Konica Minolta PagePro 1350W review

Gallery

Verdict:

Not even with a bag over its head. Nice idea, but decidedly ropey in execution.

Review Date: 13 Mar 2008

Price when reviewed: inc VAT

Reviewed By: Darien Graham-Smith

Our Rating 1 stars out of 5

Review
Specs

Konica Minolta have made some excellent printers in the past, and this model is designed to be affordable.

And indeed value seems to be a strong point, with a lowish purchase price and a nicely economical price per page of 1.67p using Konica's standard toner cartridges.

Unfortunately, that's about the best that can be said for it. At 17 pages per minute in our tests, the PagePro 1350W proved this month's slowest printer. Not only did it take a long time, but print quality was also decidedly sub par: text output suffered from imprecise character shapes, and images came out with very coarse halftoning and rough gradients.

We're not exactly fans of the machine's physical design, either. It's bulky, yet it has a cheap, plasticky feel which the drab beige and grey colour scheme does nothing to dispel. The user interface comprises two dim lights and one button, and when you press the button the whole case flexes.

We were also put off by the output tray, which caused our printed pages to curl up as they came out - not a good look for business correspondence or homework. And at 54dB the Konica Minolta was one of this month's noisiest printers, sharing that dubious honour with the Epson.

Worst of all, while every other printer on test took our paper without complaint, the 1350W alone suffered constant jams while printing, forcing us to intervene repeatedly during our tests. Perhaps our sample was unusually temperamental, but based on our experience in the lab we certainly can't call the PagePro 1350W a reliable laser printer.

It all adds up to a big shame, because Konica Minolta can do a lot better than this. But the PagePro 1350W is one to avoid.

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