Tally T3016C SprintJet

With a top resolution of only 360 x 360dpi, print quality for the T3016C is never going to be great, but the environments in which it will be working won't be expecting pin-sharp text and glorious full-colour photo-quality images. The standard PC Pro monochrome test page confirmed this, as text was noticeably smudged around the edges, with definition deteriorating as font sizes decreased. However, quality is quite acceptable and I should think recipients of a cheque printed on the T3016C would have no problem reading the numbers.

Overall print speed was disappointing, as the T3016C failed to reach its quoted speeds on any of the tests. I created a 100-page invoice run on 14 7/8 x 11in fanfold paper and watched it run through the printer at an average of 10ppm. Improvements were made by dropping down to a draft resolution of 180 x 180dpi, but speed only increased to around 12ppm.

The T3016C isn't a good choice if you're expecting to print on single sheets regularly, as a 15-page text document took over five minutes to complete. The sheet feeder was the bottleneck, taking anything up to 20 seconds to feed the next page into the printer after the previous one had been completed.

Speed and quality clearly aren't the best points of the T3016C, but it does balance these with running costs and maintenance intervals that any departmental laser will find virtually impossible to beat. Add in the fact that it handles a wide range of paper sizes and you have a printer that offers extremely low running costs and will work very well in a wide range of high-volume printing environments.

Author: Dave Mitchell