Ricoh Aficio AP505

Print speed was a mixed bag with a 23-page A4 document heavily formatted and containing large graphics and photographs delivered at 3ppm, while a five-page report with a few colour graphs averaged 4.5ppm. Mono speeds were also below the quoted figure with a 15-page Word document completed at 14ppm.

Ricoh's main competition is from QMS' Magicolour 330 range, which also supports full-bleed A3 printing. The 330 EX comes with a hugely superior hardware specification and costs nearly £1,000 less, but only offers PostScript 2 emulation. Previous experience with QMS indicates that you'll get substantially better print quality and speed from the AP505, while QMS' CrownAdmin offers only marginally better network management tools.

Author: Dave Mitchell