Good print speed, great expansion potential and quality colour output makes the C9650n a fine candidate for your total printing shortlist.

Oki’s latest A3 LED printers are aimed squarely at SMBs with an appetite for big colour prints, and those that want to bring all their printing requirements in-house. The new C9650 is offered in four models, and on review we have the base version that comes with a single paper tray and networking as standard.

Businesses looking for a single printing solution will like the Oki’s expansion potential. A duplex unit can be fitted when required and two paper trays added underneath, as can a high-capacity feeder that in effect quadruples capacity. There’s a two- or four-hole punch unit and booklets can be completed with four or five-tray finishers that can fold, saddle stitch and staple documents. Oki, like Canon focuses on printing security with the hard disk option (40GB, £240) delivering features such as secure printing, secure erase and data encryption.

As with all Oki LED colour printers, each of the C9650n’s toner cartridges has its own image drum arranged in-line down the paper path. In the printer lid are LED arrays for each colour, and data is sent to all four heads simultaneously so images can be laid down in a single pass. Using the paper slot and multipurpose tray on opposite sides creates a virtually flat paper path, allowing the printer to handle 300gsm stationery and banners up to 1.2m long. The decent hardware spec made sure print speeds are on the money, too, with a simple 50-page A4 Word document delivered at a rate of 41ppm and a 24-page colour DTP document despatched in 38 seconds for a tidy 37ppm. A3 prints are also handled efficiently with a 30-page colour report dropping into the output bin at 20ppm. Our only issue with performance was the time to first page, since this varied from 10 to 20 seconds.

For consumables, you have four toner cartridges and drum kits plus fuser and transfer belt. They’re all very easy to access and deliver good print costs with an A4 mono page costing barely a penny and a colour page 5.3p. The printer driver offers plenty of finishing options for output such as banners and posters, which will increase as you add more paper handling features. Although not as smart as HP’s LaserJet colour-management tools, Oki includes its Color Control suite allowing you to monitor printing and restrict the use of colour to specific users.

Print quality will need to be high to satisfy Oki’s target market and the C9650n puts up a good show. One thing we like about the output from these LED printers is their rich, vibrant colours that will make your projects stand out. In a direct comparison with Canon’s LBP5960 we preferred Oki’s efforts, as its vivid colour photos had real depth. A small amount of banding was evident in large areas of single colour in our A3 posters, but it’s no worse than other lasers we’ve tested recently.

The C9650n is a big printer that can handle a high colour printing demand. Canon’s LBP5960 is a better bet for more modest requirements, but speed and expansion potential are two key reasons for choosing this printer above lower cost A3 lasers.

Konica Minolta has received one of the BERTL’s Best Awards for its magicolor 1690MF. The independent office equipment testing lab decorated the colour laser printer as outstanding in the occasional colour A4 desktop multifunctional product (MFP) category. With the Konica Minolta magicolor 1690MF home offices and small businesses benefit from high quality images and text with print, copy, scan and fax functionality in a small package.

In extensive tests over the last several months, BERTL recognised the Konica Minolta magicolor 1690MF as the 2009 BERTL’s Best in “Best Occasional Color A4 Desktop MFP” due to its following characteristics: Within the magicolor 1690MF BERTL analysts observed very high quality images and text while maintaining the device’s rated speed. Konica Minolta’s proprietary Simitri polymerised toner enhances print resolution of up to 1200 x 600 dpi and the appearance of halftone photos, graphics and large-type letters that convinced the BERTL testers. They also found, that the toner’s smaller sized and more consistent particles produce the highest quality images. In addition, BERTL analysts highlighted the magicolor 1690MF’s excellent print, copy, scan and fax functionality – all in one small package.

The Konica Minolta MFP is a perfect communication wizard for home offices and small businesses. It features a standard automatic document feeder for easier handling of originals. With its speed of 5 colour or 20 monochrome pages per minute the magicolor 1690MF is just right for the diverse everyday document production and office communication. Due to its compact design and small footprint, the awarded MFP perfectly suits in any office environment with limited space. The integrated Simitri polymerised toner ensures brilliant image quality, while the toner save mode reduces toner consumption and saves costs – for example for test prints.

“The BERTL’s Best 2009 award in the category ‘Best Occasional A4 Desktop MFP’ for our magicolor 1690MF proves our leading role in desktop multifunctional products,” says Christina Stubinski, Product Manager Printer at Konica Minolta Business Solutions Europe. “It is also an appreciation for our fruitful effort to offer a MFP that combines excellent multifunctional capabilities with high-quality colour technology and economical operation.”

According to analyst IDC, printing costs account for between one and three per cent of any company’s expenditure. In cash terms, that means the average firm prints off 1100 pages per employee per year, costing between $500 and $1500 (£309 and £926) per user.

And it could be even worse than that, according to another analyst, Infotrends. In 2001, it estimated that for every dollar spent on printing, another $6 is spent on other related costs. Though that proportion has fallen since then, the hidden costs of printing are still substantial. Print costs are hard to identify and police, as aspects are controlled by different people. And any-way, even in the digital age, people love printing. Who wouldn’t rather look at a printout over a coffee in the canteen, than be stuck at their desk with their eyes on a glowing rectangle?

It has taken a long time for companies to wake up to the fact that printers are the cause of millions lost on paper and toner, not to mention the man hours yielded to opening and closing print trays, disposing of failed layouts, hopefully pressing buttons and sorting through other people’s output collections.

Until the recession, nobody cared. Environmental concerns are a low priority among end users – otherwise, why would they be working in a big corporation? Time is an infinitely more precious commodity than toner though and the only way to -rationalise printing is to change people’s behaviour. Before that can be done, you need to look at the relationship your -users have with their printers. A printer is regarded as a status symbol: the boss in each department gets their own printer, so everyone else aspires to this status. If they can’t get a laser, an inkjet will do.

“Many organisations are swarming with printers,” says Tracy Trevallion, enterprise services sales manager for HP, which sets out to make savings for clients. “People in departments buy printers for under a hundred quid imagining they’re cheap, but of course they’re not.”

Steve Saito, chief operating officer at Ricoh Europe, says that such false bargains, and the need to be seen to be green, give IT chiefs headaches.

“CIOs are under pressure to balance environmental commitments with the business bottom line, maximising efficiencies and saving costs. They should optimise performance from equipment in order to support their own business goals,” he says.

“Managed print service providers help businesses understand their needs and transform document workflows. That leaves the CIO with more time to focus on core areas of their business.

“They also need to mitigate the business risks associated with the abuse of -office equipment.

Sisaro Koyamaibole performed well against Cardiff Blues

At just 19 years old, James Gaskell has grown from Sale Sharks Academy in to an “outstanding” lock for Sale Sharks, said Kingsley Jones. With a six foot seven inch frame, stocky power and a driven attitude, do not underestimate this young talent.

Shortly into the second half of Sharks game against Cardiff Blues last Friday, Gaskell hared off for a try of his own. Afterwards Kingsley stated, “I don’t want to single anyone out, but that young lad, Gaskell, is outstanding! To create a move purposely for him and his base was really pleasing to see.”

Gaskell’s exceptional and promising performance qualified him as the Heineken Man of The Match. Kingsley admitted, “Every club in the world will be chasing him. I’m delighted to tell all our rivals that he’s signed up with Sale for three years and they can keep their hands off him.”

Kingsley added, “He’s a fantastic prospect and I’m going to invest all my of my time and effort into him, but obviously it’s all down to him. I’m trying to give him confidence and tell him to crack on but we need to keep him where he is, he is still only nineteen”. Playing every game this season for Sale Sharks, Gaskell comments “I’ve been very fortunate to be selected to play for the first team. I’ve just tried to take the opportunity and tried to improve every game.”

Sisaro Koyamaibole also performed well as No. 8 against Cardiff on Friday. Kingsley stated, “He made some mistakes but also did some very good things. He’s going to get better, going to get fitter, going to get stronger. We’ve missed his power. We’ve missed guys that go forward and he certainly brought that.”

Captain, Dean Schofield, is right; the future is certainly solid for Sale Sharks.

Customers will have to stump up the cost of sending old printers back to be recycled

Samsung has joined other vendors and launched its own trade-in scheme for old or obsolete printers ­ but users must bear the cost.

Anthony Penton, head of marketing at Samsung’s print division, said the aim was to boost sales by giving end users a chance to save money while helping the environment.

“It makes financial and environmental sense,” Penton said. “End users go to our web site, say what they are trading in and what they want to buy and then get a cash-back quote. Then they post the printer to the recycling centre.”

Customers can send back any make or model, in return receiving cash directly into their own bank accounts, as long as they buy a new Samsung printer.

“It is up to the customer to select the preferred handler, although if necessary [recycling centre] RDC can arrange collection,” said Penton.

End users have the responsibility of packaging and delivering old printers to RDC’s central Essex returns hub. He could not say how much this might cost the customer.

“It is not possible to give an average cost because there are so many variables, including size and weight of printer, method of delivery and distance,” said Penton.

The scheme will be rolled out across Europe and will run until at least 31 July 2010, complemented by other initiatives such as Samsung’s zero-per-cent financing plan.

However, Gartner’s senior research analyst on print markets, Tosh Prabhakar, said the legwork needed might put businesses off.

“It should be simple and quick,” he said. “Such schemes will only work if you shift the responsibility to the vendor or channel partner”