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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 |
9.0 |
| Print Quality |
9.5 |
| Speed |
8.9 |
| Paper Handling |
9.4 |
| Supplies |
9.3 |
| Service/Reliabilty |
9.1 |
| TOTAL |
55.2 |
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In Short: The new Aficio CL7000 is the latest large-format color laser printer from Ricoh. Like all color lasers that are capable of printing 11” x 17”, the Ricoh CL7000 is big and heavy. Once unpacked, the printer was relatively simple to setup. The Ricoh CL7000 ships with all of it’s developers and drum units pre-installed. The four toners are very easy to install from the top right of the printer. The driver installation also went smoothly and quickly. The Ricoh CL7000 is a true 1200x1200 DPI color laser combining a powerful controller with an advanced print engine design. The end result is one the best values in the printer world. For starters the text and color images we printed on the CL7000 were extremely sharp even on the smallest of details. Solid colors looked consistent and gradients printed smoothly. The Ricoh CL7000D easily outclasses printers costing thousands more on standard features as well. All the CL7000 models print up to 38 PPM in black & white and 28 PPM in color and all configurations include at least two (2) 500-sheet feeders plus a 100-sheet By-Pass feeder. Now you have three independently addressable input sources for a total capacity of 1100 sheets. This allows you to have three different types and/or sizes of paper loaded all the time for increased productivity. No other printer near this price offers such flexibility out-of-the-box. A fast RM7000 500MHz processor with Adobe PostScript Level 3, PCL5c, USB, Parallel, and Ethernet 100 BaseTX interfaces are standard. The CL7000 ships with 64MB of RAM. The CL7000D ships with 192 MB and also includes an internal hard disk, and auto-duplex for two sided printing. The CL7000DT1 configuration adds a third 500-sheet feeder and a pedestal. All models have the ability to handle up to 12” x 18” or even 12” x 49” banner paper through the by-pass feeder. Ricoh offers many upgrade options including a 2000-sheet input feeder, 4-bin mailbox, and finisher for stacking and stapling. Another unique advantage is the ability to upgrade to a CL7000CMF, a true multi-function office machine with color printing, copying, scanning, and faxing capability. The Ricoh CL7100 is the equivalent model sold through the copier channel.
The Bottom Line: The Ricoh CL7000 is a fast, large-format, network ready, color laser printer that combines great print quality with one of the lowest operating costs around. Ricoh packs a lot of value into the CL7000 series with standard features not found in competitively priced models. The Ricoh CL7000D represents the best value overall with the additional RAM, HD, and duplex. All configurations work well with the Mac OS, UNIX or the Windows environments. Great print, performance, low cost per page, and overall value earns our "Editor's Choice".
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