Ricoh Aficio SP C221N Colour Laser Printer
Ricoh is a Japanese company that manufactures primarily cameras and office equipment such as printers, photocopiers, fax machine, etc. In the following review, we will be seeing in detail about Ricoh’s brand new printer, the Aficio SP C221N. This is a printer that is mainly aimed at the offices, as it is a workhorse that can keep up with your business printing needs. It has come into the market with some very hard to ignore features like multiple print capability, faster processor, more memory, print engines with great print speed and a lot of work group features like network printing, high capacity toner cartridges and larger paper input and output trays.
Designed professionally:
As in the case of most of the other office printers, the Ricoh Aficio SP C221N A4 Colour Laser Printer too looks very professional. It has the standard white and grey finishing, and it is actually quite sleek for an office printer with its dimensions being (H x W x D) 12.8″ x 16″ x 18″ and weighs 50.7lbs. You will find the big control panel with all the necessary buttons in the facia of the printer and along with it, there is also a small LED display, it is really disappointing that there is no LCD colour display to preview the print content. The menu is easy to access with the navigation controls and intuitive design.
Ports, trays and connectivity in SP C221N:
In the rear side of the unit you will find the cable cover, power socket, Ethernet port and an USB port. In the bottom of the printer, there is a bypass tray that will allow you to load paper sheet by sheet; this is a very useful inclusion for printing on letter covers, etc. When that is pulled out, you will find an input tray that has a capacity of about 250 sheets. On the top of the device is a standard tray extension that supports the sheets that come out curled after being printed. The stop fences behind the output tray ensure that the legal sized or A4 sized prints do not fall behind the machine; for the legal sized prints, the rear fence has to be raised and for the A4 sized prints, raise the forward fence. The top cover has to be opened to replace the print cartridge and the front cover to replace the waste toner bottle or to remove jammed paper.
The control panel:
The control panel of SPC221N Duplex Laserjet Printer is very intuitive and the buttons and indicators are placed very logically. In the left most corner is the alert indicator that lights up whenever a printer error occurs and when this happens, the Smart Organising Monitor has to be used to check for the error. The ready indicator lights up when the printer is ready to receive data from a system and flashes when the printer is warming up or receiving data. You will also find the load paper indicator that lights up when the paper tray is empty or unattached and the replace print cartridge indicator is available under each toner icon that flashes when there is very little toner remaining and remains lit when there is no toner left. The keys include the stop/start key and job reset key.
Installation of Aficio SP C221N:
The installation of the printer takes a while. The first step in the installation process is that, the printer has to be configured as a Windows network printer. Once that is done, the printer has to be added in the printers and other hardware section in the control panel. And then keep pressing next in the upcoming dialog boxes and finally click on the finish button on the final dialog box. Once the installation process is done, the printer will be ready for the printing process. The specific installation instructions are given step by step description in the printer manual.a
Compatibility:
The SP C221N is compatible with Windows 2000/XP/Server 2003/Vista; Mac OS X v.10.2 – 10.4 Novell Netware v. 4.x or later and Citrix Server Operating Systems.
Network support:
Being an office printer, it is essential that Aficio SP C221N A4 supports networking and Ricoh has made no mistake by supporting network and local connection. It can be used as either Window printing port or even a network printer and the network connectivity can be established via the Ethernet interface offered. The local connections can be established via USB connections. There are just four steps to be followed to use the printer in a network environment: Print the test page, Install Smart Organising Monitor, Specify the IP address of the printer and Install the printer driver. The documentation offered with the printer gives you neat and clear explanation on how to do so.
Features:
Ricoh Aficio SP C221N A4 Network Laser Printer is equipped with a 300MHz processor and has about 128 MB of RAM as standard. A lot of the latest technologies like laser beam scanning, elecrtophotographic printing with mono component toner development and four drum tandem method have been employed. The printer has a duty cycle of 30000 prints per month.
Performance:
Having all these latest technologies employed we would expect spectacular print speeds. Unfortunately, even the 21ppm speed mentioned by the manufacturer in the specifications can be achieved only in the speed print mode. When tested the print speed is a mere 16ppm, which is very average for an office printer. The resolution of the prints in the draft mode is 600 x 600dpi, in standard mode the resolution is 1200 x 600dpi and in fine mode it is 2400 x 600dpi. As you can see, the resolutions are great. It takes about 14 seconds to give the first print, which is comparatively quite a long time. The printer also takes about a minute to warm-up.
Warranty:
The Ricoh Aficio SP C221N A4 Colour Laser Printer comes with one year standard manufacturer’s warranty.
Verdict:
The Ricoh Aficio SP C221N A4 Colour Laser Printer is best suited for people who require high volume colour printing. The printer is very inexpensive when compared to the other office printers in the market. Though the print speeds are average, it is really great value when considering the fact that it has a very powerful processor, lot of latest technologies and a very good set of resolutions. We would recommend the Aficio SP C221N for those who want networking, latest features and good resolution at a budget price tag.
Read reviews of Samsung Laser Printers, IBM Laser Printers reviews in this website.
Ricoh Aficio SP C221N Network Printer - Technical Specification Table
| Manufacturer | Ricoh |
| Model Name | Aficio SP C221N A4 Colour Laser Printer |
| Model number | SP C221N |
| Printer type | Colour Laser printer |
| Colour | White and Grey |
| Dimensions (H x W x D) | 12.8″ x 16″ x 18″ |
| Weight | 50.7 lbs |
| Technology used | Laser beam scanning and electrophotographic printing with mono component toner development, 4-drum tandem method |
| Processor | 300 MHz |
| RAM Installed ( Max) | 128 MB / 640 MB (max) |
| Print Speed | 21 pages-per-minute in B&W and full-colour |
| First Page Out | 14 secs or less |
| Maximum Monthly Volume | 30,000 prints |
| Network printing protocols | TCP/IP , IPX/SPX , AppleTalk |
| Data Link Protocols | Ethernet , Fast Ethernet |
| Printer Interface | USB , Ethernet 10/100Base-TX |
| Standard Paper Input | 250 sheets |
| Maximum Paper Input | 750 sheets |
| Media type | Labels, Envelopes, Plain paper, Glossy paper and Recycled paper |
| Supported paper sizes | A4 (8.25 in x 11.7 in), B5 (6.93 in x 9.83 in), Legal (8.5 in x 14 in), Executive (7.25 in x 10.5 in) and Letter A Size (8.5 in x 11 in) |
| Duplex | Yes |
| Paper Weight | 60 g/m2 - 160 g/m2 |
| Media feeders | 1 x Autoload - 250 sheets 1 x Autoload - 500 sheets 1 x Manual load - 1 sheet |
| Paper Output Standard Maximum | 150 sheets |
| Supported OS | Windows 2000/XP/Server 2003/Vista; Mac OS X v.10.2 – 10.4 Novell Netware v. 4.x or later, Citrix Server |
| Printer Control Language Emulations | PCL5c/6, PostScript 3 emulation |
| Connectivity | 1 x Hi-Speed USB - 4 pin USB Type B 1 x Network - Ethernet 10Base-T/100Base-TX - RJ-45 |
| Consumables Included | 4 x Toner cartridge ( Yellow, Magenta, Cyan and Black ) - up to 1000 pages At 5% coverage |
| Standard Warranty | 1 year on-site |
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