Tally T9208 review

If you've got the processing power - and a fair chunk of RAM - the Windows Printing System (WPS) can be a very cost-effective way of producing mono laser prints.

Simply put, WPS takes the need for processing power out of the printer and puts the load onto your PC. This then makes the printer's internals that much cheaper, and therefore reduces the price of the printer itself. That's the theory, at any rate.

Tally has produced just such a piece of hardware with its T9208 LED Printer. Rated at 8 pages per minute (8ppm) and 600dpi, not only is it a WPS printer, but it also sports PCL5e emulation, for those who still use DOS applications running under Windows.

When you lift out the printer from its box, the first thing you see is a large bright yellow leaflet, with bold type on the front telling you not to install the printer as you usually might. Instead, you're instructed to power down your machine and let Windows 95 (or 98) detect it via Plug and Play, which then prompts you for the driver disks. It works - and it works well. You can also opt to install the PCL5e driver via the more normal route of selecting Settings, Printers and then Add Printer, with the third disk of the set. Whichever route you choose, installation is a breeze. Likewise using the printer. Its control panel - a single button, with an array of LEDs to keep you informed - puts the onus squarely on the driver(s), by far the easiest way to keep tabs on any printer, in our book.

With its universal 150-sheet paper tray locked firmly in position at the base of the machine, the box has an aura of solidity - that is until you give the top cover a wobble: it seems rather less than firmly attached when closed. Being somewhat squat in stature, it sits in a smallish space on the desktop, taking up little more space than an A4 sheet. Since paper follows a horizontal U-turn as it's printed, there's no need to make allowances either at the front or back for output, so it'll suit the smaller desk.

The T9208 is designed for a monthly duty cycle of 5,000 pages max and a lifetime page count of 100,000. So at peak usage, you're looking at a couple of years before it needs replacing.

Our two test files tell you everything you need to know about a printer. We have to admit to preferring the PCL5e mode of operating - WPS's incessant chatter while it's doing its job can become cloying after a while (even though it can be switched off), and we found that the PCL5e process cleared the PC much more quickly. Time to first print is around the 30-second mark with our test files, and subsequent copies exit the unit at its rated speed.

Textual output is good - dense blacks, no stepping visible to the naked eye, just as you should expect from a 600dpi engine. Graphical output is, similarly, very good. Our masthead on the newsletter test, for instance, prints perfectly, with no break in the tone from the text portion to the graphic embedded therein (it's very reminiscent of HP LaserJet 6 output). Greyscaling is quite good, although photographic images seem to suffer from a super-abundance of contrast. We suspect that a little tweaking in the driver would sort that out in short order.

It's a rule of thumb that if photo images are good, so will business graphics be, and so it proves with the T9208. Yet again, the output is a little dark - easily remedied via the driver or your application - but the coverage is even and without obvious patterning or tartanning.

Overall, the T9208 offers high quality and speed for its class. Replacement toner/drum units cost £75 (£88) for an estimated life of 5,000 sheets, which is reasonable. With a street price of around £220 we have no hesitation in advising you to put this printer on your shortlist.

Author: - Dave Dorn