Product Reviews

Oki's latest A3 LED printers are aimed squarely at SMBs with an appetite for big colour prints, and those that want to bring all their printing requirements in-house. The new C9650 is offered in four models, and on review we have the base version that comes with a single paper tray and networking as standard.

Businesses looking for a single printing solution will like the Oki's expansion potential. A duplex unit can be fitted when required and two paper trays added underneath, as can a high-capacity feeder that in effect quadruples capacity. There's a two- or four-hole punch unit and booklets can be completed with four or five-tray finishers that can fold, saddle stitch and staple documents. Oki, like Canon focuses on printing security with the hard disk option (40GB, £240) delivering features such as secure printing, secure erase and data encryption.

As with all Oki LED colour printers, each of the C9650n's toner cartridges has its own image drum arranged in-line down the paper path. In the printer lid are LED arrays for each colour, and data is sent to all four heads simultaneously so images can be laid down in a single pass. Using the paper slot and multipurpose tray on opposite sides creates a virtually

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flat paper path, allowing the printer to handle 300gsm stationery and banners up to 1.2m long. The decent hardware spec made sure print speeds are on the money, too, with a simple 50-page A4 Word document delivered at a rate of 41ppm and a 24-page colour DTP document despatched in 38 seconds for a tidy 37ppm. A3 prints are also handled efficiently with a 30-page colour report dropping into the output bin at 20ppm. Our only issue with performance was the time to first page, since this varied from 10 to 20 seconds.

For consumables, you have four toner cartridges and drum kits plus fuser and transfer belt. They're all very easy to access and deliver good print costs with an A4 mono page costing barely a penny and a colour page 5.3p. The printer driver offers plenty of finishing options for output such as banners and posters, which will increase as you add more paper handling features. Although not as smart as HP's LaserJet colour-management tools, Oki includes its Color Control suite allowing you to monitor printing and restrict the use of colour to specific users.

Print quality will need to be high to satisfy Oki's target market and the C9650n puts up a good show. One thing we like about the output from these LED printers is their rich, vibrant colours that will make your projects stand out. In a direct comparison with Canon's LBP5960 we preferred Oki's efforts, as its vivid colour photos had real depth. A small amount of banding was evident in large areas of single colour in our A3 posters, but it's no worse than other lasers we've tested recently.

The C9650n is a big printer that can handle a high colour printing demand. Canon's LBP5960 is a better bet for more modest requirements, but speed and expansion potential are two key reasons for choosing this printer above lower cost A3 lasers.