Brother
Brother International has made it clear it thinks the colour laser market is the place to be. The company has two new models out that offer full colour print speeds of up to 6 pages per minute (ppm).
The HL-3400CN is designed for large-volume colour printing at resolutions of 1200 x 600dpi, or up to 2400dpi-class printing with Brother's proprietary CAPT (Colour Advanced Photo Technology) It comes with a wide range of printer drivers and emulations, making it compatible with a variety of different computing environments including Windows 95, 98, NT 4.0 and Apple Mac computers. Windows 2000 drivers will be available soon.
The 3400 comes standard with 64MB of memory, expandable up to 320MB and has the capability to send print jobs over the Internet to other network-connected 3400s.
Double-sided printing can be achieved in A3 size with the installation of an optional duplex unit (DX-3400).
The smaller HL-2400Ce will print up to 4ppm in colour, 16ppm in monochrome, and 8ppm in two-colour mode (in A4 size). It provides the same resolution as the 3400 and is also Windows and Macintosh compatible.
However, it comes with only 32MB or memory, expandable to 288MB.
Brother offers PCL5C, PCL6 (mono), HP-GL (mono), Postscript Level 2 (Brother's BRScript level 2 emulation), Epson FX-850(mono) and IBM ProPrinter XL(mono) emulations with Automatic emulation switching on both printers. The 2400 retails for $3999 and the 3400 has an RRP of $7900.
Brother International Australia
(02) 9887-4344www.brother.com.au
Kyocera
Kyocera, which pioneered the use of the long life drum to replace commonly used disposable print cartridges, claims to be Australia's number two laser printer manufacturer and has had particular success in the monochrome market. It is now hoping to repeat that success by increasing its share of the colour laser market with its new FS-5900C model.
The 5900C has a 200MHz Power PC740 processor and comes with 48MB of standard memory (expandable to 112MB) which together help produce printing speeds of up to 16ppm mono A4 and 4ppm colour at 600dpi (PCL).
The 5900C comes with standard HP Colour LJ 5M and KPDL2 (PostScript Level 2) emulations.
The printer is fully networkable and comes with a 250 sheet A4 cassette but a twin cassette (250 sheet paper and transparency cassettes) feeder is available as an optional extra. Other options include a 2GB hard disk, double-sided printing, barcode reader, PC Card and 10/100Base T network card.
It will handle up to 165gsm card via multi-purpose feed and 60 to 105gsm paper through the standard cassette.
All of the company's network printers are both Windows and Macintosh compatible via Ethernet with an optional print server card. The 5900C is available now for an RRP of $4995.
Kyocera Electronics Australia
1300 364 429www.kyocera.com.au
Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard's name is synonymous with LaserJet printers and its 4500 and 8500 ranges have captured a major share of the world colour laser market.
The new 8550 range promises to do even better, offering savings of up to 17 per cent over the 8500 series and being the first printers to provide auto Pantone calibration without the need to load device-specific application pallets.
HP also claims the new models are up to four times faster than the 8500 and come with a 200MHz processor (300MHz in the top of the range GN model) compared with a 133MHz in the previous series.
The base model comes with 32MB of RAM while the GN has 128MB but both are expandable to 512MB.
All models offer direct PDF printing, automatic duplex calibration and booklet printing.
Printing speeds range from 24ppm for A4 black and white documents (the first page after 18 seconds), to 6ppm for full colour A4 (first page after 34 seconds). They have a warm-up time of less than five minutes.
Prices range from $10,700 for the base stand-alone model to $26,500 for the MFP model with full colour copier and auto-duplexer to the network printer model.
Hewlett-Packard
13 1347www.hp.com.au
Fuji Xerox
Fuji Xerox is leveraging is takeover of Tektronix to launch an assault on Hewlett-Packard's lead in the laser printer market.
In May it launched its Xerox Phaser 750 colour laser - a direct result of the Tektronix takeover - and dropped the price of the 740 to $600 below the HP 4500.
The Phaser 750 colour printer is designed for quick plug-and-print usability and ships network-ready with standard 10/100 Base-T Ethernet, native USB and parallel connectivity. It also features Tektronix's PhaserLink printer management software that provides a customisable Web interface for easy printer administration, automatic e-mail notification of printer status, usage profile monitoring and online troubleshooting.
It also comes with a number of other Tektronix technologies including TekColour Dynamic Colour Correction and an improved RGB mode.
The 750 has a 200MHz processor which delivers up to 16ppm in black and white and five ppm in colour, all at 1200dpi.
It will sell for an estimated retail price of $5900, compared to the 740 which will remain in the product line at $3995 ex tax (ERP).
The company also offers the DocuPrint C410 colour network printer as an out-of-the-box solution for anyone wanting tabloid-size output.
The DocuPrint C410 produces up to oversize A3 (with full bleed) and runs at 16ppm for black and white.
Fuji Xerox Australia
(02) 9856 5417www.fujixerox.com.au