INK & TONER
Ricoh Aficio CL7300 Review
 
Editor's Review
Ricoh Aficio CL7300 by Andrew Hall 09/08/2010 OVERVIEW: The Ricoh Aficio CL7300 is a full-color laser printer intended to fulfill the requirements of office environments with heavy paper throughputs. However, despite its heavy size and footprint, it lacks the features of many multifunction units without purchasing add-ons.
Editor's Pros & Cons
PROS: The CL7300 measures 29.3" by 26.7" by 26.4" and weighs 213.8 lbs, consistent with other workgroup paper devices. While it is too heavy for easy relocation, it can be placed on a credenza or a table. The CL7300 can produce up to 32 pages per minute in black and up to 28 pages per minute at 600 dpi, though it has a maximum resolution of 1200 dpi by 1200 dpi across both black and color printing. It has a standard media capacity of 1100 sheets across two 500-sheet media trays and a 100-sheet bypass, expandable to a maximum of 3100 sheets by adding a 2000-sheet large capacity tray to the printer. Duplex functionality is available and does not slow printing down. Hope punching, a booklet finisher, and a stapler are all available as finishing options. The printer has a standard output capacity of 600 sheets, which can be expanded to 3100 sheets if desired.
The CL7300 supports printing to many media sizes, such as Letter A, Legal, A4, A5, A3, Ledger B, Folio, 8" by 13", and 8.3" by 13". Its maximum supported media size is 12" by 18" and it supports printing to envelopes, transparencies, labels, plain paper, glossy paper, banners, and recycled paper.
The CL7300 includes a USB 2.0 port and a 10/100Base-TX Ethernet port, allowing for easy networking and compatibility with most contemporary systems. 802.11b, Bluetooth, and Gigabit Ethernet support are also available options, as is PictBridge support to directly connect digital cameras to the printer and bypass drivers and the PC. Networking is available via TCP/IP, IPX/SPX, AppleTalk, NetBEUI and NetBIOS, ensuring forwards and backwards compatibility. It also includes language support for PCL 5C, PostScript 3, PCL 6, PDF, and Ricoh RPCS. Scan-to-email and Scan-to-folder are also included when connected to the optional scanner add-on, which also adds color and monochrome copying for documents up to 11" by 17" at 600 dpi to the printer's functions.
The CL7300 includes 256MB of RAM with a maximum of 512MB possible via 144-pin SODIMM SDRAM. It also includes a 40GB hard drive.
The CL7300 includes drivers for many systems, including Solaris, HP-UX, Unix, Mac OS 8.6 or newer, Windows versions from NT 4.0 onward (including Windows 7), Linux, and Mac OS X from 10.1 onward. This, combined with its many ports and support for many network types helps to ensure compatibility. CONS: Despite its large size, heavy weight, and industrial paper capacity, the CL7200 is not a multipurpose or all-in-one unit without the purchase of an add-on that allows it to do these things in limited form, recommended more for occasional than everyday use. Without the add-on it lacks copier, scanner, or fax functions, and as a result any environment that requires those will need to purchase an additional device, that will likely also be able to produce prints, in order to make copies or scan documents. As a consequence, it is extremely difficult to recommend a device as large as the CL7200.
INK/TONER NEEDS:
The CL7300 includes starter cartridges for black, cyan, magenta, and yellow toner. The included black cartridge produces 12000 pages while all three color cartridges are rated as being able to produce 5000 pages before requiring replacement. Replacement cartridges are rated at 24000 pages for black toner at 5% coverage and all colors - cyan, magenta, and yellow - are rated at 10000 pages each at an average of 5% page coverage. Furthermore, the printer's drum units will require replacement: each is rated at 40000 pages. The developer and fuser are also rated at 80000 pages and will require replacement at that point. The separation of components brings down long-term costs, but will require additional maintenance to ensure printer function.
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