Kyocera FS-1000 review

In the world of printers, low running costs are becoming a bigger priority. The push to go green has meant that units and consumables don't only deliver better quality, but also better value, with the responsibility firmly on the manufacturers to deliver this without causing undue harm to the environment. Kyocera has long been a champion of this approach with its ECOSYS printers offering performance and value across the range.

The FS-1000 is Kyocera's new budget mono laser printer, aimed squarely at the SoHo user. For a budget printer the specification is quite impressive, with a claimed 10ppm print speed at 600dpi, and enhancement up to 1,200dpi using Kyocera Image Refinement 2. There are also four print emulations including PCL6, although PostScript Level 2 support is an optional extra for £99.

Powering the FS-1000 is an impressive PowerPC 401 75MHz processor, which is a marginal improvement on the similarly specified Lexmark Optra E312 (reviewed issue 71, p168) with its 67MHz Toshiba processor. A standard 4Mb of RAM is built into the FS-1000, which is expandable to an impressive 132Mb using a single DIMM. However, the lack of USB support - although not a major problem - is quite disappointing.

This is the first printer from Kyocera to support its Remote Operation Panel (ROP). This useful software utility communicates with the printer and allows you to check and configure it from the desktop. Another feature of the ROP is a 3D display of the printer, which is supposedly a diagnostic tool that highlights errors, and graphically displays any open panels.

Unfortunately, this had a few problems, often failing to detect proper settings, and instead continuing with the wrong status displayed on its screen. Interestingly, this utility also failed to notice that I'd removed the toner cartridge, attempting to print oblivious to any problems.

Performance testing kicked off with a 50-page standard text document, which was completed in four minutes, 44 seconds, giving an impressive 10.6ppm. This is better than Kyocera's performance claims of 10ppm and puts it about 1.5ppm faster than the speeds recorded with the Lexmark Optra E312. The text quality was impressively clear and sharp, although comparatively the Samsung ML6060 (reviewed p177) produced crisper results at a more impressive 11.85ppm.

The spreadsheet test turned out an equally impressive performance, returning 11 pages in one minute and three seconds for a respectable 10.5ppm. Sadly, this excellent result was tarnished by the disappointing print quality, especially with Excel documents containing eight- or ten-point black text on dark or coloured backgrounds. The engine couldn't detect the subtle differences between dark colours, blurring the text and producing a garish meshed background instead of a smooth greyscale. Comparably, the Samsung offers superior quality in this area, while still retaining a respectable 11.8ppm. Photo printing also produced average results, with noticeably grainy greyscales and obvious stepping. The FS-1000 fared better on image detail, but the overall greyscale printing quality was inferior to the Lexmark.

Then came the rigorous 24-page DTP test, but unfortunately the Kyocera's 4Mb of installed memory simply wasn't up to the job, dropping dramatically in performance to a poor 3.5ppm. That said, the print quality was good with text, although the greyscale stepping again tarnished the graphics image quality. This is an area where the Lexmark Optra E312 performs better, with superior overall image quality and a quicker printing speed of 8.2ppm.