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-------------------------------------------------------------- This story was printed from ZDNet Australia. --------------------------------------------------------------
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Multitalented multifunctions: 5 MFDs tested By Kire Terzievski, Technology & Business magazine June 04, 2004 URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/reviews/hardware/printersscanners/soa/Multitalented-multifunctions-5-MFDs-tested/0,139023422,139149596,00.htm
For this review we looked at MFDs: devices that can be attached to a local network that can print, copy, scan, and fax. In all we received five MFDs, three colour capable and two that were only monochrome capable. HP and Kyocera both have new models coming out later in the year that are colour capable, but currently only have monochrome MFDs available.
Duty Cycles One thing is for certain: get clarification from the vendor in relation to the actual pages per month their device is capable of.
Toner In and Toner Out Option Plans An interesting area we would like to investigate in future is the cost of running a laser printer against a multifunctional device. One vendor we spoke to said the running costs of a printer were much more straightforward to calculate than the running costs of an MFD. Of course the initial cost of an MFD is a lot higher compared to that of a printer, but with the service agreements that are generally offered for MFDs, it may actually work out a lot cheaper to run an MFD over a number of years than it would a printer. There are many scenarios we could run against this and it would be very interesting to find where it would and wouldn't be beneficial to use either. Colour MFDs
Canon IR C3100 The C3100 shipped with four paper trays and standard 50-page document feeder to give you a combined capacity of 4750 A4-sized pages. There was no finisher attached to this device but you can get one as an option. Setup was very simple. Give the device an IP address, then install the drivers from the CDs. We didn't have to install the toners but they're easily installed by pulling down the front cover. We also found this MFD to be the noisiest of the lot, which could be a bit of a distraction in the workplace. The biggest source of noise was the clunking sounds it made when printing in colour. The C3100 can be configured using a browser. The interface is simple to use, however it needs a fresh new look because the design looks very primitive. You can block users from printing in colour, for example. As an option, you can purchase Canon's NetSpot Accountant that allows an administrator to see who's doing what and then be able to report on it. The C3100 was very fast at printing plain documents, equally as fast as the Ricoh. Printing in colour was a different story and it was also very slow printing in duplex mode.
The Fuji Xerox C240 is well suited to medium-sized workgroups. It can print at 24ppm in monochrome and 20ppm in colour. It can copy in monochrome and colour, scan in colour, and fax in colour.The C240 shipped with four paper trays that can hold a total of 2090 sheets of paper. All were able to house A3 and A4 paper. Also attached was a finisher that could do stapling. Setup was generally straightforward. After giving the C240 an IP address, we installed the PCL and PS drivers on a network PC. The C240 has a built-in Web server so you can enter its IP address in a browser and configure the device from there. The Web interface was simple to use and you can administer most things from there. However if you want to know how much toner is remaining in each cartridge, you have to go to the device. The C240 also comes with the Auditron, which allows for password protected access to the device, and enables the administrator to track jobs. The Auditron will enable you to lock down certain users from misusing the colour printing by restricting the number of colour printouts they can do per month. Or you can completely shut users out from printing in colour. None of the other MFDs feature a quota-based system for users. Also supplied to us was Paper Port, which allows you to scan and open documents in your desktop applications. The C240 wasn't the fastest at printing but it produced the best quality. If you want it to print faster, you could go up to the next Fuji Xerox model, which does just that. The Ricoh was a fraction better than the C240 at printing text. But the Fuji Xerox really stood out at printing photos. The other colour MFDs didn't even come close. It was exceptional and quite possibly the best we have seen come out of an MFD.
The Aficio 2432 was not much different to the Aficio 1232 we reviewed about a year ago. It still prints at 32ppm in monochrome but is now twice as fast printing in colour. The Aficio 2432 prints, copies, and scans in colour, and faxes in monochrome. Like the Fuji Xerox, the Ricoh is best suited to mid-sized workgroups.The Aficio 2432 shipped with three paper trays each able to hold up to 500 sheets of paper. The top tray can only hold A4 paper while the bottom two trays can hold up to A3 paper. There is provision for a 2000-sheet paper tray that can be swapped with the third bottom tray to increase the total paper capacity to 3100 sheets. You can also add finishers, additional trays, and bins. Setup was very straightforward. Like the other two colour-capable MFDs tested, the Ricoh just needed a single IP and away it went. Typing in its IP address in a browser revealed an impressive Web-based interface. It was very well designed and easy to use. Unfortunately, the Ricoh doesn't ship with any management software that will allow you to keep a lid on the number of colour pages users print. You can enable and disable a user from printing colour, but if you want to have more control than that, you have to purchase a third-party application. The Aficio 2432 was equal fastest in monochrome printing, while in colour it was clearly the fastest especially when printing in duplex mode. In copying there wasn't much of a difference between it and the Fuji Xerox. Print quality was generally very good, especially in plain black text, but it let itself down in printing photos. Even after tweaking the driver settings we were still unable to get near the photo quality of the Fuji Xerox.
HP LaserJet 4100mfp An interesting feature of this MFD is its capability of scanning in colour, even though it can only print in black and white. Most vendors seem to wonder what's the use of scanning in colour when you can't print in colour? On the other hand, most of the vendor marketing people we spoke to seem oblivious to the fact that many customers still don't want a colour printer. The 4100mfp is suitable for small workgroups. It can print in mono at 24ppm and has a print resolution of 600dpi. The 4100 has a 600-sheet input capacity and a 300-sheet output capacity. There is also provision for up to two additional 500-sheet input trays and a 30-sheet automatic document feeder. To our amusement, HP claims the recommended usage is 150,000 pages per month. We feel this figure is very far fetched. The HP 4100 was quite fast at printing, with quite good print quality; as good as the Canon in some areas.
The Kyocera KM-3035 is suitable for a busy workgroup. It prints and scans in monochrome. It can also copy and fax, and has some finishing options available.The KM-3035 is just as big as the colour-capable MFDs we looked at. It has a very fast print engine capable of 30ppm, and it has a much larger paper capacity compared to the HP4100. It ships standard with two 500-sheet paper trays and a 200-sheet multi purpose tray. We received the KM-3035 with a 3000-page additional tray that pushes the total paper capacity to 4200 pages. The installation of this device was slightly quirky. For instance, you have to give this device two IP addresses: one for the scanner and one for the printer. It obviously comes with two NICs, so you have to plug two network cables to the back of the device. We also ran into a problem with the print drivers. We were not able to print more than one copy of the same document. We eventually used a Windows XP PC as we didn't have time to work out why it wasn't working from a Windows 2000 PC. There are plenty of options you can buy for this device, starting with an internal finisher, saddle and hole punch finisher, and a position finisher. The KM-3035 was very fast at printing in monochrome. We were most impressed in how fast its first page came out. Copy speed was also amazing with copies coming out in less than four seconds. In the quality department the KM-3035 was on par with the HP in most tests. It was slightly better at printing photos.
Which interfaces and protocols does the device support? Are drivers available for all major OSes?
Futureproofing
ROI
Service We ran a series of print speed and quality tests designed to assess the printers' ability to handle different types of content, including:
Fonts were assessed for accuracy of formation, smoothing of radial and oblique edges, and any evidence of toner "spatter", particularly in the white-on-black font test. Smoothness of colour/greyscale gradations and dithering was assessed, as was the accuracy of fine radial and oblique lines. A full-colour A4 page was used to scan from the MFD to a shared folder on a desktop PC. We also scanned a document from the desktop PC using the TWAIN drivers that were supplied. No scores were recorded here however we noted the overall ease of setup and use. We recorded the time it took to copy a standard A4 page with plain text and timed this from when we pressed "Start". We also timed how long it took to copy a full-colour A4 photo page at 600dpi. There were no formal tests undertaken for the faxing component other than having a preview of the software supplied to do faxing. Colour MFD Specifications
Monochrome MFD Specifications
This company wants to install MFDs on each floor to centralise monochrome printing and copying, colour scanning, and faxing. Approximate budget: Upfront cost isn't a big issue, but the company wants to minimise long-term running costs. Requires: Eight MFDs capable of at least 20ppm mono printing, and colour scanning. Concerns: The ease of using functions such as scanning and faxing will also be carefully considered. Double-sided printing is a must. Best solution: The Kyocera was definitely the better of the two monochrome MFDs we looked at. It was faster than the HP in all tests, could house more paper, and would be cheaper to run. Sample Scenario 2
Company: Respect for Laws Institute
This company wants to install MFDs for mid-to-large-sized workgroups that can do colour printing and copying, colour scanning, and faxing. Look out for...
Editor's Choice: Fuji Xerox C240;Highly Commended: Ricoh Aficio 2432C The Fuji-Xerox wins our Editors' Choice award again, almost one year after it won our last MFD review. It won for the same reasons as last year: it performed well in every area. There were some areas, like in the speed tests, where it wasn't the fastest, but its management capabilities were particularly impressive, such as the ability to impose colour-page quotas on each user. The Ricoh was a close second, also with terrific features but let down slightly by its print quality.
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The Canon IR C3100 can print in monochrome at a fast 32ppm but in colour it can only print at 7ppm. It can also copy, scan, and fax in colour.
The HP LaserJet 4100mfp wouldn't be able to meet the demands of a mid- to large-sized workgroup. And to our surprise, HP doesn't currently have a large workgroup MFD that prints in colour. The closest is the 9100 which is an inkjet-based MFD.