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"Solid workgroup printer" on by waltsjc
Pros: Fast, low cost per page, great output for a laser
Cons: Noisy and large
Summary: I purchased this printer for small office use to replace a couple inkjets, which were too slow and cost too much to operate.
My first impression was that this printer is HUGE - you are not going to want to put this on a desk, it really should be on a table preferably not right next to someone (it's on the loud side.)
First page out is also a little slower than spec - about 24 seconds for a plain text single page document.
Quality is better than I expected from reading reviews about other Ricoh printers... While this is NOT a photo printer, the quality of photos printed was very good, probably due to the 1200 DPI engine. Photo printing is NOT as good as a modern 6 color inkjet using good photo paper however. No "inkjet" banding problems, and it takes a magnifying glass to see individual dots.
Registration (where colors line up) was also dead on in my testing.
This printer also has duplexing, and it's quite fast after the first page. On my test print of a mostly-text color PDF, I got 20 sides per minute.
I did upgrade this printer to 512M ram, but save yourself some money and buy third party. It's a standard PC2100 SO DIMM (I got mine from Edge - PN O2200SU256MN350808 for $36 including shipping.)
I have yet to go through the standard toner that ships with the printer, although I'll note that the supplied toners are the smaller 5000 page versions.
Toner cost alone (if you believe that you really will get the rated number of pages out of it) is in the 5 cents per color page range. I would expect REAL world usage to be closer to 10 cents. We shall see. Note that a replacement toner set of the high-yield variety is 75% of the cost of the printer, but this is par for the course for all color printers really. Black toner is MUCH less expensive, so black and white printing will be in the 1/2 cent per page range. Unlike many other color printers, you replace just the toner and not an entire drum unit. Ricoh has a 100K maintenance pack, so replacement toner should be all you need until you hit that level of printing.
My last inkjet (an Epson) cost me about 75 cents per page in ink, so anything less is a huge win. That and never ever needing to do a printhead cleaning cycle
I also tested this printer on Windows XP, Linux, and OS X. I was able to take the PPD file from the windows postscript driver and install it in CUPS (Common Unix Printing System) as CUPS does not include a PPD file for this printer.
Overall impression is that this printer is a very good value for the money compared to other color printers on the market in it's price range. I was able to find it online for $910 with free shipping. -
"Nice printer for the price but not a robust unit" on by dajimq
Pros: Very good quality color
Cons: Noisy, toner replacement design is poor, less than 1,000 copies out of initial toner cartridges
Summary: Maybe we got a bad replacement toner set, but the yellow toner never seemed to set properly. Called a Ricoh tech and they never showed up. The other replacement cartridges set fine. Someone tried to force the twitchy yellow cartridge to reseat and broke the guide tab. Now it will cost more to replace a 1/4" piece of plastic than to buy a new printer. It was online for less than three months and now it can't work at all.
Sure, a frustrated (and heavy hasnded) user did the damage, but after looking at the design of the toner it's placement, it appears that Ricoh was more interested in slashing production costs more than durability. -
"Solid Workhorse" on by neydavoud
Pros: Nice solid machine, great color beautiful clean prints.
Cons: Toner is very expensive - but easy to refill if you can get the reload toner.
Summary: I've gone through a couple HP color Lasers and an Oki this machine has been solid. and now that the price has come down to earth this is a good printer to consider.
Ricoh Aficio SPC410DN user reviews
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MSRP: $1,199.00
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