OKI B4250 review

Verdict:

Review Date: 23 Jul 2004

Price when reviewed: inc VAT

Our Rating 5 stars out of 5

ExpertReviews Award

Review
Specs

The B4250 is one of the most expensive printers in this test, but its low running costs mean that, if you print about 15 pages of text (or considerably fewer graphics pages) a day, after three years it works out as one of the cheapest.

Installation was not much fun. After grappling with a series of confusing instructions, we were met with a cloud of toner dust - and that was before we'd unpacked the toner cartridge. After that it was quite straightforward, and the options for installation over a network were particularly good. However, our first attempt to print started with a gruesome noise we can liken only to that of a constipated robot.

After such a sensory onslaught (it's not much of a looker either), we were relieved to find that the B4250 is a lot more pleasant in use. Pages flew out at 21.2ppm for text and 18.5ppm for graphics - both figures the best results in this test. The output tray ensures paper stays flat and neatly piled and, although there's no manual paper feed, an additional 500-sheet cassette can be added for £128 including VAT. Image quality was above average, with accurate greyscales across most of our tests and superb detail in high-resolution photos, but banding was fairly conspicuous in many of the graphics tests.

The printer's software controls are odd, with a choice of Vector and Raster to dictate what kind of data the PC sends to the printer. The default is Raster, which is sensible, as Vector crippled the graphics print speed to less than 2.5ppm - we literally fell asleep waiting for it to print 24 pages. This doesn't bode well for those wishing to use this printer in vector mode over a network, but in a Windows-only environment, the B4250's speed, paper handling and low running costs are a winning combination.

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