Epson AcuLaser C2000

Epson's strength in the colour printing marketplace is undoubtedly due to its impressive range of inkjet printers, but it's also had some success with the A3-format EPL-C8200, which received an Honourable Mention award in the last laser Labs (see Labs, issue 70, p137). However, it's taken until now for Epson to make a foray into the fiercely contested A4-format printer territory with the AcuLaser C2000. Four models are available, with the basic C2000 on review coming equipped with a speedy 266MHz RISC processor, 32Mb of memory and a built-in dual-speed network adaptor. A top speed of five colour pages per minute can't hope to compete with fast LED page printers such as the A-Listed Oki C7200n (reviewed issue 76, p151), but it's certainly capable of giving HP's well-respected Color LaserJet 4500DN (see Labs, issue 70, p137) a good run.

The AcuLaser C2000 comes with a single 500-sheet base tray, plus another flip-down 150-sheet multipurpose tray. Total capacity can be further boosted with a second 500-sheet feeder, and an optional duplex unit is also available and easily slotted onto the side of the printer. The controller board has a pair of DIMM sockets and memory can be increased to 512Mb using industry-standard 168-pin SDRAM DIMM modules.

True Adobe PostScript 3 is an option, but Epson believes that its own Color ESC/Page printer-control language is sufficient for most users. It feels that PostScript 3 carries too many overheads for general business use and only recommends it when support for EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) files or a higher level of colour matching is required.

The toner cartridges are installed in an internal carousel system similar to that used by printers with Canon-based engines. The mechanism turns to place each cartridge over the transfer belt to construct the image, but overall noise levels are very low. The C, Y, M and K cartridges are good for 6,000 pages apiece, but are partnered by a high number of other consumables. The fuser kit costs £334 and lasts for 100,000 pages; the drum cartridge at £55 and fuser oil roll at £27 both deliver 7,500 colour pages or 30,000 and 21,000 mono pages respectively, while the £183 transfer belt needs replacing after 130,000 mono or 30,000 colour pages. Overall, this amounts to a reasonable 6.75p per colour page, although 1.5p for a mono page is comparatively expensive.

Print quality for a budget-priced colour laser is generally very good. High levels of detail are evident in photographic images, especially in darker areas, although the vibrancy noted with HP's Color LaserJet 4500DN is missing, leaving a slightly washed-out look to many images. There's no discernible banding, but stepping across colour fades is more noticeable and grey shades using equal colour mixes show a slight tinge of cyan. Epson's driver also had some problems with the CorelDRAW Train image, as it was unable to reproduce some areas correctly.

Print speeds were close to those quoted, with the C2000 delivering a 24-page text document in 75 seconds, for a tidy 19.2ppm, and a five-page colour report with plenty of charts in precisely one minute. The amount of colour used will affect speed, but the C2000 fared better than many printers with a heavily formatted 23-page DTP document, which was completed in 185 seconds at an average of 7ppm. Epson quotes 13ppm for duplexing mono prints and this was confirmed with the 24-page test document churned out in 110 seconds for a perfect score.

Epson has worked hard on improving its management utilities. WebAssist gets the printer up and running with the minimum of fuss as it searches the network and displays all discovered Epson print servers. Once an IP address has been assigned, you can then move over to Epson's WebManager for efficient browser-based management and monitoring. This offers a tidy interface, allowing you to view and modify all the printer's settings, switch it off-line and on-line and keep an eye on all consumables. NetWare tools are minimal as you can only enter details about the NDS tree and context and there are no options for creating print queue, user or group objects, or assigning printing privileges. Direct Print is another new feature as it allows users to print to the C2000 directly over TCP/IP.