Oki C110 review

With its single paper tray, lack of networking and comparatively slow colour print speed of just over 5ppm, the Oki C110 is never going to be a sensible choice for an office workgroup. But, priced at less than £120, there are plenty of factors that should tempt those who work from home.

For a start, there's the 20ppm black and white print speed, which most office inkjets around this price will struggle to match without reducing text quality. Printing a ten-page document took just 42 seconds, including 12 seconds processing.

And, for business graphics or creative materials, the Oki C110 produced excellent results in our tests. Blocks of colour were solid and gradients were smooth – you might never mistake its photographic output for that of a decent inkjet, but our test photos were usable. Text quality was beyond reproach.

Cost per page for black and white documents is a reasonable 3p per A4 page (based on the high-yield 2,500-page black toner cartridge and the 45,000-page image drum). It's when you start printing large documents with lots of colour that you could come unstuck. Replacing a set of 2,500-page colour cartridges will set you back nearly £200 exc VAT, and because each colour page goes through the image drum four times, you'll have to replace that sooner as well. It works out at around 12p a page, which is expensive compared to most inkjets. The HP Officejet Pro 8500, for instance, produces colour pages at 3.6p each.

The C110 also lacks a few creature comforts. The paper tray is uncovered, which means contaminants could creep in. And at this price, it's unsurprising to find no duplexer. Build quality is otherwise good, though.

A word of criticism is reserved for the amount of noise the C110 makes when it's running, and its size. At 396 x 380 x 275mm (WDH) it's a comparatively svelte device, but the noise makes it less than ideal for popping on a desk.

As a cheap-to-buy, cheap-to-run monochrome printer, the Oki C110 fits the bill nicely. It churns out pages quickly and cheaply, and the lack of more advanced paper-handling features shouldn't concern most home users.

Treat it as a black and white printer that can handle infrequent colour jobs as a bonus and you'll get along fine. For more regular colour printing, though, you should bear in mind the reduced speed and relatively high cost per page.

Author: Dave Stevenson