Get to know the Zune HD>>
CNET editors' review
- Reviewed on: 10/26/2004
- Updated on: 11/22/2009
The control panel perches on the brow above the output tray, with a button to pop open the lid like the hood of a car, exposing the paper path, the toner, and the imager. We found the B4250 easy to use, despite the challenge of adding paper. The main paper tray's handle is knuckle-scrapingly shallow; to keep skin attached to bone, we opened the tray by bracing a thumb against the thin auxiliary flap.
The Okidata Oki B4250 offers a wealth of features, such as 16MB of memory--enough to satisfy most single users--with the potential to house 272MB total. The main paper tray holds 250 sheets, and the printer will accept a second, 500-sheet tray for $190--an average cost. This improves upon the cheaper Oki B4100, which won't accept another paper tray or more memory. The hand-fed auxiliary tray holds only a single envelope or a sheet of other media, such as labels. The face-up rear exit, which outputs delicate pages without bending them, enjoys its own support tray. The B4250's 2,500-page cartridge costs $36, and the imaging drum runs $199, bringing the cost of an average page of text to 2.24 cents. The printer's driver features a watermark option so that you can dress up the Confidential stamp on your private documents.The Oki B4250 lacks a networking option, so if you aim to share your printer, turn instead to the similar B4350, which costs $74 more and accepts an add-on Ethernet card. Alternately, choose the B4250's sibling, the B4350n, which is $178 more with a network-interface card installed. (CNET did not test the network models' performance.)
The Okidata B4250 performed decently in CNET Labs' tests. Though far behind the fastest laser, at 18.8 pages per minute (ppm) for text and 17.8ppm for graphics, it still beat the popular HP LaserJet 1012.The B4250's print quality was sharp overall. It was clear even at the smallest font sizes, although the text looked patchy and light. Graphics, however, suffered more from the high contrast. With even a cursory glance, we could see that images were washed out or uneven.
From the performance perspective, the Oki B4250 is a decent grayscale printer that quietly and smoothly gets the job done. We tested it at the manufacturer's default settings, which can be adjusted to improve performance.
 |
Black graphics speed | |
Black text speed |
Most helpful user reviews
-
Average user rating:
0 stars
Not yet available
Back to product review - My rating: 0 stars Write review
-
Showing 1 of 1 user review
-
7 out of 7 people found this helpful
- See 1 user review Write review
Submit your review
