TCPglobal - news, views and issues on total cost of printing

Login
Subscribe to TCPGlobal

Epson slow in speeding up

Issue #0527/1 - A year from the first sighting of the Fuji Xerox engine, Epson has launched its AcuLaser C4200 colour laser printer with 25ppm colour and 35ppm mono print speed.

While Brother looks to be phasing out its use of Fuji Xerox colour laser engines, at least for the time-being, Epson has launched its version of the 35/25ppm engine shared with Dell and, of course, Xerox itself.

It took Xerox eight months to launch a product of its own using the ‘new’ Fuji Xerox engine and Epson’s product, the AcuLaser C4200 series, now launches a full year after Dell introduced its 5100cn.

This engine is aimed at providing all-round printing for the office workgroup environment, with mono printing at 35ppm and colour printing at 25ppm. Xerox retains its exclusive arrangement with Fuji Xerox on the up-rated engine, used in the Phaser 6350, that prints at 35ppm in colour as well as in mono.

Where all-round printing is concerned, the importance of attractive running costs is all the more important whereas, for specialised printing, higher costs are expected. In terms of purchase price, the Epson AcuLaser C4200 is far from the cheapest colour laser printer in the class, coming in even higher than Xerox’s equivalent. However, its consumables are priced sufficiently competitively for it to fall in a good position in the pack where overall running costs are concerned.

UK
Fuji Xerox engines 		Purchase Print Speed Nominal CPP Mixed Mono/Colour
CPP over 3 years
Dell 5100cn £559 Mono
Colour 		35 ppm
25 ppm 		0.62 pence
4.33 pence 		1.89 pence
Epson
AcuLaser C4100 		£877 Mono
Colour 		24 ppm
24 ppm 		1.03 pence
7.33 pence 		3.16 pence
Epson
AcuLaser C4200DN 		£1,128 Mono
Colour 		35 ppm
25 ppm 		1.19 pence
6.24 pence 		3.11 pence
Xerox Phaser 6300DN £1,049 Mono
Colour 		35 ppm
25 ppm 		1.50 pence
7.20 pence 		3.58 pence
Xerox Phaser 6350DP £1,249 Mono
Colour 		35 ppm
35 ppm 		1.41 pence
6.36 pence 		3.42 pence

Note that for this level of machine, the mixed mono/colour CPP over three years shown in the accompanying table is calculated on the basis of 5,000 pages per month (30% colour, 70% mono) using maximum capacity toners and takes into account any standard, or starter, toner cartridges shipped with the printer and includes the purchase price.

Only Konica Minolta’s magicolor 5450 and Kyocera Mita’s FS-C5030N are more competitive than the AcuLaser but, while Epson’s offering comes in with a significantly lower running cost that the Xerox models (up to 13%), Dell’s aggressive pricing stance is not challenged, giving it an overall 40% advantage over Epson – and its purchase price is only half that of the AcuLaser C4200.

Epson’s AcuLaser C4200 demonstrates lower colour running costs than the 24ppm AcuLaser 4100 (still available and included for comparative purposes), but the mono CPP has been increased. Thankfully the mono CPP has not been increased enough to raise the overall CPP above that of the 4100 at our 30% colour, 70% mono print ratio. This will certainly benefit users whose print mix is weighted towards colour printing but will disadvantage users whose use of colour is rather more occasional (less than 25%).

Please note that consumable yields may be quoted differently by Epson subsidiaries in different countries. This will affect the calculated CPP for that country. Similarly, the variants without PCL5 may not be available in certain countries.

Epson AcuLaser C4200DNEpson AcuLaser C4200DN
Several variants of the AcuLaser C4200 are available. The DN base version is already exceedingly capable as a workgroup printer with Ethernet and duplex capability out of the box. Moving upwards, the DTN model has an additional 1,100-page paper feed, while the DNPC5 and DTNPC5 are variants of the two models providing PCL5 emulation for those who feel they need it on top of genuine Adobe PostScript version 3 and Epson’s own Page Description Language, Escape Page/Colour.
Xerox Phaser 6300Xerox Phaser 6300
Although these four printers all make use of the same base engine, it should not be assumed that they are all the same as one another or that cheaper is better simply because they all use the same engine! Indeed, even though there are distinct similarities between the external casings used for the different printers, they are by no means identical. Epson has held most closely to the Xerox design while Dell went for a chunky and rather less attractive look.
Dell 5100cnDell 5100cn
On top of the engine, the printer requires a print controller that tells the machine how to print the page and software for management and usability. While Xerox is, quite rightly, proud of the quality of its Phaser controller, some doubt has been cast as to the quality of controllers used by Dell. Although this does not necessarily render the printer incapable or of poor quality, controllers such as the Phaser controller offer additional features and draw on Xerox’s (and Tektronix’) many years of experience in the hard copy industry. Xerox unabashedly declares that the high quality of its print systems justifies the price premium applied.

Epson also has a long heritage in print, enjoying many years as one of the prime leaders in the inkjet market. In this new laser printer, Epson has pushed the envelope with a higher addressable resolution than any other laser printer. Having pushed addressable resolution to 5,700dpi in its inkjet printers, Epson’s newest iteration of RIT (Resolution Enhancement Technology) for laser printers extends to 4,800dpi.

_-0527-consumables.jpg
Using a photo from Xerox by way of illustration, we can see that the design of the engine has allowed easy access to the consumable items at the top of the machine, a feature that Epson specifically mentions in its pres release. Xerox uses a translucent blue cover over the cartridges, similar to casings used by Apple in some of the iMac products. Interestingly, when translucent covers were in vogue, Xerox made a version of one of its solid ink printers with a translucent casing – it was not a success!

Maximum paper capacity on the AcuLaser C4200 is a healthy 2,350 pages and the printer comes with 10/100 Base Tx Ethernet, USB 2.0 and parallel interfaces for maximum flexibility. In addition, an Epson Type B interface is available as an option for use in Novel network environments.

~End~

This entry was posted on Monday, September 19th, 2005 at 12:03 am and is filed under Print Technology, Hardware, New Products, Issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.