Product Reviews

A reliable workhorse printer for your office is one of the most important investments you'll make. While network-capable inkjets and personal laser printers are appropriate in some circumstances, they're not suitable for heavy-duty use. The first reason for this is cost: inkjet printers in particular suffer from relatively high cost per page, but personal laser printers can also be expensive. Second, many have no administrative controls, and few options for expansibility.

The Ricoh Aficio CL7100 laser printer suffers from none of these problems. For starters, its cost per mono page is almost three times less than MacUser's sub-£1000 colour laser Labs winner, the Lexmark C510. What's more, it has a huge list of optional extras: the unit we tested had two extra 500-sheet trays and a duplex unit, but if you wanted to, you could add the ability to punch, staple or saddle-stitch the output, print over 802.11b or Bluetooth wireless networks and much more.

These extras, however, come at a high price. Adding 802.11b wireless networking (a technology even superseded by the faster 802.11g standard) will cost a staggering £930, while adding its slower and less able wireless sibling, Bluetooth, will set you back £620. This is almost incredible considering the Bluetooth circuitry itself is at most a few pounds.

The prices are so high because Ricoh's market for such add-ons is likely to be limited, which means the company can't take advantage of the economies of scale, but we can't help thinking this is something of a vicious circle. If you do require wireless functionality, however, it's possible simply to plug this printer into a wireless ethernet bridge.

Inevitably, printers such as this will require heavy initial investment, but in mitigation they usually offer low running costs. This model is no exception, with mono pages costing only 0.3p per page for the toner alone. The engine in this printer is based on a traditional set of mechanics, however, and the presence of a slew of other necessary consumables such as development units and fusing oil do push up the cost per page. Regardless, this is an economical printer to run.

Installing toner

ADVERTISEMENT

at least is very easy to do: it's held loose inside sealed, transparent plastic cubes, and slotting any of the four colours into place is a fuss-free process. The printer loads gouts of toner powder in from these hoppers every so often, which can add a slight delay during printing.

The setup process will prove daunting if you're more used to setting up personal laser or inkjet printers, and you'll need a working knowledge of how the network to which this printer will be attached is configured before you begin. Once configured, however, the printer is easy to use, and is at least Rendezvous-aware.

You can access all the options of print quality and finishing from the Printer Features menu in Mac OS X's print dialog. We do mean all - even if you don't have the staple option attached, for example, the option to use it is shown. This could prove frustrating if less experienced users on the network try, say, to print duplex pages when no duplex unit is fitted. The Aficio CL7100 can protect print jobs with a PIN, which has to be entered at the printer itself before being printed (and so avoiding compromising the security of sensitive documents), but this feature is missing under OS X.

You manage the printer using a web browser, and there are plenty of options for monitoring print jobs and changing settings.

One of this printer's strengths is its speed. Not only can it physically produce pages at an impressive rate, but it's also very fast to warm up. Quoted at 99 seconds, we found it rarely took more than a few seconds for it to be ready to print, even after idling overnight.

A4 pages appeared at an average rate of 25 pages per minute, and even when printing our complex PDF, the printer acquitted itself admirably. Less able printers have choked on this test, but the PostScript 3-capable Aficio CL7100 made short work of it, turning out a perfect A3 colour page in under three and a half minutes. Upping the resolution from the default 600dpi to 1200dpi increased this time by a little under a minute.

The print quality is superb. Even at 600dpi, colour transitions are smooth, and the finish is suitably lacking in shine. At 1200dpi, results are stunning, and even photos print with admirable polish. Detail is crisp, registration is excellent, and colours are calibrated, thanks to ICC profiles. Designers will appreciate its A3+ paper handling, and its individual processing of separate plates, allowing you to check areas of overprint.

This is an excellent printer, and will please administrators and users alike, be they in an office or design environment. Optional extras are very expensive, and Mac users are in some areas treated as second-class citizens, but its high-quality output and speed will appeal to many buyers.