Konica Minolta PagePro 1350W Laser Printer

Rating:
Summary: Amazing printer (installation difficult)
Review: I had this printer 2 weeks now and it is AMAZING. I am graduate student in economics and I need to print out a lot of papers with very tiny mathematical notation. I need to be able to distinguish an "i" from a "j" subscripts and, sometimes, the font size is 4. This printer does an amazing job. Text book quality.
The printer is also amazingly fast!! It is way faster than the professional printer in my department. I could hardly believe when I saw 200 pages coming out within minutes; all of the highest quality.
The only cons is that it was hard to install. I followed the instructions to no avail. Inside the box with which the printer comes, there is phone number to which you can call-free-of-charge. The operator was very curteous, but not very knowledgeable. We tried several things, after trying and trying, I asserted myself and I said that it was the thrid time that I was telling him that Windows XP was telling us that a file was missing (can't remember which file, sorry). Once that file has been put into place, the printer started working wonders.
A note: the cable to connect the printer to the computer is not inclueded in the box and has to be bought separately. If your computer has a USB port, a USB cable is great.

Rating:
Summary: excellent for $100
Review: I have had this for several months now and it has never failed me! Never have I had a problem with jamming, but maybe thats because I don't use bent cornered paper and I know how to neatly load the tray. I've got over 900 pgs printed and my 1500 pg toner is still at 48% remaining. When I finally do buy a new toner cartridge, I won't be too concerned about the price (~$75 for 3000 pg. online). In regards to the fan issue, sure it is a little noisy when the fuser is heated before and shortly after printing, but eventually the fuser cools down and the fan turns off (1 pg print test: 1/2 min @ noisy high rpm... then 15 min @ very quiet low rpm... then off). Before this I had used only Epson inkjet printers strictly for quality preferences while sacrificing speed. As far as text quality, laser jets are the best and speed, forget about it. I think I was getting 1 or 2 pg/min with my Epson c60 as opposed to the 20 with the PagePro 1350w. I use $1000 HP laserjets at work, and though they have the capabities for network use, I think the PagePro is just as good in quality and maybe even better in speed.

Rating:
Summary: Great Printer
Review: I have read the other reviews on Amazon regarding this printer and I can't see what the fuss is about. No, it does not jam that much (maybe 1/200 and that is if you put cheap paper in there, but that is a far fetched maybe), and if it does, it is no big deal to clear. The machine isn't going to cough the paper out, but 10 seconds of your time should fix the issue. As for the people bickering about the cost of the cartridge, I challenge you to find a cheap cartridge. I have managed to find a cartridge for just over 65 bucks for this unit, and that is a good deal. It prints clear, it's fast, and it looks pretty neat sitting right here beside my super duper computer. It does use some juice, the lights dim when it turns on, but hey, I do have a super duper computer. It probably is a little noisier than an HP. So, if you are a secretary at a funeral home and you want a lazer, than by all means get the HP. Really folks, are you complaining about noise?!!! Take a time out and think about how rediculus that sounds. This is a great printer and I think you should buy it. For 100 bucks, you are getting gem. As for the guy that took it outside and dropped it because he was so upset with it, come on, take a time out... I have had no settup problems, no print problems, no software problems and no REAL jamming problems. Somebody complained about size; think about this, maybe if or when it jams, because of its size, its easier to clear. Honestly, I have had no jamming issues anyway. After 8 months, and a whole lot a printing, I still have over half of the starter cartridge left. Frankly, I have nothing bad to say. However, my super duper computer is gray and black. The printer is white and gray...

Rating:
Summary: Great printer, might get burned on the toner
Review: I have this printer and I think the quality and the speed is very good. However, there are just as much pros and cons in this printer. Here are some of my pros and cons.

Pros
+ Fast printing (text, black and white graphics)
+ The packaged ink toner seems to last forever (used it over a year and still have 60% left)
+ Easy to setup, nice looking
+ Easy to refill the paper

Cons
+ The software that comes with this printer sucks. It is annoying how it pops up when your computer boots and I don't know a way to turn it off.
+ Supposely, you are unable to refill the toner and have to replace the entire cartridge that costs around $100 or so. Not sure on this one since I have not needed (yet) to refill the ink.
+ Noisy fan that goes for like 5 minutes after printing text/graphics.

Overall, I would not recommend this unless you can cheaply refill the ink/toner without having to replace the entire cartridge. The expensive refill alone would keep me away. The performance is good. If there is a cheaper way to refill the ink, I would highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Setup Problems with WinXP home OS
Review: I must have exchanged at least half a dozen emails with their Tech Support -- but I simply have not been able to get the printer to work with my WinXP home OS(the hardware is a Dell Pentium 4 desktop, and the OS is original and wasn't upgraded). Problem with drivers, despite my downloading files from their site. I'm burned out - if I try again it will be with their "Level 3" phone support which their email tech support said was very good. The printer does work fine with my Win98 notebook, however. The printer takes a lot of time for each new page to be processed, is noisy and tends to get very hot to the touch, though it's never failed. Print quality is excellent, and the manual duplexing works well. Someone here noted that the OUTPUT PAGES fall out --that's true, just add a piece of thin cardboard in the output slot that extends beyond its edge, and it will solve that problem. Because of my setup problems, I wouldn't have bought this printer. I would look at the Panasonic KX-P7305 Auto-Duplex Laser Printer which I've seen for sale on Amazon. Hope this comments are helpful.Paul Dolinsky, [e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: Loud and laggy budget laser printer
Review: I own this printer and the Hewitt-Packard Laserjet 1012. I definitely prefer the HP printer to this one. The HP was much smaller and quieter. The HP also had a shorter warm up time and slightly better quality print outs. However, once the 1350W warms up, it really churns out those pages quickly. But if you're only printing a few pages, waiting for the printer to warm up can be a lil annoying. It's only about 20 seconds though.

Another note...for black and white printing, a more expensive later printer will be cheaper than an ink jet printers in the long run.

Rating:
Summary: Great Printer!
Review: I purchased this printer (under $100, on sale at Staples) as a first step up from an inkjet. I have owned it for less than two weeks as of this writing(May 3, 2004).
It prints text quickly and clearly. I haven't used it for graphics yet. It has a relatively small footprint and it is a little noisy when it initializes: you hear the fan and the printer mechanism. It quiets quickly when initialized in about 20 seconds or so. As to toner costs: I found Konica-Minolta toner in a retail store for $80.96! It is important that you use ONLY Konica-Minolta toner. Other toners will put the printer into a constant cleaning mode and will slow the pages per minute output.
I downloaded updated drivers from the website, but, the drivers on the enclosed cd ROM worked fine too. I did have to call Konica Minolta Tech Support to understand how to install the new drivers. Their techs were courteous and knowledgable.
I was only dissatisfied in one area: the manual. It would be nice if manufacturers would return to the practice of providing directions that consisted of illustrations AND TEXT in English in a MANUAL. There is little information in the manual though it is in multiple languages. Instead, you must rely on the cd ROM and download the Adobe Reader. It's not a problem, but, I prefer the simplicity of a complete manual that I can hold in my hands and study and that is written in English! That being said, I recommend this printer unreservedly. If you prefer the security of extended warranties, they are available.

Rating:
Summary: Good printer for money
Review: I purchased this printer back in June. The first printer died after only printing about a dozen pages. Konica Minolta tech support determined it to be hardware failure and sent me a replacement and a return shipping sticker. The second printer has worked very well.

Print quality is very, very good for text and pretty decent for images. Kicking it up to 1200x1200 cuts the print speed in half, but can be worth it for documents needing extra crisp text. I have used it to print many large document runs of up to 400 pages in one sitting. While the fan does kick in to cool it down, the speed at which it prints cannot be beat. I've run it with plain paper, envelopes, and card stock without issue. In the few instances where it has jammed, it has been very easy to clear.

I have the printer setup as a shared printer on my home network between a Windows XP machine and a Windows ME machine with no problems.

The only downsides I see (which haven't been much of an issue for me):
- It does draw a lot of current on startup and seems to suck a decent amount of juice during printing
- It can be a bit noisy
- The printer is a bit tall compared to a number of other laser printers which could make it hard to fit into your workspace
- As a Windows-only "GDI" printer, it depends on the computer to pre-process much of the data thus consuming more system resources than a non-GDI printer. This hasn't been a concern even on a Celeron-500 based machine.
- Printing of photographic images have some "banding" effects. Not a big deal for me; I use a color printer when doing photographs.

I consider it to be a very good value at the 80-100 dollar level. Hard to believe we've reached a point where you can get a printer with this level of output for such a little amount of money.

Rating:
Summary: Requires a Mechanic!
Review: I wish Amazon gave the Reviewer a "No Star" option.

I appreciate the speedy printing of this item; but that is all... Also, that's not saying much, since it was my first new printer in several years, and I had missed several "generations" of speed...

First problem, I find that the top paper-holder that is suposed to keep the pages in order while they come out doesn't! Pages end up falling over the front of the front of the machine so that you have to pay extra close attention to make sure you catch all of them, and that they are in order...

Bigger problem is that it jams a lot, and it is VERY difficult to pull the paper(s) out It has a vice-grip on the sheets, so that you end up tugging and wripping the paper. Then, the area where the torn edge is is too small to fit fingers into to manipulate. There are not enough removeable parts to aid in paper extraction.

Don't biu tjos [romter... I think it is an example of "You (usually) get what you pay for..."


Rating:
Summary: Stay away from this printer
Review: I'll get right to the point. The printer is going to cost you a bundle to replace the carterage which will cost about $80 after a few months. It jams a lot. Don't make the mistake I made and buy it from Staples on sale for $99. Your better off buying a Dell printer for $200. Also the paper tray is outside and jams a lot. I got so upset that I took this printer lifted it up and threw it to the ground and broke it after it kept on jamming again and again. For my business I have a Dell printer it almost never jams. Don't be cheap and stay away from this piece of garbage.