Kyocera FS-C5015N review

How you set up Kyocera's FS-C5015N is not immediately obvious.

There's a waste toner drum to install, unusually positioned toner cartridges and a cleverly designed but odd-looking paper tray with a sprung support that holds the pages in place. Fortunately, full manuals are included on the installation CD, although some of the information provided is inadequate. The guide also leads you through a complicated colour registration process, similar to print head alignment on an inkjet, which requires you to select the most accurately drawn lines from several printed options.

You have to select your model of printer from a list on the installation CD. After that, both USB and network installation went smoothly, although we had to set up a TCP/IP port and enter the device's IP address manually while setting up the network driver. The installer also offers various additional plug-ins, including a colour page count and a facility to print multiple pages on a single sheet.

Mono text print quality was good, but greyscale images picked up faint coloured bands when printed as part of a mixed-colour document with the printer running in colour mode. Colour prints were sharp, bright and accurate, but some mid-tones were too light.

The Kyocera's print speeds were average for the group. The toner cartridges that come with the printer are only half full, but that still gives you 3,000 mono and 2,000 colour pages before you need to buy replacements. The photoconductor is a non-replaceable part, but lasts for a massive 100,000 impressions, which should easily match the working life of the print engine. Long-term running costs are low, costing £1,562 over three years of heavy use. The printer is covered by a two-year warranty.

The FS-C5015N isn't fast, but its print quality is generally good and its long-term heavy-use running costs are the second-lowest in the group behind those of HP's Color LaserJet 3600. It's expensive to buy, but a two-year warranty and the longevity of its drum make it a good choice if you need a workhorse.