EPSON AcuLaser C3000 review

Epson's single-pass AcuLaser C3000 arrived just too late for last month's colour laser Labs group (Shopper, February 2005).

It lacks a network interface and PostScript support, but would have been the only printer in the group with duplex printing as standard.

The C3000 is large and heavy, but it's reasonably attractive and feels well-made. It's shipped with all consumables in place, apart from its weighty photoconductor unit. Standard paper handling is good, with a 250-sheet output tray, 500-sheet input cassette and 100-sheet multi-purpose tray. It's possible to add two optional 500-sheet trays for a rainforest-threatening 1,600-sheet input capacity.

Epson claims a top speed of 24 pages per minute (ppm) in colour or mono. During our mono print tests, each of which is 50 pages long, the printer paused to re-calibrate for about 45 seconds. This hiatus slowed output in both tests to less than 17ppm. Our shorter mixed-colour document didn't seem to require this step and the AcuLaser printed it at 20ppm, which is impressively fast.

In last month's Labs test, Epson's AcuLaser 1900PS had the best print quality of the group, so we weren't expecting problems with output from the C3000. However, black text had a diffused outline rather than the crisp, black lines we expect from a laser. Although there was no sign of the colour ghosts that can characterise mono text printed in full-colour, we tried forcing the C3000 to print in black only. This didn't cure the problem.

The edges of colour blocks exhibited the same vagueness and, even after we had run the manual registration process, they didn't always appear perfectly in line with each other. There was quite noticeable grain in colour photographs and graphics, similar to that which we saw from the OKI printers last month. The C3000 also printed distinct bands of shades in our smooth greyscale tests.

The C3000 has faster quoted speeds than our Labs' Best Buy, Konica Minolta's Magicolour 5430DL, but its fast engine is compromised by the need to calibrate mid-job. The Epson has the advantage of duplex, but with a network interface it costs slightly more.

The AcuLaser's mono costs are reasonable, at 1.36p per page. Its colour costs are slightly less competitive, but at 7.25p per page still acceptable. Ultimately it is undermined by its print quality, which just isn't good enough for a £600 laser.