Kyocera FS-1000

Where the FS-1000 comes into its own though, is in its running costs. The toner cartridge will last for 6,000 A4 pages at five per cent coverage, which leads to an impressive 0.9p per page. As with all the ECOSYS range, only the toner cartridge needs to be replaced, which at £54 is also reasonable.

A toner/drum combination for the Lexmark Optra E312 costs £87.17 and running costs weigh in at 1.5p per page, making the FS-1000 a more economical choice. The main difference in costs between the two is that you don't replace the drum in the Kyocera, as it's guaranteed for up to three years or 100,000 pages, so unless you're planning to use it as an office workhorse you shouldn't be disappointed. In fact, Kyocera is even bundling a three-year, return-to-base warranty with the FS-1000.

Although the FS-1000 is mainly intended for personal use, Kyocera also offers the option to add an internal 10/100BaseTX Ethernet interface for £229. Whether used as a standalone device or networked as a shared resource, the 4Mb of memory will serve most purposes. If larger jobs are to be spooled, upgrading to an 8Mb non-industry standard DIMM from Kyocera will set you back £69, although Kyocera states that less costly standard DIMMs will work.

Overall, the Kyocera FS-1000 is an average printer that, while economical, doesn't offer fantastic value for money except in its running costs. The print quality is good, but not up to the standard set by the Lexmark Optra E312. Print speed is also impressive, but the minimal 4Mb of installed memory slows it down when printing large files. As it stands, the Kyocera FS-1000 will function well in a SoHo setup, but the print quality is below the competition and the basic features are limited. If plain text printing occupies the majority of your workload, the FS-1000 is a fast and excellent choice, but for more general use or graphics-intensive printing, the new Samsung ML6060 is a better buy.

Author: Gareth Ogden