OkiPage 20en/dx

For some time now Oki has been content to provide mono laser printing solutions for small to medium-sized workgroups, and so far it's done a pretty good job of it. In fact, the company scooped PC Pro's Quality and Value awards for its OkiPage16n a year ago (reviewed issue 37, p141). The new OkiPage 20 range of printers takes over from the 16n as the company's flagship range.

As with other Oki mono printers, the 20en/dx uses an LED array instead of a laser to create a page image on the drum. It's also unusual in that it comes with duplex printing as standard - a feature most companies only offer as an optional extra. It's worth noting, though, that you can get the cheaper OkiPage 20 (£939) without duplex.

The 20en/dx is a cube of modest dimension measuring just 366 x 331 x 462mm (w x h x d). The operator control panel is much the same as you'll see on most Oki printers, although it's not the easiest to find your way around. The paper capacity kicks off at 630 sheets of A4 divided between a base tray and a 100-sheet capacity multipurpose tray at the front. A couple of optional lower trays (£280 each) can be added to boost the total capacity to 1,690 sheets.

As you may have guessed from the name, the 20en/dx is a 20ppm (pages per minute) rated printer. It offers true 600 x 600dpi printing, which can be extended to an interpolated 600 x 1200dpi. At the heart of the 20en/dx sits a controller board that boasts a 40MHz RISC processor and 4Mb of memory. In addition to this you get two SIMM sockets: one occupied by an extra 4Mb of memory and another provided for the optional PostScript 2 module (£350). During testing I found 8Mb to be adequate and experienced no memory overruns. However, if you plan to upgrade, think carefully before buying from Oki, which charges a staggering £600 for 32Mb; utterly inexcusable when the printer accepts standard SIMMs.

With this level of specification, I found the quoted print speeds achievable but dependent on the type and content of the print job. At 600dpi, a standard 24-page plain text Word document was completed in 75 seconds for a respectable 19.2ppm print speed. The PC Pro mono printer test proved to be more than a match for the 20en/dx, however. Its collection of multiple fonts, graphics and charts had the printer struggling along at only 9.5ppm. Duplex printing, which usually slows things down markedly, was more impressive. Here, the 20en/dx produced a sterling effort, with the 24-page document coming through in just 90 seconds for a speedy 16ppm.

For text print quality the 20en/dx is pin sharp down to the smallest fonts. Graphics quality, on the other hand, suffers from the same annoying crosshatched effect that I found on the OkiPage 10i/n (reviewed issue 47, p152). It does improve slightly at the highest, interpolated resolution but not significantly.

In terms of network connectivity, the 20en/dx sports the same basic adaptor that comes as standard with its predecessor, the OkiPage 16n. This provides Ethernet 10BaseT and 10Base2 ports and, unlike the card fitted in the 10i/n, supports NDS (Novell Directory Services). At the time of writing, Oki was still in the process of developing a specific card for the new range, which it promises will offer even more features.

The card settings are accessed using the bundled OkiView software, which, while not as feature-laden as Lexmark's excellent MarkVision software, does provide enough tools for simple remote management. You can create and assign NetWare print-queue objects, but the card doesn't allow you to designate queue operators and users. The 16n card also supports TCP/IP, and the printer's internal HTTP server means the same settings can be accessed and modified using a standard Web browser.