- OKIDATA 62435103 C330DN Digital Color Printer
- Robust features in a compact unit
- Fast printing
- Produce sharp, colorful documents
- Built-in duplex printing
I bought this printer after a search for an ideal color laser printer for home. My wife needs to print in color for her cirriculum and I need to print on both sides of the page to save weight when sending out mailings. This printer does both and does them both well.
In case this is your first time to the rodeo, LED printers are like laser printers but instead of using a laser beam and a mirror there is a fixed array of LEDs which perform the same function. The claim is that this will reduce maintenance but I have never heard of anyone claiming "well, my laser printer was great, but then the laser died." or "well, if only the mirror assembly hadn''t broken in my laser printer..." no, usually it''s something to do with the drum, the fuser, constant jams, toner costs, etc. So I''m not sure LED printers are better than laser printers, but I took the plunge anyway.
So, about this printer. So it uses a grid of LEDs. In practice, the resolution is a little worse than a laser printer, but 600x1200 dpi is plenty respectable for print work. I haven''t even considered the resolution at any point in operating it.
The paper passes through a singular path, meaning that it doesn''t really change print speed based on whether it''s b/w or color, which is nice. I was surprised to print a full-page color photo in the same time it takes to print a text file. Generally speaking, that''s not common (try that on an inkjet!)
The printer comes with 1000-page toner cartridges, which are "starter" sized. Price per page is not significantly cheaper than an inkjet, after you factor in the costs of toner, but I''ve always found inkjet printers to be frustrating to deal with, for print speed, frequency of ink changes, dried cartridge nozzles, noisy feed/print mechanisms, and so on. So, this is a lot better than an inkjet in my book, but not for economy printing.
The duplexing is the standard "cheaper" method that requires the page to partially come out of the printer, then it sucks it back in for a second go-round. Nicer workgroup printers keep the document entirely internalized until it has printed on both sides. Still, it works fine and there''s plenty of room for it to do its thing and keep all the pages in order. It''s a great feature to have when you need it.
The color quality isn''t as good as an inkjet. If you want to print photos, you really would be better off simply ordering them online (just upload your jpegs, and so on) and getting them printed on $20,000+ professional printers for pennies. I think a 4x6 photo print is less than 10 cents, so buying an inkjet is just a waste of time in my book. Anyway, this printer is acceptable for all display/presentation work. It''s just not color accurate. They package software to attempt to correct the color, but this is unlikely to get it to "professional photo printer" levels anyway.
Black and white is great, as it should be. No complaints there.
No paper jams to report, and the whole printer seems easy to clear if there was a problem.
There is no wireless networking, only a 100mbit (no gigabit, but why would you need it?) ethernet port and a USB port.
Networking is simple and you can point a browser to the IP address to get status and even submit jobs manually if you don''t have a print driver installed (it lets you upload a pdf and print it out). Having a networked printer is great so you don''t need to have a computer on (though mine is on all the time anyway) if you want others to have access to printing.
Power consumption is like other laser printers. It''s significant when warming up, not too bad when printing, and very low when idle. Warm up time is only a few seconds, which is great.
The printer is a bit heavy/bulky, but it''s about the size of a larger all-in-one fax/copy/print machine (though it doesn''t fax/copy). It weighs about 55lbs.
Overall, I''d give it 5 stars. It fit my needs perfectly.
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Unboxing this machine is a bit of a trial, not only because it masses around 50 lbs. The printed instructions are limited to internationalized sketches that barely match reality. Generally, pull any blue tape or orange chunks of plastic. Installing the toner cartridges is the next trial. The printer comes with the toners installed in the correct location and all you have to do is slide a lock/shutter. Sliding the locks takes a surprising amount of force, and with so much plastic, it is quite scary when it finally seems to break free and slam closed. I fully expected to break my printer before I''d even plugged it in.
On powering up, it automatically grabs a DHCP address off the network, and with little more than that, you''re printing! The front panel menu navigation is pretty straight forward, and you really only need to visit it once (more on that later). It speaks standard PCL and PostScript, so you may not even have to change the drivers in your computers to get it to work. I was able to use it as a drop-in replacement for a (hated) HP2550 Color LaserJet.
Although I haven''t tried the drivers, yet (I''m using basic PostScript) I am happy with the selection at least. Unlike many other devices, older and esoteric versions of Windows seem to be fully supported.
The printing is stunningly fast when compared with carousel printers like the HP2550. Even though this model comes with a relatively small amount of memory, it has no problems cranking out full-page graphics.
When the printer is awake, it can be pretty noisy. It doesn''t have the clunks and squeaks of the HP2550, just mostly fan noise. Fortunately, it can be configured to go to sleep pretty quickly, and once it is sleeping, it is completely silent. Unlike the 2550, it doesn''t wake up every 8 hours, either. It wakes up automatically when a print job comes in, and does so pretty quickly. That may not be true if you use the USB interface, though.
Laser printers should not be hooked up the UPS devices, and this machine is no different. The current draw on startup is enough to trigger nearby UPSs into brownout mode briefly.
The print quality is good. It manages to print intense colors with a somewhat glossy finish that compares remarkably well with photo printers. That seems to come at a cost of clarity, though, as some fine detail gets a little muddy.
Lastly, the network interface in this device is worth the entire cost of the printer. First of all, once you know the IP address of it, you never need to use the front panel again. Every single feature is easily controllable from the web interface. Beyond that, it has features that you would normally see in devices that cost thousands of dollars, including the ability to print-by-email, Internet Printing Protocol, the ability to print directly from an uploaded PDF file, SMNP managment, and so on.
So far, I''m very happy with this printer! One major problem, though: It ships with minuscule starter toner cartridges -maybe less than 500 pages worth -and toners are harder to find, since the Oki brand is somewhat uncommon. At least the toners don''t appear to be ''chipped'', and there''s a menu option (turned on by default, even) that will instruct the printer to continue even if it believes the cartridges are empty. I expect it will give me plenty of time to get replacements. This printer uses real toner-only cartridges, and not toner+drum units like other printers. Despite that, the cartridges are some of the most expensive I''ve ever seen. Figure in another $460 of toner costs once the starters go empty.
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I use this printer in my home office, and routinely print out lengthly colour docs.
Pros:
>Excellent output, crisp text, nice colors. As good as any color laser, I''ve used including hi-end ones found in corporate offices.
>Well designed, easy to set up, toners are extremely easy to replace.
>Respectable page per minute output, duplex printing works flawlessly. Printed reams of paper without a single jam yet.
>Works well on Mac or PC platform.
Cons:
>Noisy when printing. Much louder than the HP laser jet I replaced it with
>Replacement toner is extremely expensive, and hard to find at discount retailers or locate remanufactured toners. If I had known, I probably would have gotten a different printer.
>The toners that come with the printers didn''t last that long. Perhaps that is to be expected, and perhaps the replacement toners will last longer.
> Papers curl when printing, so when printing long documents some times pages will end up scattered on the floor.
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The Okidata C330dn color laser printer I recently received from Amazon is even faster than the C3200n I used for six years. Text is absolutely crisp and clear, music notation looks professional, and photos and other graphics are excellent.
PRO''s:
* Very FAST (starts pouring out the pages in seconds and they just keep coming);
* Images are very SHARP (especially compared to inkjet printer text);
* This laser printer uses only a SINGLE DRUM, instead of the typical four (thus cutting repair costs significantly);
* The unit has a significantly LOWER PROFILE than earlier Oki models (than most other laser printers), especially with regard to its height, about 9");
* The TONER CARTRIDGES have a greater yield now (about 3,000 pages for color, 3,500 for black).
CON''s:
* The unit is quite LOUD at start up, but once on-line (in about a minute) it is not very noticeable. After a few minutes of inactivity, it is nearly silent. But, when you send the unit a new printing job, it restarts almost immediately.
* The LCD display is smaller than the C3200n''s, and it''s located on the right top (front) rather than on the front itself, so location in your working space might be a small issue.
NOTE: Some say the toner cartridges are very expensive, but they are actually cheaper than HP cartridges if you take a close look at the YIELD ratings on both.
Overall, this laser printer does the job for me. It''s fast, it''s a workhorse, and the print quality is first rate. I recommend it highly.
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This is absolutely one of the best printers in its price class. Its print quality in both black and color is head and shoulders above comparable HP printers I should know, the office I spend several days a week in has 2. For plain text, graphics, and CAD, the prints are some of the best I''ve seen.
It is more than fast enough for home office or small business printing, the duplex feature works like a charm, and it is very Mac friendly. Setup via USB or network was easy and fast as usual, don''t use the included CD. I don''t know why manufacturers pack those things with printers anymore. The multipurpose tray is easy to open and stow, and is spring loaded to keep the right tension against the pickup wheels. The whole device is built very well.
One thing to note the thing is huge! Make sure you look at the dimensions and weight, and have a plan for where it is going. Other than that, I would recommend it to anyone who does not need to print photos often.
