OkiData B4300 Mono Laser Printer Review
Oki is one of the most rapidly developing printing solutions in the printing market that has representation in 120 countries around the world. They manufacture a vast array of printers that include basic printers to tailored and custom made, consumer specific requirements. Here, we review Oki’s Data B4300 Digital Mono Printer.
As Oki does a great job with its colour printers, it has been doing a good job with its mono printers too. The Oki B4000 series is the replacement for the aged Okipage 14.
Oki B4300 Laser Printer offers you with a lot of expansion options and along with a lot of paper handling versatility.
Compact printer with LCD status display:
The good looks of the printer is given by its white enclosure. OkiData B4300 is quite compact for a mono printer, having its dimensions as, 9” x 14” x 16” (H x W x D) inches and weighs approximately 11kgs. With this kind of a dimension, it needs only a small amount of space next to your PC. Since Oki is a mono printer, you might have thought that it must not be having any display or on-printer menu and that you would need a PC to control it. But, unlike most of the other monochrome laser printers, Oki B4300 has an LCD status display and an on printer menu system, which means you will be able to configure your mono printer without the need of a PC. Only a handful of printers have an LCD for displaying the print information and settings .
The control panel:
Along with the LCD, it has four sets of buttons, one for each level in the hierarchy of the menu. This printer’s control panel is having eight single press buttons that allow you to view menu options, change values and cancel print jobs. This kind of a setting makes operating the printer completely mistake proof. Being a good personal machine, it can also be upgraded in to a workgroup machine by upgrading it with an network interface. On the side of connectivity, the printer has one parallel and one USB connectivity.
Easy set-up:
The set up of the OkiData B4300 Monochrome Laser printer can be done in a breeze by referring the well printed set-up guide and also with the help of the on-screen manuals. The easy access housing allows for a single button press to open the unit and remove the toner without hassle. This further allows for easy diagnosis and removal of paper jams and obstructions in the printer.
Supported operating systems:
The operating systems supported by Oki B4300 digital mono printer are, Windows 2000, XP, XP x64, Server 2003, Server 2003 x64, Vista (32-bit and 64-bit), UNIX, Linux, Mac OS X PowerPC 10.2.8 or greater, OS X Intel 10.4.4 or greater. As you can see, it offers a great deal of compatibility with a wide range of operating systems.
Media types supported:
The paper types supported by the printer include A4, A5, B5(JIS), A6, Letter, Legal 13, Legal 14, Executive and Statement, and the envelop type supported include Monarch, Com-9, Com-10, DL, C5 and C6.
It has the language simulation support for EPSON FX , PCL 6 , PCL 5E and IBM ProPrinter III XL and the fonts included are, 216.0 x TrueType.
Oki B4300: a LED printer:
Oki B4300 is a LED printer, that is, Oki uses a fixed array of LEDs to charge its drum’s photoconductive surface unlike the scanning laser beam that can be seen in a laser printer. Being an LED model you might fear that this printer might produce muddier prints as the other LED based printers, but contrarily, Oki delivers impressive prints that are accurate but seemed to be a little on the lighter side.
Features:
The processor used by Oki B4300 is the PowerPC 405PS which runs at 200MHz. It is having 16MB of RAM that is installed already which can be expanded to up to 80MB. With this, the Oki B4300 is having a monthly duty cycle of 15,000 pages and the cartridge or print head duty cycle is 2500 pages.
Paper handling options:
The seller point feature of Oki B4300 is its paper handling. The printer has an auto slide-in auto feed 250 sheets cassette which has a paper level indicator in the front. And if you feel that this will not be adequate for you, Oki has also provided you with the manual feeder tray along with a flip open output tray at the rear which allows your prints to have their face up rather than face down on the top of the unit. Space is also provided for expansion with a cassette and a multi feeder which you can get for some extra bugs. The auxiliary paper feed of OkiData B4300 accepts only one sheet at a time and is not long enough.
Performance:
The print resolution of the printer is, 1200 dpi x 600 dpi which is decent. The official printing speed of this printer is, 18 pages per minute which is quite good when compared with the other printers in the same category and price range. You will be able to see the first sheet out of the printer in just seven seconds at the maximum and the printer takes just 21 seconds to print a full A4 size high resolution photo image. When you print images, dithering can be witnessed, but when it comes to text and graphics, the performance is solid and crisp. Narrow parallel line are printed cleanly with just a little banding.
Warranty:
Oki B4300 warranty offered by Oki covers the printer’s mechanical and electronic components for one year, which is standard in the industry and the LED arrays gets five years warranty.
Verdict:
OkiData B4300 mono printer is one of the most impressive printers that features a plenty of well thought out and logical technical features. The extras that you need to invest on, such as the network interface and secondary cassette are available for a reasonable price. The cost also includes the Ethernet adaptor and so a good option for you if you have plans for sharing it with a small work group. Though there are a lot of cheaper options for mono printers available out there, we still recommend Oki B4300 for its speed and wealth in features.
Check other Best Laser Printers, Brother Laser Printer reviews in this website.
Oki Data B4300 Digital Mono Printer - Technical Specifications, Features
| Manufacturer | Oki |
| Model Name | OkiData B4300 mono printer |
| Model number | OKI B 4300 |
| Colour / Monochrome | Monochrome LED printer |
| Printer type | Personal, work group printer |
| Printer form factor | Stationary |
| Colour/Finish of the Printer | White |
| Dimensions (W x D x H) | 14″ x 15.6″ x 8.5″ |
| Weight | 22.0 lbs |
| Print Method | Directly, computer |
| Fonts Included | 216.0 x TrueType |
| User Interface | High Speed USB port |
| Language Simulation | EPSON FX, PCL 6, PCL 5E, IBM ProPrinter III XL |
| Processor | PowerPC 405PS 200.0 MHz |
| RAM Installed | 16 MB / 80 MB (max) |
| Compatible media | Envelopes, Transparencies, Plain paper |
| Total media capacity | 250 sheets |
| Compatible OS | Windows 2000, XP, XP x64, Server 2003, Server 2003 x64, Vista (32-bit and 64-bit), UNIX, Linux, Mac OS X PowerPC 10.2.8 or greater, OS X Intel 10.4.4 or greater |
| Monthly Duty Cycle | 15000 pages |
| Printhead Duty Cycle | 2500.0 pages |
| First page-out time | 7 seconds |
| Connectivity | 1.0 x Parallel - IEEE 1284 (EPP/ECP) - 36 pin Centronics, 1.0 x USB - 4 pin USB Type B |
| Software | Drivers & Utilities |
| EPA Energy Star Compliant | Yes |
| Warranty | One year |
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