Laser Printers

Konica Minolta MagiColor 1690MF Multi-Function Colour Laser Printer

The Konica Minolta 1690MF is one of the best multifunction printers on the market that is designed to print, copy, scan & fax. From desktop to large workgroup output devices, Konica Minolta’s award winning range of laser printers delivers superior quality and guarantees top performance. It is relatively compact compared to some rival models and comes with a 100-sheet paper tray, 50-sheet automatic document feeder and 10/100Mbps Ethernet for attaching to a local network. Space-saving design, quality results and user-friendly features make the MagiColor 1690MF the last office assistant you will ever need.

Size, Colour and Access of 1690MF:

Konica Minolta 1690MF Multi Function Laser Printer is small in size but efficient in output and in case of colour laser printer, the smaller is the printer, the better is for you. The printer measures about 10.9 x 15.6 x 15 inches (H x W x D), which means that this compact printer will not take more space next to your desktop. Its relative compact footprint is perfect for desktop use and it features an easy to read display for intuitive operation.
The Black and Gray coloured combination is an outstanding attraction for your Konica Minolta MagiColor 1690MF multi function laser printer. It is incomparable with any other wide ranges of laser printers in the market for its compact appearance and flexible make out design by the manufacturer. Another most convenient access in MagiColor 1690MF is its front access panel operating system. Replacing toner cartridges is been made simple now with the full front access panel in your MagiColor printer. Toner yields up to 2,500 pages per cartridge

Compatibility:

There is no compromise with the printer’s compatibility issues. All your Office requirements will be covered with a single device. Print, scan, copy and fax. All in one MagiColor 1690MF saves you time and money. There is only one machine to monitor, maintain and order supplies for. Being extremely compact, it can be smoothly incorporated into the smallest office spaces or sit close next to you in your home on your desk.

User Benefits the Single-pass method of colour printing:

The MagiColor 1690MF all-in-one printer is sure to impress with its flexible media handling. It processes paper weights between 60 and 209 gm and it includes envelopes, labels, thick paper and recycled paper.
The Users are facilitated with their own creation of posters, signs, presentations and various other marketing materials on the MagiColor 1690 MF. Also it includes the features of poster function for special effects, blowing up photos on 4, 9, and 16 or up to 25 A4 sheets. Combination of pages from 2 to 16 pages on a single sheet is made possible when downsizing with n-up functional mode. Flexible document options on your all in one colour laser printer makes custom copies possible and scanning of a variety of file formats convenient through a USB 2.0 interface.

Rapid Speed:

The Konica Minolta MagiColor 1690MF output original prints at 35,000 pages per month at speeds up to 20ppm in black and white, and 5ppm colour at vivid 1200 x 600 dpi, as rated by Konica Minolta. It uses four passes for colour printing, thus its speed rate for colour documents is 5 pages per minute whereas in case of monochrome documents, the speed rate increases to 20 pages per minute. But there is no compromise in quality output in your Konica Minolta 1690MF Colour Laser Printer.

Host-Based Processor:

Unlike higher-end laser printers, the Konica Minolta MagiColor 1690MF does not have a Postscript processor. It entirely works out with the use of Host based processing which means your computer can save, prepare and keep the files ready for printing and transfers it to the printer.

Range of Copy Modes:
Different copy modes on the MagiColor 1690MF Printer, Copier & Scanner, which ensures optimal quality and includes a photo, text and mixed modes. There are two separate start buttons which allows instant copying in either colour or black and white.

1690MF Energy Rating:

Go Green! Save utility bills with Energy star rated MagiColor 1690MF which meant to protect the environment too. Less than 14 watts will be consumed at sleep mode itself. And so, no worries about paying high utility bills anymore.

Convenient Flatbed Scanning:

The MagiColor 1690MF offers convenient scanning to PC. Its available file formats includes PDF, JPEG and TIFF. In addition, the Link Magic software provides easy access to the most frequently used scanning applications. You will be able to scan images with Link Magic and save them to any directory on the hard disk of your computer. With its full network compatibility, the MagiColor 1690MF will let you scan originals directly to email or a shared folder on your PC. Scan pictures, documents and more at speeds up to 20opm of monochrome and 3.3opm colour using the automatic document feeder on your AIO printer.

Automated Easy Operating System:

The MagiColor 1690MF is flexible for the user’s comfort. With its compact design and small footprint, it can be easily integrated into any office setting with limited space. The MagiColor 1690MF features a large, easy to read display and convenient access from the front for straightforward exchange of consumables. The automatic document feeder on the MagiColor 1690MF makes copying or faxing multi-page documents fast, smooth and also accommodates 35 sheets of paper at a time. It is time saving printer of course. For any busy office environment, the MagiColor 1690 MF is the best multi functional printer which in turn increases official productivity by fitting 500-sheet paper tray with automated document feeder. Another worth considering option in your Konica Minolta MagiColor 1690MF is the availability of automatic duplexing unit which allows you to print on both sides of a sheet of paper.

Easy Faxing:

With this multifunctional printer, you will be able to send a document very fast using the 33.6 Kbps Super G3 fax that comes standard on your Konica Minolta MagiColor 1690MF, which also includes PC driver and 6 MB memory.

Quality Output:

The resulting output prints from your Konica 1690MF are of Very good quality and unbeatable clarity. Text is sharp and clean at any point of sizes. Even thin curved lines are unbroken and smooth.

Crisp Text and Images are ensured .Whether in colour or black and white, the 1690MF will impress with its brilliant image quality. It also comes equipped with Simitri HD polymerised toner, which adds clarity and definition to the tiniest detail. At the same time, the toner save mode on the MagiColor 1690MF reduces toner consumption, saving you money and thus ensures smoother, more natural images and sharper text while saving 15% more energy.

The photocopies printed from 1690MF Compact laser printer are impressive and no doubt about the quality. A copy of our resolution test with the printer reveals that it is quite difficult to find difference with the original and the photo copied text and images.

Small Price Tag:

What can be better than having a printer well designed compactly fit your space next to desktop and economically fit your budget to buy a colour laser printer? The Konica Minolta MagiColor multi functional laser printer is one such printer which can be said as an economical device. If you buy this printer, you can tell proudly, but arguably that “my Konica Minolta MagiColor 1690MF is the cheapest colour laser printer in the market with fast printing abilities”. The printer gives a running cost of 2.9 cents per B&W and 16.6 cents per colour page.

Warranty:

Konica offers a one year limited warranty for parts and labour for Konica Minolta MagiColor 1690MF laser printer.

Verdict:

Having a compact design, lot of options for connectivity and all in one functionality is all too appealing. Finally, the best choice to go for in the decision in buying compact laser printers in the market is our Konica Minolta MagiColor 1690MF multifunctional laser printer.

Check 2009 model latest laser printers, other colour laser printer reviews in this website.

Konica Minolta 1690MF Colour Laser Printer - Specifications, Features

Manufacturer	Konica
Model Name	Konica Minolta MagiColor 1690MF
Printer type	Laser printer
Colour /Finish of the printer	Black and Grey
Print method	Desktop full colour, A4 laser beam
Print Speed	A4: Colour: 5ppm Mono: 20ppm
First page out	Colour: 23 sec. Mono: 14 sec.
Warm-up time	Average 30 sec.
Max. resolution	1,200 dpi x 600 dpi x 1 bit
Print volume	Recommended:  550 pages per month
Print functions	N-up, poster mode, booklet, quality adjustment, overlay, collating, auto zoom
Copy Speed	Up to 20 ppm monochrome Up to 5 ppm colour
First copy out	23 seconds monochrome 52 seconds colour
Copy resolution	600 dpi x 600 dpi x 1 bit
Copies	1 - 99
Zoom range	50 - 200 % (by 1 % step)
Copy functions	2in1, collate, duplex copy, id card copy
Scan technology	CCD Image sensor, flat bed
Scan speed	Colour:  4.26 ms/line Monochrome:  1.42 ms/line
Resolution	600 x 600 dpi
Scan size	Max. A4, custom formats
Scan Modes	Scan-to-Email Scan-to-FTP Scan-to-USB Scan-to-SMB TWAIN scan Windows WIA scan
File Formats	PDF, TIFF, JPEG
Modem speed	33.6 Kbps V.34
Transmit speed	3 sec/page (at V.34)
Fax compression	MH, MR, MMR, JBIG
Speed dial	220
Group dial	20 groups (max. 50 stations for one group)
Fax functions	Receipt to e-mail, auto redial, broad- cast (maximal 236 destinations), timer transmission, PC-Fax
Memory	128MB
Interface support	10-Base-T/100-Base-TX Ethernet USB 2.0 (high-speed)
Operating systems	Windows 2000, Server 2003 (32/64), XP (32/64), Vista (32/64) Macintosh OSX 10.2 or later
System Requirements	Windows 2000/XP/Vista - Pentium III - 128 MB - 800 MB
Paper input	Standard:  200 sheets multi manual feed tray Optional:  500 sheet lower paper feeder
Paper output	Standard:  100-sheet face down output tray Optional:  500-sheet lower paper feeder
Media sizes supported	A4, A5, B5, letter, legal, envelope C6, envelope DL, custom size (92 - 216 mm x 184 - 356 mm)
Duplexer sizes supported	A4
Printable area	Approx. 4 mm from all edges
Paper weights	Plain paper (60 - 90 g/m²), recycled paper (60 - 90 g/m²), thick paper 1 (91 - 163 g/m²), thick paper 2 (164 - 209 g/m²)
Print media	Plain paper, recycled paper, envelope, labels, postcard, thick paper, letterhead
Noise Level	Printing:  < 57dB(A) Standby:  < 35dB(A)
Warranty	1 year

Epson had always been known for their range of ink-jet printers but they have been lately manufacturing the laser printers too. Said that, the Epson AcuLaser C1100N is very close of being an entry level model of Epson colour laser printers, but then it surprised everybody with its high print speeds and quality, that too with its very low costs. This printer came in as a step-up from the Kyocera FS-820 and Brother HL-2040 personal lasers. So let us see in the following review, if the AcuLaser C1100N gets you the bargain.

C1100N - A bulky laser printer:

Design wise, the AcuLaser C1100N Colour Laser Printer does not belong to the compact category. It is quite a bulky printer, which would need the space of an old model desktop PC. The paper feed is available from a tray at the bottom of the machine and the paper comes out via the top cover and a pull out paper support has been offered for the support of longer sheets. The feed tray is quite unique as it is a 180 sheet multi-purpose tray. In order to feed the paper in, the front cover has to be removed and another thing that has to be noted here is that, there is no removable tray to fill, which is a major disadvantage. If you are looking for some extra capacity, then you can add an optional paper tray of 500 sheets capacity, which can be fitted underneath and this makes the device even taller. An automatic duplexer is also an option.

The control panel:

The control panel is surprisingly very simple to use and it has been angled into the front lip of the printer. It consists of a single line, 16 character LCD screen along with four small buttons to its right and another small circular cancel button to its left and a large Go button with an built-in action LED. A second line could have been added to the LCD display and it would have been much better if Epson has provided with a backlight for the display. The menu system is very simple and is extremely easy to traverse.

Connectivity:

Coming to the connectivity options, there is a USB2.0 port and a parallel port. Being a sophisticated version of the AcuLaser C1100 model, this “N” version has Ethernet connectivity option which the former lacks.

The initial setup:

Setting up the AcuLaser C1100N Duplex Laser Printer is not that complicated. In order to fit in the all in one photo conducter, the top cover of the printer has to be opened, and the same applies for fitting in the fuser unit. The other front slot paves way to insert the four cylinders of toners into the rotating carousel mechanism. Since this is placed deep inside the printer, fitting in the cartridges can be quite a fiddly job. During the process of printing, the C, Y, M, and K images are built up in turn on the drum before it is being transferred to the paper. As a four-pass laser, the paper passes through the print process four times for colour pages, but black-and-white prints zip through in a single pass. And hence, the monochrome prints come out much faster than the colour documents.

An advantage with the separate cartridges:

One of the advantageous facts about this laser printer is that, since it uses four separate photo sensitive drums and toner units, it works much faster than the ones that work with a carousel. The principle involved is that, the time taken to turn the carousel and apply each colour individually will be longer than making up all four colour images on separate drums and applying them all to the paper in one pass. The only consumables are the photo conductor unit, which has a service life of 42,000 black pages or 10,500 in colour, and toner. Black toner comes in a 7,000 page cartridge, with each of the colours available in standard (5,000) or high (7,000) capacities.

Print speed of AcuLaser C1100N:

The Epson AcuLaser C1100N is having an extremely impressive print speed, in fact it is one of the quickest colour printers that we have ever tested. The 67MHz processor seems to be doing a great job. It managed to five pages of black text in just 24 seconds, which gives a true rate of 12.5 pages per minute. The C1100N manages to print mixed text and graphics in 18 seconds and 5″x3″ photo in just 19 seconds. This rate is amazing when compared to the other latest laser printers such as the OKI C3100 which takes 25secs and the Samsung CLP-550 that takes 29 seconds, which implies the C1100N is about 20% faster than the rest.

Print quality:

The AcuLaser C1100N LaserJet Printer does not let you down in terms of print quality too. The black text is very clear and clean, the fonts are very even and are reproduced accurately and in a good proportion. They look very solid without being shiny or glossy with reflected lights. The grays are smmoth and clean but slight ghosting is visible over black lines. Graphs and charts look neat and tidy, and hence, professional reports will have the required impact. The colour pictures are good but cannot be said as excellent as there are some variations in large areas of solid colour. Overall, the prints look smart and professional. The pages come out nearly flat sans any curling issues.

Photo printing:

Coming to photo printing, the AcuLaser C1100N excelled as a laser. Though there was occasional hint of purple cast in the monochrome prints, they have great contrast and detail, with no signs of banding. The photo reproduction is quite vivid and faint banding is visible, but we must confess that the foreground detail’s quality was extremely good and the graduated tints are smooth. Although image printing isn’t a primary strength in lasers, the C1100 will let you add images to professional projects with confidence. It’s rather noisy at times though, and it can take a while to settle down again after a long print-run.

The software bundle:

Epson has offered a pretty comprehensive software bundle which includes Photo Quicker and Print Image Framer, as well as the driver. Providing with two different photo specific utilites with a laser printer is quite odd. We are aware of the fact that printing of photo images will be one of the tasks of a colour laser printer but photo reproduction will not certainly be the primary job of the laser printer. The driver utility possesses the standard set of features such as watermarking, etc, but the issue here is that, it does not have any specific control of colour or measures that attempt colour matching. And hence, you will have to rely entirely on the application software that you must be having for this.

Warranty:

Epson offers AcuLaser C1100N one year standard warranty, but you can also opt to get 3 years extended warranty.

Verdict:

The Epson AcuLaser C1100N is a well constructed printer that does not have a great design, but excellent print speeds and great quality. If you are looking for a laser printer for your office and really care about the print speeds and quality, there cannot be a better option other than the C110N. The Ethernet connectivity option is of course an added advantage.

You can check reviews of latest laser printers, Best selling Colour laser printer reviews in this website.

Epson AcuLaser C1100N Laser Printer - Technical Specification Table

Manufacturer	Epson
Model Name	Epson AcuLaser C1100N
Printer type	Laser printer
Colour	Grey
Dimensions (H x W x D) in mm	445 x 445 x 439 mm
Weight	28kg
Technology used	Epson AcuLaser Color 2400 RIT Epson AcuLaser Resolution Improvement Technology
Print Speed	Up to 25ppm in monochrome and 5ppm in colour (A4)
First Page Out	9 seconds in monochrome
Maximum Monthly Volume	45,000 pages
Network printing protocols	TCP/IP: LPR, FTP, IPP, PORT2501, PORT9100 Microsoft Network: SMB; AppleTalk
Network Management Protocols	TCP/IP: SNMP, HTTP, TELNET, DHCP, BOOTP, APIPA, PING, DDNS, mDNS(Rendezvous), SNTP, SSDP,MMicrosoft, Network(NetBEUI): SNMP; AppleTalk: SNMP
Printer Interface	IEEE 1284 parallel interface
Standard Paper Input	180 sheets (180 sheet Multi-Purpose tray), Manual Duplex
Maximum Paper Input	680 sheets (180 sheet Multi-Purpose tray +, 500-Sheet Paper Cassette)
Supported paper sizes	A4, A5, B5, LT, GLT, HLT, EXE, C5, C6, COM10, DL, MON, ISO-B5; 90 x 139.7mm to 216 x 297mm
Duplex	Manual
Paper Weight	64 to 210 g/m2
Optional Paper Handling	500-Sheet Paper Cassette Automatic Duplex Unit
Paper Output Standard Maximum	200 sheets face-down
Windows Support	Windows 95/98/Me/XP/2000/Server 2003, NT 4.0
Mac Support	Mac OS 9.x or later and Mac OSX 10.1.2 or later
Printer Control Language Emulations	ESC/Page S (Host based)
Memory	32MB with Epson MITech
Standard Warranty	1 year on-site
Optional Warranty	3 year Extended Warranty

The Colour LaserJet CP1215 is HP’s latest entry level or the bottom range model of its colour LaserJet lineup. The price tag on this laser printer cannot be guessed with its looks alone. The CP1215 is one of HP’s most affordable printers in the market. It is a very simple single function colour printer that is designed to be used in a small business environment. Though it turns out to be a great alternative to the costlier HP Colour LaserJet CP2025n with its unobstructed footprint and excellent quality of colour and black and white printer, it has a lot of limitations too. For instance, its incompatibility with any of Mac OS, extremely slow speed and very scarce features.

A reasonably Compact printer:

The CP1215 LaserJet Compact printer from HP possesses a design that is very similar to that of the CP2025n. The printer has got the “Compact” tag with its dimensions of just 10 x 15.7 x 20” (H X W X D) inches. The unit weighs 38.9 pounds which is considerably lighter than most of the laser printers out there in the market. These low values are obtained by omitting the internal auto duplexing and networking hardware.

Buttons and controls:

It also has a grey and white shades that covers the exterior, but the HP CP1215 Duplex Laser Printer does not have a LCD display. Instead, HP has included a main control panel towards the side of the face plate that contains all the buttons that are required to manipulate and trouble shoot the laser printer. The buttons and lights in the control panel includes paper feed button, power button, ready light, resume light, paper jam light, attention light and an array of status lights that indicate the low toner levels etc. These LED status lights work fine but it would have been much better if HP had just included a two line LCD display. If only they had employed an LCD display, then the display of very specific details on specific trouble shooting and printing job could have been given.

The other parts of the printer are quite simple with just a small power button on the left side and a power plug on the lower rear side of the printer. All of the paper accessing and toner handlings are in the front of the printer in form of several fold out drawers. They are lined in the order of output tray on the top, followed by the toner drawer and an input tray at the end. The input tray has a capacity of 150 sheets.

Installation and set-up of CP1215:

The process of installing the drivers and setting up a connection is very simple and hassle free as this is an USB only printer. For now HP has got no offer of any networking attachment for the printer and so, if you have any idea of networking, then a direct attachment is mandatory. We appreciate HP for providing the basic instructions in a very simple manner. The driver also runs and installation guide automatically that will be of great help for installation purposes.

Driver options:

The driver offers you a few options that allow you to customise a few settings but it is no where near the comprehensive CP2025n. The CP1215 colour Laserjet Printer is in a fixed 600 x 600dpi for both black and colour prints. You are given options to choose between four colour or black neutral greys in order to save ink, yet there is no way that you will be able to adjust the resolution of the prints. The driver options are formatted in such a way that it suites the windows operating system and hence there is no option for the Mac users, which takes out a wide spectrum of users out of the market.

Price reducing strategy:

Now a days, as we had mentioned in some of the other reviews, manufacturers offer a starter set of toner cartridges that are only a fraction of what you get in the shops. This is done in order to strategically keep the prices of the printer low. And the worse is that for most of the consumers, this surprise comes only after purchasing the printer as it is not clearly mentioned in the package itself. And, the Hewlett Packard Colour LaserJet CP1215 is not an exception, all the four toner cartridges, cyan, magenta, yellow and black contain approximately just the half of a standard volume toner.

Quite an expensive operation:

When the price of the prints are roughly calculated, they are slightly expensive than the HP CP2025n. The LaserJet CP1215 has got a monthly duty cycle of 1000 pages, where as, its competition laser has a cycle of 40,000 pages which makes the fact clear that it is suited only for the small office uses.

Awful print speed:

Coming to the part of performance, HP Colour LaserJet CP1215’s speed cannot be well described by any other word than “Pathetic”. It gave around 6ppm for colour graphics, 5 and a half ppm for presentation, 5.36 for colour text and a little more than 8ppm for black text. When put in comparison with the other printers, you will be find that the difference is totally unacceptable, and will get frustrated by waiting for a colour print to appear from the printer.

Excellent quality though:

Though the speed had let you down, the quality of the prints do not do the same. They are excellent with well formed black and colour text. Even the edges are sharp and shading is dense. Though some banding can be witnessed in some of the fine details, majority of the photo elements comes out well with nicely saturated natural colour. Overall, the print quality of HP Colour LaserJet CP1215 Single Function Printer is good for a small office that has occasional presentation to be thrown in but for the larger offices that have heavy photographic works would like to have a quality of print that can be offered only by inkjet printers.

The package contents includes the HP LaserJet CP1215 laser printer, power cable, 750-page cyan, magenta, yellow, and black cartridges, CD with user guide and printer software and a getting started guide.

Warranty and support:

HP offers HP Colour LaserJet CP1215 with one year warranty. In addition to this, HP also offers 24×7 toll free phone support with instant chatting during week days. HP’s website also has a load of other useful tuffs for your printer such as, downloadable drivers, software, manuals, e-mail tech support and even trouble shooting guide.

Verdict:

HP Colour LaserJet CP1215’s pros include the simple design, ease in installation, good quality colour prints, low price tag and support for manual duplexing. Whereas, the cons list extends to expensive operation, incompatibility with Mac OS, very slow print speeds, absence of a LCD display, very small quantity of toners offered and the fixed resolution.
And so, if you are having a system that operates on Mac or in a situation of printing a large number of sheets, look for a better alternative, a cost effective Dell 1320cn which is another laser printer that offers faster colour prints and also a single sheet manual feed slot. Else if you own a small office and not cared about the print speeds, the LaserJet CP1215 is in fact a good choice.

You may also be interested in reviews and specification details of HP LaserJet 1300, HP LaserJet P1005 Printer.

HP Color Laserjet CP1215 (CC376A#ABA) Specification Details

Manufacturer	HP
Model Name	HP Colour LaserJet CP1215 Printer
Printer Type	Workgroup colour laser printer
Dimensions	15.7 x 17.8 x 10.0 in
Weight	38.9 lb
Black print speed	Up to 12 ppm
Colour print speed	Up to 8 ppm
Black print resolution	Up to 600 x 600 dpi
Colour print resolution	Up to 600 x 600 dpi
Duplex printing	Manual
Print technology implemented	HP ImageREt 2400 Ultraprecise toner HP edge-enhancement technologies
Printer memory	16 MB
Processor	264 MHz Custom RISC Processor
Supported paper sizes	Letter, legal, executive, envelopes (No 10, Monarch)
Duty cycle	25000
Input tray capacity	150-sheet input tray
Monthly duty cycle	250 to 1000
Networking	None
Connections	1 x Hi-Speed USB
Supported operating systems	Windows 2000; Windows XP Home; Windows XP Professional; Windows Server 2003; Certified for Windows Vista(R)
Print languages	Host-based
EPA Energy Star Compliant	Yes
Warranty	1 year

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