Ricoh Sprinter Printer... Gel's audition for the future February 12, 2010 16:19 by Matt Bird
I am 23 years old. I have been through the present-day education system recently – so I am used to disappointment. But Ricoh may have finished off my faith in society as a whole, in one ill-fated swoop.
That was my note after the first day of testing... in hindsight, it is not THAT bad, and if you only want text printing, it will do. But there is still room for improvement.
Ricoh’s Aficio GX e3350n Gel Sprinter claims to give the benefits of both Inkjet and Laser, with no drawbacks. So fast prints, crisp text, no warm up times, sounds too good to be true....
The Beginning:
The last printer I tested was the well received Dell 1320 Review. It has been a running joke in the office that I am going to run away and have a family with it; I thought it was that good a printer! So I approached the Ricoh with a trepid feeling of cheating on my beloved.
It did not start well....
The box had 1 handle..... And it was not on the top. No one believed me and thought I was being moronic... But really, 1 handle. Needless to say it made it a chore to lift. But I endured, opened it up and took out the solid protective packing .....
..... and got met with possibly the least aesthetically pleasing object I have seen. If ever there was a physical manifestation of “urgh”, this is it.
Set-Up:
The guide is pretty simple to follow, though some stages that require picture assistance were lacking, but to be fair to the printer I did manage to set it up in ~5 minutes so well done to it. Additionally, it actually warns you to do a USB install to avoid its DHCP, something the Dell missed out on when it did its impression of SkyNet on our offices.
Brilliantly, just like my Dell 1320 beams I managed to get an error as soon as it was turned on. However it had a very informative error message on the clear front screen, so it was addressed straight away and easily resolved (The error was from me fiddling, I had left a side panel open, blast my curious mind). This is one of the strengths of the Ricoh, its menu. The screen is immaculate, with a very crisp display and clear messages when issues are encountered, and the option of repositioning giving you room to manoeuvre.
So after the set-up: 
Using the printer... to print:
Normal Print Mode:
The text is quite nice, it is not the sharpest or deepest, but for the size of the cartridges (~£34 for an 1800 yield cartridge) it is pretty good when coupled with print speed - 10ppm typically - and a solid duplexing ability. And credit where credit is due, the Duplex process is impressive. With fast drying gel, it still managed 10ppm print speed... which is brilliant for the price of the machine when compared to similar models in that range...
However the Ricoh falls down for images. They’re bland, even the most vivid of prints becomes a dull-like finish after printing. It is so consistent in its pastel tones, I would almost suggest it had been sponsored by Rowntrees themselves. This is almost a good thing, as at £40 for a 1k page yield, your costs will quickly accumulate.
It doesn’t look too bad when printing images based in text, the text is good enough as mentioned, and though the image remains depressingly pale, I have seen worse. It printed at a respectable 9ppm for a page of image and text, thus hitting what the the Ricoh machine seems to be aspire for – being acceptable. Granted it manages these 10 glorious pages very quietly and efficiently, even when duplexing, which again is quite impressive. I trial printed some mock invoices to test the clarity on quality paper, and different types of paper (such as label printing), and the text was good, and it managed the colours reasonably. As long as you don’t need an image, it will perform well enough.
High Quality Image Print Mode:
Oh dear oh dear, the images were worse.They were so sub-standard, I decided to put in an image of the flap I left open when I first got an installation instead of putting in a scanned image of a printout, thats how sad they made me.
I ran some sight sample tests just incase it was my vision on its death knells:
First, between the Ricoh, Dell and HP K5400.... which Ricoh came last in for all images, resoundingly (100% of responses placed it worst for EVERY image)
Next, sample testing the print outs for all different modes the Ricoh has. High Quality mode came 2nd... to the Normal Print mode. It even managed to come last for 1 image, behind even the speed print. Whether the printer we got is drastically faulty, I do not know, but the only difference we noted when switching to HQ mode was it doubled the time to print a single page. Down to 5ppm. I checked all the hardware of the printer, and every setting I possibly could, nothing seemed to be amiss. Very odd.
Go Go Dell comeback :-)
Speed Printing:
For a printer boasting about speed, you’d think they ensured this mode worked. The typical loss in the black depths was seen, I don’t mind sacrificing that for speed. But the text was wonky! Literally wonky! Imagine writing something while trying to run, and that’s the printout. Even my handwritten photoshop "hmmmm" was nearly straighter!
Incredibly it can print a table straight. You know – tables - those gridline structures of straight precise lines? Easy. A line of text - apparently mind blowing in complexity. I reset everything I could find to fiddle with in case it was a hardware fault or something I had done, but to no avail. I went to work on the manual settings seeing if there was a “Butcher my Text” tick-box, but nothing made a difference.
The cartridges are fantastically easy to replace, simply pulling out the empty colour and replacing; the epitome of ease with no risk of mess. Simply pull the cartridge out, open the pack and push the new cartridge in. No levers, catches, tape. Simplicity in itself!
Finally there are also a few physical unnecessarily pedantic points, bar the ugliness, I have to mention:
- Why have a click-release cover on cartridges at the front? It is going to get knocked, and open itself.
- Why design this click cover so if the smallest of items is near the printer, it cannot open? I had a pen roll under it, and it jammed it.
- Why is the USB port at the back so high? It is in the way, and can be knocked out.
- The duplexer is not fully stable on the back and can easily come loose when relocating said printer.
Conclusion:
Overall, this Ricoh is frustrating. It has huge potential, and the environmentally friendly soy based gel has promise, but it is not delivering fully just yet. It is a quiet, no-fuss printer, which simply deals with your request and apparently utilises much less power than a typical printer. The delay in sending a print request and the print initialising is tiny, and the cool down after the print finishes is minimal. The duplex is superb, so fast for a machine at this cost and very reliable, and it really is a star point for this printer. If a small company prints lots of reports for short-term use, the speedy duplex could benefit them hugely, saving on paper costs and time for printing.
If Ricoh just work on the image printing, and make the text slightly sharper, this machine could be beautiful... Don’t give up Ricoh, but it is not quite there yet. Though it does give me some entertainment with its click-opened cartridge hatch, which I can open and close all day for enjoyment. Now... back to my Dell....
