Given that it can print at speeds of up to 20 pages per minute (ppm) and handle A3 documents, the network-ready Ecosys FS-6020N from Kyocera-Mita is a good value workgroup laser.

However, the cost benefits don't end with the sub-£1,000 ex VAT price tag, as the FS-6020N has long-life optical components guaranteed for 200,000 pages or three years, leaving the toner as the only consumable you will normally need to buy.

This toner-only approach makes Kyocera-Mita printers cheaper to run than the competition, since other makes include expensive new optical components in every toner cartridge used.

The company claims to have the lowest running costs in the industry, and has backed this up with a money back guarantee if you don't see savings on consumables compared to a similar printer from another vendor.

Few buyers are likely to need to claim on the guarantee with the FS-620N. With a recommended price of £56 ex VAT, the toner cartridges are good for around 10,000 A4 pages (at five per cent coverage), equating to just over 0.5p per page.

Of course, you have to factor in the cost of paper and the purchase price of the printer to come up with a proper cost per page, but that's true with other printers too.

Add in the fact that Kyocera-Mita slashed printer prices at the start of the year and there's really no arguing with the potential cost savings.

On top of which, it's also a very well specified and easily expanded device.

For instance, there's the remarkably compact 1,200dpi laser engine which boasts a duty cycle of 65,000 pages per month, capable of printing A3 pages at 11ppm and A4 at 20ppm.

A single board controller with a 200MHz PowerPC processor provides the motive force behind this, enabling the first page of most documents to be printed in less than 12 seconds.

PCL6 and Postscript Level 3 emulations are also included as standard, with 80 PCL and 136 Postscript outline fonts built in.

There's 32MB of memory, which can be expanded to 144MB, using industry standard Dimms.

Another plus is the ability to expand the paper handling facilities on the FS-6020N, simply by stacking extra trays underneath.

As standard, the printer comes with a fold-out 100-sheet multipurpose tray to take card, transparencies and other awkward materials, plus a 250-sheet drawer for ordinary paper.

Up to four additional A4/A3 drawer units can be added, at a cost of £182 ex VAT each. These expand the capacity of the Kyocera-Mita printer to 1,350 sheets altogether, fed from six sources, making it easy to handle things like letterheads and paper types.

There's also an optional duplexer (£365 ex VAT) for double-side printing and a hard disk (£369 ex VAT) for storing extra fonts and forms.

On the downside, there are no document sorting or finishing attachments, just the one 250-sheet output bin at the top of the printer.

That is a shame, as one of the advantages of an A3 printer is the ability to create folded A4 booklets, where a finisher/stapler would be a useful add-on.

On the networking front, a 10/100Mbps Ethernet interface accompanies the USB port; this multi-protocol controller also provides print server emulation with support for a range of networking environments including Apple Mac, Linux and proprietary Unix systems as well as the expected Windows and Netware networks.

Fibre optic and wireless interfaces can also be specified and, as with other Kyocera-Mita printers, you get a copy of its KM Net management suite, which can be used to monitor and manage printers from a variety of manufacturers.

Print quality is excellent and the FS-6020N is very easy to use. It also boasts several useful job control features, such as the ability to require a Pin number before printing confidential documents, plus on-demand printing of stored jobs and a proof-and-hold option to check for errors before printing large multi-copy jobs. One year's on-site warranty comes as standard.

The FS-6020N offers fast and remarkably affordable A3 printing without compromising on quality or functionality. It's just a shame there aren't any finishing options to go with it.

Contact: Kyocera-Mita 0118 931 1500
www.kyoceramita.co.uk

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