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http://www.computeractive.co.uk/computeractive/hardware/2216789/review-ricoh-aficio-gx2500
The Gelsprinter rRicoh Aficio GX2500 inkjet printer
A
colour ink printer that thinks it’s a colour laserange of colour
inkjets are intended to be a viable alternative to a colour laser
printer at a fraction of the cost.
This
is possible, Ricoh says, because of several new technologies, from the
type of ink to the speed at which the paper is handled.We were
unconvinced about some of these innovations, particularly on
discovering that one of them was having separate ink tanks for each
colour – something we’ve seen in plenty of printers.The printer uses
gels rather than liquid ink, which should allow it to produce colour
images as cheaply as a colour laser printer does, but with the vibrant
photo-realistic colours of an inkjet printer.A colour cartridge
for the GX2500, which can print around 1,000 pages, costs £30, whereas
a typical laser toner cartridge offering 4,000 pages costs on average
around £80. This works out at 3p per page for the Aficio compared with
2p for a laser printer (both the GX2500 and a laser require four
cartridges to print in colour).We found that colour images and photos
were printed very quickly – an A5-sized photo came out in 20 seconds –
and its quality was good, if not quite up to the standards of most
colour photo printers we have seen.A so-called Level Colour feature is
designed to reduce the amount of colour ink used to print images while
maintaining the quality of mono text. However, when we printed a
document containing images and text with it enabled, the quality of the
text was significantly reduced.Ironically, given the company’s claims
of economy, a complete set of replacement cartridges costs a ridiculous
£120, which is beyond most home users’ budgets. It’s possible that
cartridge prices may drop as more manufacturers start making them but
as it stands that’s a hefty outlay. The printer also takes up an area
of of 43x43cm, and it weighs a hefty 13kg, both of which are too large
for most home users. Unfortunately, while the GX2500 is a good-quality
printer, its shortcomings are impossible to overlook, making it
impractical for most home users.
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