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Member Since 1987 |
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The Way We See It
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| Excellent |
| Good |
| Average |
| Poor |
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| Setup |
8.4 |
| Print Quality |
9.0 |
| Speed |
9.2 |
| Paper Handling |
9.0 |
| Supplies |
8.6 |
| Service/Reliabilty |
8.8 |
| TOTAL |
53.0 |
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In Short: The CL2000N and CL3000e are the latest desktop color laser printers from Ricoh designed for small business. They include a very impressive list of features packed into a solid compact frame. At first glance the Ricoh CL2000N and CL3000e look like ordinary laser printers but we discovered a few smart surprises under the hood. Setup was easy due to the good step-by-step documentation and the intuitive driver install utility. The four clear toner cassettes are installed from the top and the remaining supplies install from the right side. There are two imaging units in this engine, one CMY and the other is K, (black). This is smart because, unlike most other color engines, it allows you to print black and white documents without using up any of your color imaging components. Now you can send your black and white print jobs to you color laser and not feel bad since you’re not spending more per page vs. your black and white laser. The standard 500-sheet feeder loads from the lower front and the 100-sheet MP tray opens and extends just above it. The lower feeder can handle paper stocks 16-28lb. bond, and the multi-purpose feeder can handle cover stock up to 60lb., (165g/m2). The paper handling overall is on par with printers double the price and the MP feeder fed envelopes better than any other printer in this class. Though still not as good as black and white lasers, the CL2000N did better printing on envelopes than most color lasers do leaving only a slight wrinkle. The Ricoh CL2000 can print 17ppm in black and white or color while the CL3000e prints up to 22ppm monochrome and 18ppm in color. Both models have very short warm-up times of about 30 seconds and fast first-page-out speeds in color and mono. Both the CL2000N and CL3000e have fast RM7065 processors, true 1200 x 1200 DPI, Adobe PostScript Level3, PCL5c, Ethernet 10/100 Base TX, USB 2.0, and Parallel interfaces. The main difference between the CL2000N and the CL3000e is an additional 64MB of RAM and a slight boost in speed, (mostly in black and white printing), for the CL3000e. The print quality is overall very impressive and would work for most any business graphics applications like brochures, presentations, or marketing material in general. Even at the lowest 600 DPI setting the colors were consistent and the text was very sharp. Print samples produced at the 1200 DPI setting looked even sharper but you do sacrifice some print speed. Up to two additional 530-sheet feeders may be added and both the CL2000N and the CL3000e offer an optional MFP upgrade that adds copy/scan/e-mail scan functions. Auto-duplex for two-sided printing and 10GB internal HD are also options. The Ricoh CL2000N and CL3000e have a one-year on-site warranty.
The Bottom Line: The new Ricoh CL2000N and CL3000e represent a tremendous value on any scale. No other manufacturer offers this many standard features for the money. The CL2000N easily outperforms any other printer under $1000 and even some costing much more. The CL3000e is pretty much the same printer with a slightly faster processor and more RAM. If not for a lower duty cycle rating, we could have justifiably put these models in the business class since they include on-site service, PS3, and operating costs that are in line with other business class models. Both the Ricoh CL2000N and CL3000e work well in any environment, (Windows, Linux, Mac OS…), and support most all of today’s network protocols. If you are looking for the biggest bang-for-the-buck you should look hard at the CL2000N. Great performance, print quality, expandability, and overall value make this an easy pick for editor’s choice.
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