Editor's Review by Mel Meyers 08/30/2010
Sharp AR-M205
OVERVIEW:
The Sharp AR-M205 offers the copying, scanning, and printing features of up to tabloid-size papers for small businesses and small workgroups. The choice of additional options enables this Sharp to grow to meet your needs.
Editor's Pros & Cons
PROS:
The copier is a little large to put on a desk but will feel right at home on any credenza, and the second paper tray brings it at a height comfortable for someone standing next to it to manually make copies or scans.
Using either the low-speed or high-speed USB connections, the AR-M205 can be set up to be a shared printer--provided the computer it’s connected to remains on during the hours the printer would get used. The expandable 64MB of memory allows the all-in-one to easily handle print jobs from many computers, and a network card is an option.
The AR-M205 uses an oversized 11”x17” platen to support scanning ledger or tabloid-sized originals. The automatic document feeder allows for 40 double-sided copies to be made up to legal-size: more originals can be fed in as the level lowers. By scanning the original once and storing the image into its 64MB memory allows the AR-M205 to produce copies at the rate of 20 pages per minute, up to 999 copies.
Another nice feature the AR-M205 has (if you use the automatic document feeder) is the ability to physically shift the position of each set of copies in the output tray for easy collating and stapling. This is achieved by pressing the Electronic Sort (or E-Sort) button on the control panel. The multi-page original is scanned first into memory, then copied out in order. This offset sorting feature was rarely found on other desktop copiers or all-in-ones.
The AR-M205 has three different copy exposure modes & resolutions up to 600 x 600 dpi at 256 grayscale levels. The magnification can be automatically or manually changed from 25% to 400% in 1% increments or in 10 preset ratios.
This Sharp has two sliding paper trays, each holding up to 250 sheets up to 11 x 17” paper. The two-tray feature is especially nice in an office where legal and standard size papers are often used. Non-standard sizes from 3” x 5” up to 11” x 17” can be placed singly on the scanning platform, or up to 100 sheets placed on the multi-purpose flip-tray on the side of the copier. Adding the optional paper trays can expand the AR-M205 to supporting up to 1,100 sheets.
Remember I mentioned options? In addition to additional paper capacity, the AR-M205 has options to add LDAP e-mail scanning and printing, 10/100 Base-T Ethernet, PostScript 3 print emulation, and an additional 256MB of SO-DIMM memory.
CONS:
The design for this series is to focus on copier features. While the 20ppm for print and copy is a major improvement by Sharp over their older models, the AR-M205 will not give you the higher resolutions you will get from monochrome laser printers.
INK & TONER
DRUM(s)
