Product Reviews

On paper, Kyocera's junior entry isn't that far removed from the FS-3800N; its 200MHz CPU is a different class of PowerPC but physically they could be the same unit. Engine speed and memory quota are the main differences, as the FS-1800N has 24Mb compared to the FS-3800N's 32Mb and is rated at 16ppm versus 24ppm. In addition, the duty cycle is lowered to 65,000 pages a month, 35,000 less than the FS-3800N.

Testing revealed that the FS-1800N was the only device to exceed its claimed engine speed in our 50-page test: 16.2ppm is a solid result. The PDF document caused the Ecosys to drop to half its rated speed, but the DTP result matched Epson's EPL-N2050D+ at 11.5ppm.

In terms of quality, the FS-1800N struggled to match the competition, the main culprit being the poor Excel spreadsheet quality. Even the largest fonts were

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rendered unreadable, as the yellow shading had become a grainy, overprinted mess. However, gradients were well rendered, with stepping and dithering only becoming visible at the white edge. There was no streaking in the quality photo, but brighter areas appeared overexposed, with clusters of dots visible on the fruits at the bottom of the photo. Business graphics were above average thanks to the solid black and lack of dithering.

Only Lexmark can match the 20,000-page toner life sported by both Kyoceras, but the long-life drum helps bring its cost down to 0.3p per page. The FS-1800N consumes just 382W while printing, making it one of the most economical on test, so the company's environmental credentials are justified. There's also a kit to extend the drum/engine life by 300,000 pages if you don't want to replace the printer.

Since you can perform network management tasks such as Web admin, checking consumables, general remote control and an event log for faults with Kyocera's PrintMonitor software, it's surprising the driver is rudimentary - it only allows multiple pages in the PostScript version and doesn't feature watermarking, scaling or graphics auto-detection.

The Kyocera Mita Ecosys FS-1800N is undeniably the ethical choice, but unfortunately some of the good impressions built up by the speed and cheap running costs are damaged by the highly variable output quality and lack of driver options.