Kyocera FS-1350DN in Printers

Kyocera's submission this month is notable for being the most expensive of the printers on test. It makes up for its high initial price, however, with extremely low running costs.

You'll feel the benefit of this after just 10,000 pages, at which point this printer has gone from being the dearest printer to the second cheapest to own. Only the Dell 2330dn matches this performance, but it can't match the Kyocera's all-round appeal.

Elsewhere, there's very little that this printer lacks. It has an integrated duplexer and network connectivity - essentials in a high-volume laser printer such as this. There's also plenty of capacity: the printer's maximum monthly duty cycle of 20,000 pages demonstrates its workgroup ambitions, and a total input volume of 370 sheets split across two trays is more than impressive for this money. There's also a USB socket on the front for printing PDF files directly from flash drives - a feature that no other printer on test this month can boast.

Speed is right up there with the best this month as well: it isn't as quick as the Konica Minolta and marginally lags behind the Lexmark E260dn and Dell, but its raw throughput of 29ppm (it doesn't quite match its claimed 30ppm) is still great for the price. Even the complex graphics and photographs in our DTP documents and Excel spreadsheet failed to trip it up, dropping at its slowest to a still-swift rate of 26ppm.

It does have a weakness, though, and this is exposed as soon as you start to examine its printouts. Our high-resolution photo montage, gradient and text tests were all dark with coarse dithering and evidence of distracting banding throughout. Under the microscope it also became clear that text is only middling with fuzzy edges and, at very small point sizes, some malformed characters.

However, at normal sizes text is perfectly readable, and that's what matters to most people. We were also impressed by the vibrancy of its blacks. But what really secures the Kyocera the overall award this month are its super-low running costs combined with a range of features, and turn of speed, that will impress all who use it.

Author: Jonathan Bray