The Way We See It
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| Excellent |
| Good |
| Average |
| Poor |
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| Setup |
8.4 |
| Print Quality |
9.0 |
| Speed |
9.3 |
| Paper Handling |
9.0 |
| Supplies |
8.6 |
| Service/Reliabilty |
9.2 |
| TOTAL |
53.5 |
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In Short: The new Ricoh CL3500N is a desktop color laser printer that replaces the very successful CL2000N and CL3000e models. The new CL3500N has an impressive list of features packed into a solid compact frame. At first glance the Ricoh CL3500N looks ordinary but we discovered a few smart surprises under the hood. Setup was easy due to the good step-by-step documentation and the intuitive driver-install utility. The four toner cassettes are installed from the top and the remaining supplies install from the right side. There are two imaging units in this engine, one CMY and the other is K, (black). This is smart because, unlike most other color engines, it allows you to print black and white documents without using up any of your color imaging components. Now you can send your black and white print jobs to your color laser and get the same cost per page as your black and white laser. The standard 500-sheet feeder loads from the lower front and the 100-sheet by-pass feeder opens and extends just above it. The lower feeder can handle paper stocks 16-28lb. bond, and the multi-purpose by-pass feeder can handle cover stock up to 74lb., (199g/m2). The paper handling overall is on par with printers double the price and the by-pass feeder fed envelopes better than any other printer in this class. Though still not as good as black and white lasers, the CL3500N did better printing on envelopes than most color lasers do leaving only a slight wrinkle. The Ricoh CL3500N can print up to 22ppm monochrome or full color. The CL3500N had one of the fastest warm-up times we tested at 24 seconds and fast first-page-out speeds in color and mono. The CL3500N includes a fast 533MHz RM7065 processor, 128 MB RAM, true 1200 x 1200 DPI, Adobe PostScript Level3, direct PDF printing, PCL6, PCL5c, Ethernet 10/100 Base TX, and USB 2.0 interfaces. We would reccomend upgrading to at least 256 MB especially for larger files and auto-duplex. The print quality is overall very impressive and would work for most any business graphics applications like brochures, presentations, or marketing material in general. Even at the lowest 600 DPI setting the colors were consistent and the text was very sharp. Print samples produced at the 1200 DPI setting looked even sharper but you do sacrifice some print speed. Up to two additional 530-sheet feeders may be added to the CL3500N and an optional MFP upgrade that adds copy/scan/e-mail scan functions is also available. Auto-duplex for two-sided printing is optional and we recommend that it be coupled with a RAM upgrade to at least 256MB. An internal HD is also optional. The Ricoh CL3500N has a one-year on-site warranty.
The Bottom Line: The new Ricoh CL3500N represent a tremendous value on any scale. No other manufacturer offers this many standard features for the money. The CL3500N easily outperforms any other printer under $1000 and even some costing much more. If not for a lower duty cycle rating, we could have justifiably put this printer in the business class since it includes on-site service, PS3, and operating costs that are in line with other business class models. The Ricoh CL3500N works well in any environment, (Windows, Linux, Mac OS…), and supports most all of today’s network protocols. If you are looking for the biggest bang-for-the-buck you should look hard at the CL3500N. Great performance, print quality, expandability, and overall value make this an easy pick for editor’s choice.
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