Kyocera Mita FS-C5150DN review

Driver installation is incredibly fast and hassle-free thanks to an auto-detection system that scans your network for the printer and quickly installs the relevant drivers. The FS-C5150DN supports PCL 5c and PCL 6 as well as the PostScript 3-compatible KPDL 3 page description languages.

You can easily change the printer’s settings using its LCD screen and control panel.

The printer’s built-in menu system can be navigated using a handful of buttons and a mono LCD screen. You can easily access its network settings, paper configuration and print files directly from a USB stick, which is an unusual feature for a single-function printer. Its onboard menu options are also available via the printer’s HTML-based command centre, which makes it easy to remotely manage and monitor the device.

Ethernet and USB make this a flexible printer for personal or workgroup use.

The FS-C5150DN is a particularly fast mono printer, possessing a mono speed of 18.8ppm. Its 7.4ppm colour speed’s slower than most colour lasers, but we duplex printed 10 colour pages in a rather quick time of one minute and 28 seconds. Colour prints aren’t as bright and glossy as those of many rivals, but they’re accurately coloured and solidly shaded. Mono text is sharp, but it lacks the glossiness that we’re used to getting from most laser printers. While the lack of glossiness is notable, it doesn’t make the prints look cheap or faded. We’ve already touched on how cost-effective the FS-C5150DN is to run, but costs of just 1.3p per mono page and 9.2p per page of mixed black and colour prints are worth noting.

If you don’t print much, the Epson Aculaser C1750N because it has the same running costs for light use. If you’re after fast print speeds and glossy colour above all else, then the 3730DN is still a better option, but if you want a fairly high-yield workgroup printer that doesn’t cost much to run, then the FS-C5150DN is ideal.