Kyocera Mita FS-1100 Monochrome laser Printer
Kyocera Mita is the Document Imaging division of the multi-billion dollar Kyocera Corporation and one of the world’s largest manufacturers and leading providers of document imaging devices, including network-ready digital multifunction copiers, laser printers, colour printers, wide format imaging devices and Kyocera Mita developed network management and print solutions.
The prices of the laser printers are falling continuously and people are thinking to add a second printer to the inkjet all in one printers that they might already posses. The reason being, monochrome laser printers are still very cheaper and quicker than that of the monochrome inkjet printers. The Kyoera Mita builds over this cost difference. The following review is on the Kyocera Mita FS-1100 Monochrome laser Printer. This squat, functionally-designed printer is designed for day-to-day business printing and has good eco-credentials for its low consumable count.
A design with lot of gimmicks:
Kyocera Mita FS-1100 Mono laser Printer has a grey and cream theme. A couple of highlights have been made in the cream and black theme in order to depict its individuality. It has simple but a smart design. The design highlight of the printer is an interesting circular indicator panel that has two orange and four green LEDs that indicate the status conditions such as that of low toner or low paper or paper jams or anything else that calls for attention. A triangular end stop is available for the paper that outputs to the top cover of the printer. Adding to the already fancying gimmicks is a small transparent window below the fold out paper stop that shows the number of toner cartridge. This acts as a good reminder of the part number of the toner cartridge and we would have liked it more if it could show the current toner level.
Media and ports:
The capacity of the main paper tray is 250 sheets and there is also a single sheet feed just above the main paper tray for the sake of special media. This can be used to feed letterheads, envelopes or other oddly sized media. Rear of the printer has a socket for the USB connection. When you flip open the top cover, you get easy access to the 4000 page toner cartridge which is the only consumable in the machine. A network adapter and a second paper tray can be added as optional extras. Another option for upgrading is memory upgrades from the 32MB that is supplied as standard.
Simple, straightforward design:
Physical setup is straightforward, as the printer only requires a toner cartridge to get it running. The initial set-up of the FS-1100 printer is very easy. The first time printing alone makes you wait for a while as the toner charging cycle has to be done which lasts for around seven minutes. This delay occurs when you clip in the printer’s toner cartridge and switch it on for the first time. Software installation is little more than a driver, though this is both well-designed and well-featured. It includes support for multiple pages per sheet, poster prints, scaling and the inclusion of separate covers, page insertions and watermarks.
Software and Language:
Kyocera Mita’s Mac OS X driver comes on a supplied CD. A Leopard-specific driver is also available from its website. The driver includes emulations of both PostScript Level III and PCL6, as well as Kyocera’s own Prescribe page description language. Other languages that can be downloaded include Kyocera, PCL + TrueType format and Type 1 + 3 format.
The unique drum technology:
Kyocera Mita FS-1100 Laserjet printer possesses an unique drum technology that lasts the full life of the printer. Kyocera Mita uses a patented coating for its photoconductor drum, which lasts the lifetime. With this kind of a technology, you will never need to change the drum on this budget mono printer and hence, you need to pay only to replenish the toner.
Processor and memory:
FS-1100 uses the PowerPC 405F5 processor that works at 360 Mhz. It has a standard memory of 32MB along with ECOmemory. The controller language is PRESCRIBE Iie.
Print speed:
Kyocera Mita FS-1100’s printing speed is rated to be 28 pages per minute in draft mode but during normal printing, it manages to produce only 16ppm for text and a little less than this while printing both text and graphics. Printing of a single 15 x 10cm photo takes around 15 seconds. With this speed rate, we can say that these are average for that of a laser printer in this price range, but then is quite fast when you consider a typical inkjet printer at a similar price. This monochrome laser printer takes a warm-up time of 19 seconds and the time for the first print is just six seconds or less than that.
Print quality:
Having a resolution of 1200dpi, the quality of the prints are good. Most of the monochrome printers in this price range have a core resolution of only 600dpi and then make use of software interpolation to mimic the higher level. The texts are dark and there cannot be any signs of spatters of jagged edges that could be notices. The grey scales are smooth too, but slight banding is noticeable. They look a bit on the lighter side when compared with the grey scale prints from the other printers.
Cost efficiency:
The cost per print comes to as low as 2p and so, the Kyocera Mita FS-1100 is a very cost efficient printer too.
Warranty:
Kyocera Mita offers Kyocera Mita FS-1100 a warranty of two years.
Verdict:
Kyocera Mita FS-1100 is a monochrome printer that has a design that does not interpret its budget cost and performance is good too, having and average speed and the quality of the prints, dark and legible. As we has discussed in the main review, the cost of operation is very less too. Looking for an attractive, low budget and good quality printer? Kyocera Mita FS-1100 is the one for you. We recommend it for the SOHO market.
You may also be interested in Brother HL-5040 Mono Laser Printer, HP LaserJet 1300 Monochrome Laser Printer.
Kyocera Mita FS-1100 Laser Printer - Technical Specification Details
| Manufacturer | Kyocera mita |
| Model Name | Kyocera Mita FS-1100 |
| Printer type | Monochrome laser printer |
| Dimensions (H x W x D) | 9.8″ x 14.8″ x 15.5″ |
| Weight | 22.0 lbs |
| Processor | PowerPC 405F5 / 360 MHz |
| Memory | Standard 32 MB + ECOmemory, max. 544 MB in 1 SDRAM DIMM slot |
| Controller language | PRESCRIBE IIe |
| Emulations | PCL 6 incl. PJL, PCL5e incl. PJL, KPDL3 (Postscript 3 compatible) with automatic emulation sensing (AES), Line Printer, IBM Proprinter X24, EPSON LQ-850, DIABLO 630 |
| Fonts | 80 outline fonts accessible in all emulations, 1 bitmap font, 45 types of one-dimensional barcodes plus two-dimensional barcode PDF-417; Downloadable fonts: Kyocera, PCL + TrueType format, Type 1 + 3 format |
| Standard Interface | USB 2.0 (Hi-Speed), KUIO-LV slot |
| Technology | Kyocera ECOSYS |
| Engine speed | Up to 28 pages per minute A4 |
| Resolution | 1200×1200 dpi |
| Duty Cycle | 20,000 pages per month |
| Time to first print | 6 seconds or less |
| Warm-up time | 19 seconds |
| Media Handling | 250-sheet input tray, 1-sheet manual tray |
| Media Sizes | Letter A Size (8.5 in x 11 in), B5 (6.93 in x 9.83 in), A4 (8.25 in x 11.7 in), Legal (8.5 in x 14 in), A6 (4.13 in x 5.83 in), A5 (5.83 in x 8.25 in) |
| Max Media Capacity | 500 sheets |
| Output Trays Capacity | 250 sheets |
| Consumables Included | 1.0 x Toner cartridge ( Black ) - up to 2000 pages |
| Windows Vista Readiness | Yes |
| Power Device | Power supply - Internal |
| Power Consumption Operational | 439.0 Watt |
| Noise Level | 53 dBA |
| Warranty | 2 years |
August 31st, 2009 at 10:27 am
Great printer with low running costs and good quality. I bought one for under GBP 100.00 and installed in in seconds under Ubuntu using the supplied ppd file which works well.