OKIDATA C5300N COLOR TONER CARTRIDGES SET

Okidata C5300n Review

Overview:

Best suited to small workgroup environments where its slower print speeds won't be a major liability, the OkiData C5300n offers a robust feature set for a color laser printer in a relatively compact package, making the printer one worth considering for anyone with a small numbers of users, a moderate daily paper throughput, and minimal long-term needs for expansion. 

Pros:

The C5300n measures 13.6" by 16.6" by 20.7" and weighs 57.3 lbs, making it relatively small when compared to larger workgroup printers and most MFPs. It will fit comfortably on a desk or table alongside other equipment with minimal inconvenience.

The C5300n produces sheets at a maximum speed of 20 pages per minute in black and white and 12 pages per minute in color, with warmup times of 9 seconds in black and 18.3 seconds in color. The printer produces documents at a maximum resolution of 1200 by 600 dots per inch.

The C5300n interfaces with systems directly via USB or IEEE-1284 Parallel, making it easy to connect it to any legacy or modern system. For users who need to network the printer, it includes an internal Ethernet print server which connects via 10/100 Base-T.

The printer includes 45 PCL fonts, 136 PostScript fonts, support for Line Printer Daemon, OCR-A, and OCR-B for more accurate reproduction of text when working under specific circumstnaces and to ensure support for printing in non-Windows environments.

The C5300n ships with 64MB of RAM, but this can be expanded to 320MB if desired by adding a 64MB, 128MB, or 256MB memory module, making it consistent with many higher-end systems and ensuring that environments that need to print large, graphics-heavy documents can do so without suffering the immense potential slowdown that can come with sending PDFs and other large media files to printers.

The C5300n supports printing from Windows 9X, NT, 2000, XP, and Vista, as well as Mac OS 8.6, Mac OS X, versions of Linux built on version 2.5 of the kernel and newer, and some Unixes (the specifications cite Solaris 8 and HP-UX 11).

The C5300n has a total input capacity of 400 sheets, with room for 300 sheets in its universal tray and 100 sheets in its multipurpose tray. For environments where 400 sheets is unsatisfactory, users can add a 530-sheet paper tray, which brings the printer's capacity up to 930 sheets, and users who require it can also purchase a duplex unit to add two-sided printing to the device.

The printer is designed to process plain paper, overhead transparencies, envelopes, and mailing label stock. The printer's main tray processes 20 lb to 32 lb bond and the optional tray processes 20 lb to 47 lb bond. The manual feed can process 20 lb bond to 110 lb index card stock, and the optional duplex unit can process 20 lb to 28 lb bond paper.

Cons:

Though this printer was intended for workgroup environments at the time of its release, it now seems best suited to individual users with substantive paper throughputs, as many newer workgroup devices offer considerably faster printing speeds. While 20 pages per minute in black is standard, many newer printers offer speeds upwards of 40-60 pages per minute for the environments that require them.

Furthermore, the printer lacks support for PictBridge and other technologies that allow for direct printing from USB host devices.