Epson EPL-5700

Running costs are reasonable as well, but the 5700 isn't as cheap to run as the FS-800, which will cost you a miserly 1p per page. The toner cartridges cost £67 each and are rated as lasting 6,000 pages at five per cent coverage. After factoring in the cost of the developer cartridge (£47), which should last 20,000 pages, you get a cost per page of 1.35p.

When it comes to the crunch, the EPL-5700 costs more to buy and run than Kyocera's FS-800 despite the reasonable-looking price point. Although the FS-800 we reviewed was considerably more expensive at £520, that price included PostScript level 2 as standard. To get the Epson to the same level of specification would cost £600. On the face of it the EPL-5700 simply doesn't offer enough of a significant advantage to justify the extra cost.

Author: Phil Evans