Review: Ricoh Color Laser Packs Punch For SMBs
Designed with small and midsize businesses in mind, the small-format printer is priced at $1,199 and is geared for use by individuals or small to medium workgroups. A single-pass color laser printer, the Aficio SP C411DN outputs up to 31 pages per minute in color and black-and-white. The printer is rated at 600 x 600 dpi resolution in its default mode, and it offers enhanced modes of 1200 x 600 dpi and 1200 x 1200 dpi.
The Aficio SP C411DN comes standard with a 600 MHz controller and 256 Mbytes of memory, upgradable to 512 Mbytes. A 40-Gbyte hard drive is optional. The printer features a standard 10/100 Ethernet interface, making it ideal for network use, as well as a USB 2.0 port for a local connection to a PC.
Though easy to set up, the Aficio SP C411DN is heavy for its size. So for safety's sake, solution providers should have at least two people on hand to help with the setup. The printer weighs 110 pounds and measures 17.6 inches wide, 23.2 inches deep and 19.2 inches high. Consumables are easy to install with the printer's top-loading design.
The Aficio SP C411DN's standard paper capacity is 550 sheets, and it has a 100-sheet bypass feeder. One or two optional 550-sheet paper trays can be added, for a maximum paper capacity of 1,750 sheets. The face-down output tray holds up to 500 sheets. The printer will accept paper with a maximum width of 8.5 inches and length of up to 14 inches. Solution providers can upgrade the printer to a multifunction unit by adding an optional Ricoh IS200e scanner.
West Caldwell, N.J.-based Ricoh said the printer warms up in less than 30 seconds, and the CRN Test Center found that's indeed the case. Ricoh also specifies a first page out speed of 15 seconds for color prints and 10 seconds for monochrome. Test Center engineers found those numbers to be slightly off, with the first page out in 22 seconds for color and 13 seconds for monochrome. But after the first pages printed, it took only another 17 seconds to complete 10 pages in color or monochrome. So the printer certainly meets its rated output speed of 31 pages per minute. What's more, image quality is impressive, showing very good contrast and detail.
Altogether, the Aficio SP C411DN's price and performance make it highly competitive with comparative models from brands such as Hewlett-Packard, Lexmark and Xerox. The printer comes with a one-year warranty.
On the channel side, Ricoh's program has three partner levels: Gold, Platinum and Diamond. Gold partners get 4 percent back-end rebates, Platinum partners receive 7 percent rebates and Diamond partners get 10 percent rebates. All levels also receive a 5 percent upfront rebate. Other benefits include discounted demo units, sales incentive programs, special government and education pricing, and sales and marketing tools.