Oki B4300n, Reasonable price, excellent performance and quality
02/09/2003
Computer Shopper, August 2003
RATING *****
PRICE £280 inc VAT
DETAILS www.oki.co.uk
SPECIFICATIONS
200x600dpi resolution, 18ppm, parallel and USB interfaces, Reasonable price,excellent performance and quality.
Oki 's B4300 is a budget monochrome laser that packs a punch.It has a print speed of 18ppm, 600x1,200dpi resolution and it supports PCL6,so it 'll fit in most computer environments.It has fast warm-up and first print times of 35 and six seconds respectively,which is particularly important for low-volume printers that spend much of their life on standby.
It 's an LED rather than a laser printer,which apparently means it 's more reliable -a claim we can neither prove nor disprove. It can be enhanced with a second paper cassette and envelope feeder,but not a duplex unit.The B4200 has less memory,no control panel and can 't be networked,but still supports PCL6.
The B4300n has an Ethernet interface and the B4300nPS adds PostScript3 support. The B4300 has a separate toner and drum unit,which is marginally harder to set up but gives better running costs and is more environment-friendly. Network installation is fantastic: the printer is discovered automatically.When you install,for example,the Windows XP drivers,the installation routine also transfers drivers for Windows NT, Windows 98 and Windows Me.This makes it easy to install on other computers;you never need the driver CD because your computer has all the required drivers.
The B4300 crumples envelopes as it prints them.The Block test 's greyscale transitions were even and smooth.The B4300 actually exceeds its rated performance:18.3ppm from an 18ppm printer is excellent.
Graphics quality,which isn 't especially important on a monochrome laser,is actually quite good in the B4300 's Best quality.
You can see graininess in the image but this is inevitable with a mono laser,and the contrast is good enough to make each element in a picture stand out clearly.
Normal quality is faster but quality is appreciably lower. Overall, the B4300 is an excellent all-rounder.
Steve Baxter
