Oki MC860dn review

Oki's latest A3 colour laser does more than the competition in a lot less space for much less cash. Despite its extensive capabilities, the MC860 is remarkably compact, and quoted A4 print speeds are a nifty 26ppm for colour and 34ppm for mono.

According to our tests, the MC860 delivers on all counts, printing a 34-page Word document in 61 seconds and our 24-page heavy-duty colour DTP document in 52 seconds. The latter took the same time on the General 600dpi and Fine 1,200 x 600dpi driver settings, and only seven seconds more on the top ProQ2400 option.

Copy operations are slower, with a 12-page colour document taking 66 seconds, for an average of 11ppm. Expect 16ppm for mono copies, with the same document reproduced in 45 seconds. The MC860 delivers a wealth of features as you can run scans of documents directly to email, local and network PCs, or to a USB storage device inserted in the front port.

For network scans you can create profiles using the touchscreen panel, where you describe the destination system, the target folder and whether the image should be in PDF, JPEG, XPS or TIFF format. We had no problem sending scanned documents directly to a folder on our test server over CIFS and FTP.

Oki's Configuration Tool can remotely add entries and import text files to lists on the printer for fax speed dials, group phone books, email addresses and copy destination profiles. We were able to configure the printer's email settings and copy documents directly as email attachments, and access to printer functions can be strictly controlled with user names and PIN numbers.

The 40GB hard disk is for storing overlays, fonts and macros, and can automatically collate multiple documents. Confidential prints can be spooled to the hard disk and held back until an operator enters their PIN number at the printer. Oki also provides a simple utility for remotely accessing the drive and managing its contents.

Oki's software includes the Actkey utility, which pulls documents directly from the printer to a local folder over a USB connection. A system tray tool alerts you when a print is completed or a fax has been received or sent, and the package is rounded off with ScanSoft OmniPage SE 4 and PaperPort SE OCR and other document utilities.

Colour output is very good, with photographs and reports bearing the characteristic vibrancy and high levels of detail we've come to expect from Oki's printers. Colour scans of reports are a little grainy, and quality drops when scanning photos on mono. There are consumables galore but running costs are low, with a colour page costing 5.6p and a mono page just under a penny.

The MC860 is an office all rounder that delivers on features, quality and speed. It's compact and offers plenty of expansion options.

Author: Dave Mitchell