Okidata C5650n

When you think of a laser printer, it is almost always in an office or large company space somewhere. Like most technology, once it has been around a while, the prices become more reasonable and it moves into the reach of ordinary people. The ease of use, good quality prints and decent toner prices combine to make this an worthy proposition for home users who like printing as the usual small business audience.

With a rated duty cycle of 60000 pages a month, it is perfectly adequate for the large workgroup, except it lacks scalability. Other models in the Oki range are better suited to those, like the C6100 or C6200 where more paper capacity can be added as needed. The standard paper capacity with the C5650n is 400 sheets. The drawer holds 300 and the multi-purpose tray a further 100.

The processor is a fast 200Mhz and the memory is 64Mb as standard, which is upgradeable to 320Mb for larger print jobs. There is also the option to upgrade to an automatic duplexer if you need to print double-sided.

Connection is by USB, ethernet or parallel. If you want to network it then you just need to add it to a workgroup router and let it be auto detected. Once the group sees it you can push the drivers to them and it’s ready to go straight away.

It won’t take the C5650n too long to print either, with a rated print speed of 26 pages per minute for mono and 22 for color. The print quality is great when printing text. The 1200 x 600 dpi resolution means that the print is clear and all the edges crisp. Printing graphics or images is where no laser printer is at its best, but this holds its own well with no obvious artifacts or bleeding on our test document.

The printer is easy to install, configure and manage. The starter cartridge is good for 1000 pages, and when it comes time to change, simply lift the lid and pull them out. They are laid out horizontally which makes replacing them much easier than some. Replacement cartridges are good for another 5000 pages, for black and color, which drops the cost per page significantly compared to other devices.

With its ease of use, simple but effective controls and good build quality, the Oki C5650n is a great buy for users who want laser printing at a reasonable cost.

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OkiData C3530

The OkiData C3530 is aimed squarely at the small workgroup who needs good quality color printing with multifunction attributes. Oki, quite confidently say that the C3530 can outperform and print better than any other product in the market. That is quite a bold statement considering the competition from the likes of Panasonic, Xerox, Brother and Dell. They have all produced great quality machines over the past couple of years that definitely take some beating.

Despite being an awkward looking machine, the C3530 is a performance powerhouse for its price. It prints monochrome at a rate of 20 pages per minute and color at 16. The finish is excellent for both. Out test document consists of 24 pages of text, graphs images and white space in order to test the reproduction thoroughly. The printer handled it perfectly and deposited the finished document in a little over 1 and a half minutes at 600 dpi. Increasing it to the ProQ2400 resolution setting didn’t even give the C3530 pause. It only took a few extra seconds and the difference was clear.

Despite those quick print times, copying is considerably slower. It took a little over a minute for an eight page color document, meaning 7 pages per minute, and 45 seconds for a mono version. Copying quality was still good though, with colors and grayscales being accurate and relevant. Scanning and faxing were both useable and of a good quality. Much of the operation of the C3530 can be done either at the machine, or from a PC connected to it or the network. You can print, scan, copy and fax to a USB key, but not from it. You can also broadcast faxes to email, as well as copy and print to it.

Overall, the C3530 is a good piece of equipment. The quality of the prints and scans is possibly up to Oki’s claims of being the best in class. Our testing certainly didn’t detect any obvious shortfalls. As to whether it is or not we would have to test it longer term. The true test of course is whether it works for the users or not.

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OkiData C5100n

Color printers used to be too expensive to have many of, and too slow to be efficient in an office. Not only were the printers themselves expensive, the toners used to be extortionate. Oki is part of the color laser revolution that changed all that, and with the OkiData C5100n, they continue bringing quality color laser printing to an office near you.

The advent of the single pass laser is what turned things around for laser printers. Once restricted to 5 or 6 pages a minute, they can now print as quick and sometimes faster than monochrome. The C5100n can output at a rate of 12 pages per minute in color and 20 monochrome, which is more than enough for a device of this size.

The prints are of a quality mainly seen in products more expensive than this one. Images are equally impressive, the C5100n outputs some great quality photographs with real richness to them. Color reproduction is clear and accurate while mono used good grayscale to simulate the shades.

Setting the C5100n up was as easy as unpacking it and connecting it up. Once powered the network was automatically configured and were up and running in minutes. It was just a matter of loading the drivers and we were ready to go. The paper drawer holds 300 sheets and the multipurpose feed tray another 100. That is upgradeable to 930 if you need it though if you purchase the optional paper drawer. The memory is also upgradeable, although it would be hard to imagine needing to do so. The built-in 32Mb is plenty enough for daily use.

Starter toners are included which are good for a thousand sheets each. So it’s just as well replacements are easy to acquire and reasonably priced. A new black toner will last for 5000 pages, as will the color ones. It’s actually quite unusual for color toner to last as long as black but Oki seems to be able to make color last a little longer than many of its competitors.

We would have no hesitation recommending the C5100n to any office. It is competent enough to handle even the most demanding print jobs and won’t let you down.

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OkiData C5200n

To call the Oki C5200n a laser printer is a bit of a misnomer, as it actually prints using LEDs instead of a laser. It isn’t the only brand to try this, and like the others, it makes the new technology work.

For all intents and purposes the C5200n works exactly like a laser printer. It uses paper and toner in the same way, prints at the same speed and needs to warm up the ink before use. The only difference is the light technology that imprints onto the paper. LEDs are no cheaper than laser, but they run cooler.

The single pass printing process is a feature most common in much more expensive printers. It allows for a much quicker print time, which is reflected in the 24 page per minute print speed in monochrome and 16 pages for color. This is much quicker than competitors from Brother and Lexmark at similar price points.

The text print is superb. Whatever size point you use, the edges are clean, spread is even, and black looks black. Color printing is almost as good, with graphs being particularly worthy of note. Colors appear accurate and unblemished, with no bleeding at the edges. Talking of edges, they are some of the crispest you will find in a printer of this price.

Physically the C5200n is unremarkable. Its creamy putty color is unassuming and the controls and small LCD panel gives nothing away. The top opens like a clamshell revealing the toners and drum beneath. The light array is affixed to the top to prevent damage when changing the consumables.

The drums and cartridges all lift out to expose much of the machinery underneath. This makes clearing paper jams easy as pretty much the whole path is open for you to see inside.

Having built-in networking means the C5200n can be up and running in no time. There is also a USB port for single users, but it is at its best when part of a network. The machine is also upgradeable, the memory can be expanded to 256Mb and the paper capacity can be moved from 400 to 930 with the optional paper drawer.

The C5200n is more suited to a small workgroup or office than the home user, but will work well in most situations. It has enough features, and prints at a high enough quality to be able to flourish in any office.

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