

trend being followed by printer manufacturers of rolling

out desktop color machines with consistent speed ratings

for both color and black-and-white. Low-end color laser

machines released over the last few years frequently had

wide gaps between color and black-and-white speeds,

such as the CL1000N (above).

The CL3500N prints at 22ppm in both color and black-

and-white. It’s a solid performer suitable for a small

workgroup. And since color printing would most likely

be the main need of its users, that’s a welcome

improvement.

The CL3500N prints at 1,200dpi native resolution. It

has a speedy 533MHz processor,and 128MB of standard

memory, expandable to 512MB.An optional 20GB hard

drive is available.

The printer has standard PostScript and Ethernet, as

well as a USB interface. Wireless and Bluetooth connec-

tivity are available as options.

The machine has a 530-sheet paper tray as well as a

100-sheet multipurpose bypass tray.Up to two 530-sheet

trays of paper supply can be added for a maximum paper

capacity of 1,690 sheets. Duplexing is available as an

option. Output is limited to 250 sheets.

Ricoh also offers a multifunction option, in which an

image scanner can be added to the unit.

Consumables for this unit are reasonably priced, run-

ning 8.7¢ a page for color and 1.7¢ a page for black-and-

white. Those are respectable prices for an under-$1,000

color laser printer.

This is a solid workhorse ideal for small offices and

Ricoh Aficio CL1000N

Consumables costs at-a-glance

Price

Yield

Full-color cost per page

Black-and-whitecost per page

Blacktoner $185.00 9,800 $ 0.019 $ 0.019

Cyan toner $181.00 6,500 $ 0.028 N/A

Magenta toner $181.00 6,500 $ 0.028 N/A

Yellow toner $181.00 6,500 $ 0.028 N/A

Waste toner bottle $13.00 11,000 $ 0.001 $ 0.001

Drum/black $495.00 60,000 N/A $ 0.008

Drum/4-color $495.00 15,000 $ 0.033 N/A

Fuser unit $247.50 100,000 $ 0.002 $ 0.002

TOTAL PER-PAGE COSTS

$0.1391 $ 0.0308

13.91 3.08 www.betterbuys.com