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The Color Laser Printer Guide: Vendor & Product Profiles
Entire Contents © 2006 Prog
ressiv
e Business Publications. Copying of Pages Prohibited.To Order: 800 247 2185 or www.betterbuys.com 37
T
hen you add the reasonable 8ppm color speed and
you’ve got a very affordable mixed-use, network-ready
m
achine.
Other features are pretty good. First, the resolution is a
good 1,200 x 600dpi. PostScript is a standard feature.
Memory starts at 128MB and can be expanded to
384MB. An optional hard disk is available. A 300MHz
processor offers decent performance.
Duplexing is another option. Wireless Ethernet (Wi-Fi)
is optional as well. You can also upgrade this unit to a
multifunctional, with the IS100E option (outlined in the
text below).
This unit comes with a 250-sheet paper supply stan-
dard, and you can add an optional 530-sheet paper tray.
Output is limited to 250 sheets.
The printer has an optional scanner/copier unit, called
the Ricoh IS100E Flatbed Color Scanner. This CCD unit
scans at 9ppm at 600dpi and has a 25-sheet, legal-size
document feeder, along with a flatbed platen. The list
price is $1,499. This unit supports scan-to-email (it can
hold 2,000 email addresses) and scan-to-PDF, and it’s
connected to the printer through a parallel port or
Ethernet interface.
The big
gest drawback is the cost per page. The 13.9¢
cost per color page and 3.1¢ for black-and-white are high.
That’s particularly striking given the black-and-white
printing speed. Of cour
se, these are list prices, and you
should be a
ble to negotiate a much better price with your
dealer — before you buy the machine.
The CL1000N is based on w
hat was originally an
Hitachi engine. (Ricoh bought out Hitachi’s printer oper-
a
tions.) It’s essentially the same machine as the Brother
HL-2700CN. While prices are hard to compare (Ricoh
shows list price only), they seem to be in the same gener-
al ballpark. The Ricoh model comes with more memory.
The consumables costs appear to be somewhat higher on
the Ricoh machines. Otherwise, the models are pretty
similar.
All in all, this is a very strong small workgroup printer.
It’s relatively inexpensive, but it has some strong features.
You should be able to drive a better deal with your Ricoh
dealer than the list price on this machine.
Chart entry — page 106
Ricoh Aficio CL3500N
22ppm full color
22ppm black & white
Sum-up: Respectable color performance at a low price point.
The ne
w Aficio CL3500N ($999) is a strong new model
in Ricoh’s color laser printer line. It follows a current
trend being followed by printer manufacturers of rolling
out desktop color mac
hines with consistent speed ratings
for both color and black-and-w
hite
. Lo
w-end color laser
machines released over the last few years frequently had
wide gaps between color and black-and-white speeds,
such as the CL1000N (abo
ve).
The CL3500N prints at 22ppm in both color and black-
and-white. It’s a solid performer suitable for a small
workgroup. And since color printing would most likely
be the main need of its users, that’s a welcome
improvement.
T
he CL3500N prints a
t 1,200dpi native resolution. It
has a speedy 533MHz processor, and 128MB of standard
memory, expandable to 512MB. An optional 20GB hard
drive is available.
The printer has standard PostScript and Ethernet, as
well as a USB interface. Wireless and Bluetooth connec-
ti
vity ar
e available as options.
T
he machine has a 530-sheet paper tray as well as a
100-sheet m
ultipurpose bypass tray. Up to two 530-sheet
trays of paper supply can be added for a maximum paper
capacity of 1,690 sheets. Duplexing is available as an
option.
Output is limited to 250 sheets
.
Ricoh also of
fers a multifunction option, in which an
image scanner can be added to the unit.
Consumables for this unit are reasonably priced, run-
ning 8.7¢ a page for color and 1.7¢ a page for black-and-
white. Those are respectable prices for an under-$1,000
color laser printer
.
This is a solid workhorse ideal for small offices and
Ricoh Aficio CL1000N
Consumables costs at-a-glance
Price
Yield
Full-color cost per page
Black-and-white cost per page
Blac
k toner
$185.00 9,800 $ 0.019 $ 0.019
Cyan toner $181.00 6,500 $ 0.028 N/A
Ma
g
enta toner
$181.00 6,500 $ 0.028 N/A
Yellow toner $181.00 6,500 $ 0.028 N/A
Waste toner bottle $13.00 11,000 $ 0.001 $ 0.001
Drum/black $495.00 60,000 N/A $ 0.008
Drum/4-color $495.00 15,000 $ 0.033 N/A
Fuser unit $247.50 100,000 $ 0.002 $ 0.002
TOTAL PER-PAGE COSTS
$ 0.1391 $ 0.0308
13.91 3.08
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