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Entire Contents © 2006 Prog
ressiv
e Business Pub
lications
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are not unusual in the black-and-white market.
On the output side, There is a 100-sheet and a 500-sheet
t
ray. You can also add a 250-sheet face-up tray. Like
many other color printers, there’s an imbalance between
a fairly large maximum input capacity and a much small-
er output capacity, though these Kyocera models do bet-
ter than most. Two-sided output (duplexing) is an option
as well. No finishing is offered, but that is expected at this
price level.
Kyocera products typically feature impressive consum-
ables costs, and these machines are no exceptions. The
black-and-white cost per page is very good for a color
printer, at 1.2¢ a page. That’s not nearly as good as with
some black-and-white-only printers, but among color
printers, it’s very good indeed. The color per-page costs
are even better, at 5.3¢ a page (around 8¢ on the FS-
C2015). At almost half the industry average for color
printing cost, that alone makes this printer a standout.
There are considerably faster printers in the price range
of the Kyocera FS-C5020N, but none with as good
paper
-handling f
eatures. Above all, no other color print-
ers (other than other Kyocera models) can match its price
per page.
Likewise, the FS-C5030N is not the fastest at its price
le
vel (that honor might go to the 31ppm HP Color
LaserJet 4700n), but it still has stronger paper handling
than some rivals and a lower cost per page.
If
you plan to use the printer extensi
vely, and if you
plan to produce lots of color pages, this is by far the most
cost-effective letter/legal-size printer on the market.
While the FS-C5020N is a fine machine
, we think the
faster FS-C5030N is a true standout. The new FS-
C5015N and FS-C5025N appear to be fine additions to
this f
amil
y that gets our Editor’s Choice Award.
Chart entries — pages 89–90
Kyocera FS-C8008N
Kyocera FS-C8008DN
8ppm full color
31ppm b
lac
k & white
Sum-up:
A fine ledg
er
-siz
e color laser series with outstanding
operating costs.
The FS-C8008 family offers low-cost ledger-size color
laser printing
.
T
he speed in color is belo
w a
v
er
age
(8ppm), but the speed in black-and-white is excellent
(31ppm). The FS-C8008 printers also shine in two areas
tha
t Kyocera printers generally do well in: operating costs
and paper handling. These features make them a viable
choice in what is an increasingly competitive market.
T
he FS-C8008 f
amil
y comes in tw
o v
ersions:
● The FS-C8008N ($5,525 list), which offers Ethernet
connectivity standard
● The FS-C8008DN ($5,795 list), which adds standard
automatic duplex and a standard hard disk
In most other ways, the two models are identical in fea-
tures. The FS-C8008 family’s basic specs are pretty
strong. The processor runs at 400MHz, which is a
respectable speed. The 128MB standard memory, which
can be expanded to 640MB, is quite good as well.
PostScript is standard, and wireless Ethernet is available
as an option, in addition to the standard 10/100BaseT.
Speed and resolution: As noted earlier, the FS-C8008
models print at a rate of 8ppm in color and 31ppm in
black-and-white. The color speed is below average in the
current market, but not painfully so. On the other hand,
the monochrome speed is outstanding. That and the low
consumables costs make this series an interesting candi-
date for a mixed-use departmental printer. If you need a
laser printer that will do color pages occasionally, and
black-and-white frequently, this can be a good choice.
One slight disadvantage — the FS-C8008 models print
at 600dpi, while some rivals print at 1,200dpi. On the
other hand, it must be said that 1,200dpi resolution,
while a nice feature, is not an absolute requirement. In
spite of the jump in resolution, the difference in appear-
ance between color documents printed at these resolu-
tions can be har
d to detect.
(You might, however, look at
some test pages and compare them with output from one
or two competitors.)
Paper handling: The FS-C8008 family, like other
Kyocera products, offers excellent paper-handling
options. The FS-C8008N supports 1,150 sheets of paper
capacity standard, an above-average total. This figure can
be increased to 3,150 sheets by adding four optional
pa
per dr
a
w
ers. Note that the duplexing unit fits into one
of the standard drawer spaces, so the FS-C8008DN offers
only 650 sheets out of the box, with a total capacity of
2,650 sheets.
The output side gets even more interesting. The default
650-sheet output ca
pacity can be supplemented using tw
o
dif
f
erent options:
● A 3,000-sheet offset catch tray, or
● A 2,000-sheet finisher with 20-sheet stapling and three
output bins
Note tha
t in or
der to use the finisher
,
y
ou’ll need to buy
both optional 500-sheet pa
per dr
a
w
ers.
Traditionally, color printers have offered very little in
terms of output options. Clearly, manufacturers like
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