Issue #0627/1 - Canon is attempting to repeat the sub-brand success of its consumer product ranges in the small business arena with almost nothing to identify the brand - i-Sensys.
Running alongside its other sub-brands (e.g. SELPHY, PIXMA, Digital IXUS, etc.), Canon has announced a new sub-brand covering laser printers and multifunction devices for the Small Office and Home Office (SOHO) market – i-Sensys.
Canon makes the usual claims about the new devices being “compact, easy to use, and that work efficiently in any office environment” but there are few features highlighted in the early information published on these devices that show that Canon is on track with efficient and cost-effective office printing and the demands of the SOHO environment.
For instance, all of the new machines are duplex-ready straight out of the box – a good move.
Rather strangely though, although Canon has seen fit to build a network interface into the printers as standard – also a good move - the MFPs rely on the customer purchasing an external print server from a third party manufacturer for network access.
i-SENSYS LBP3360At the bottom end of the new i-Sensys range as announced is a 21ppm mono laser printer, i-Sensys LBP3360. In addition to the standard networking and duplexing mentioned, this device will accept a second paper input feed to take the maximum capacity to 500-sheets.
Based on the LBP3300 engine, the LBP3360 continues with the same 6,000-page high capacity toner cartridge as an alternative to the standard 3,000-page unit that ships with the machine, meaning that users are able to minimise toner interventions.
Even though the 6,000-page cartridge is in line with those available for competitive machines from Epson, Hewlett-Packard, Konica Minolta and Oki, this yield is far superior to the rather mean 2,500 pages available from Brother and 2,000 pages from Lexmark. Even more abysmal is the fact that the Lexmark E120N ships with a miserable 500 pages-worth of toner (how low can Lexmark take it before buyers react?).
In contrast, Kyocera Mita’s FS-1030DN is well-endowed with a yield of 7,200 pages, though buyers must be aware that half of the initial cartridge is sucked into the machine on installation as the system is primed. This 3,600 pages-worth of toner is then effectively inaccessible as the printer will request a new toner once the toner cartridge is empty, not when the system as a whole is empty.
Because the LBP3360 uses this existing cartridge set, we are able to make cost comparisons now, even though the machine is not yet available and full pricing for the range has not yet been released.
All machines listed here are network-ready models, though in some cases standalone base versions are available as well.
However, Hewlett-Packard and Kyocera Mita are the only competitors in this class also to offer a duplex-ready machine as the base version and several (Brother, Konica Minolta, Lexmark and Oki) do not even have an automatic duplex unit as an option. This leaves Epson, with its Konica Minolta driven EPL-6200 as the only machine to offer a duplex option (as long as the optional 500-sheet additional paper feed is also installed).
At £319 / €462, Canon’s i-Sensys LBP3360 is surprisingly expensive for its specification, despite the inclusion of network interface and duplex unit as standard. Even Kyocera Mita’s printer, with its network interface and duplex capability, costs £10 less to purchase than the LBP3360 –and Kyocera Mita is well-known for its high initial purchase price but very low running costs.
Indeed the LBP3360 is the most expensive in the group and yet it is the only printer in the group to be GDI-only when the Epson and Hewlett-Packard machines offer PostScript as well as PCL.
On this basis – lack of PCL or PostScript, and most expensive in the group – reduces the attractiveness of the Canon i-Sensys LBP3360 considerably because it means that the machine is probably the least cost-effective in the group.
At a nominal CPP of 1.32 pence, and falling towards the lower end of the group (beaten only be Kyocera Mita and Oki), the running costs do not appear to be too unreasonable at first glance. Bearing in mind that the Lexmark is more than twice as costly to run and the Brother is more than 50% more costly to run, the LBP-3360 is by no means the most expensive.
With the purchase price also taken into account though, the long-term running cost falls rather more towards the middle of the group with the Hewlett-Packard and Konica Minolta machines managing to undercut the Canon because of lower purchase prices.
| Print Speed | Purchase | Nominal CPP | Long-term CPP | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Brother HL-2070N |
20ppm | £299 | 2.03 pence | 2.61 pence |
|
Canon i-Sensys LBP3360 |
21ppm | £319 | 1.32 pence | 2.11 pence |
| Epson EPL-6200N | 20 ppm | £288 | 1.53 pence | 2.22 pence |
|
Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 1320N |
21 ppm | £286 | 1.38 pence | 2.10 pence |
|
Konica Minolta Konica Minolta |
20ppm | £199 | 1.57 pence | 2.07 pence |
|
Kyocera Mita FS-1030DN |
22ppm | £309 | 0.74 pence | 1.39 pence |
| Lexmark E120n | 20ppm | £87 | 2.98 pence | 3.19 pence |
| Oki B4350n | 22ppm | £299 | 1.23 pence | 1.75 pence |
Note that for this group of printers, the long-term Cost of Printing over three years shown in the accompanying table is calculated on the basis of 1,250 pages per month; is based on the use of maximum capacity supplies; takes into account any standard, or starter, supplies shipped with the device; and also includes the cost of purchase. All prices are manufacturer’s recommended prices without tax.
Lexmark, in particular, is way out on its own in terms of overall running costs, despite having the lowest purchase price in the group by a massive 56% from the nearest competitor (Konica Minolta PagePro 1350EN) and 73% below the Canon itself. Long-term CPP, at 3.19 pence, is a phenomenal 51% higher than Canon’s and 129% higher than the amazingly frugal and capable Kyocera Mita FS-1030DN.
So we certainly can’t say that the Canon i-Sensys LBP3360 is all bad on a cost basis (although it certainly is quite a mouthful!).
In the colour space, Canon brings the i-Sensys LBP5300 to the SOHO scene. Not a simple refresh of the LaserShot LBP5000 or LBP5200, the i-Sensys LBP5300 is a 21ppm single-pass colour printer - driven by a GDI controller like its mono LBP3360 companion but without the built-in network capability. In other words, it is a basic single-pass colour laser printer at a price that is anything but basic by today’s standards - £799 / €1,156.
i-SENSYS LBP5300Little relevant information is available at this time, except that it comes with healthy 6,000-page toner cartridges and is capable of supporting Macintosh and Linux computers.
However, with Duplex printing built-in, it is set to compete against machines such as the Dell 5110cn (£475), Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 3600DN (£727), Konica Minolta magicolor 5440DLD (£880), Lexmark C524DN (£624), Oki C5600dn (£599), Oki C5700dn (£735), Oki C5800dn, Oki C5900dn (£895), Xerox Phaser 8500DN (£699) and Xerox Phaser 8550DP (£849) – all but three of which cost less to buy.
If experience with other Canon printers carries over to this one, then the CPP will be high as well.
i-SENSYS MF4120& MF4140
In the long run, Canon’s new i-Sensys printers cannot be considered to be value for money in their individual classes. The company might have created a sub-brand in an attempt to draw SOHO customers to its laser printers in the way that it has drawn consumers with digital cameras but, in this instance, the cost of the brand is just too high to offer a real value advantage.
On the MFP front, a group of three mono devices are due to become available in November – i-Sensys MF4120, MF4140 and MF4150.
These are all rated at 20ppm. The MF4120 is a basic Print/Copy/Scan (colour scan) device, while the MF4140 adds fax functionality and the MF4150 adds a 35-sheet Automatic Document Feeder (ADF) in addition.
At this stage, with no pricing available, there appear to be two major downsides to the devices:
- firstly, the fact that the toner cartridge contains toner for only 2,000 pages – not enough for a busy office using the device as printer and copier and sure to mean that it will be expensive to run
- and secondly, the interface is USB 2.0 only – no integrated network interface in sight.
i-SENSYS MF4150Lack of network interface is a big mistake for an All-in-One/multifunction device targeted at the SOHO environment. Even the smallest of organisations are almost certain to require access to a machine of this type from more than one PC.
To round up this brief review of the founder products of Canon’s new i-Sensys brand, it has to be said that the range is a disappointment.
On the printer front, pricing is not competitive and there is no reason to believe that the MFPs will be any different. The products themselves are uninspiring technically, with little more than integrated duplex capability on all models and integrated network interface on the printers to recommend them.
And then there is the brand image and identity. One would have expected a ‘sub-brand’ from a company like Canon to have a clear brand identity such that all devices can be instantly recognised as i-Sensys family products. But, quite frankly, there is no synergy between the three device classes.
One could easily mistake the mono printer, the colour printer and the MFPs as being from three different manufacturers and there is certainly little to differentiate them from the Hewlett-Packard products that use the same engines. Based purely on looks, the mono printers and MFPs could even be from a manufacturer such as Kyocera Mita or perhaps Brother.
If i-Sensys is intended to be “the unifying theme of all Canon’s laser products”, then it is the only one.
In summary, the new brand with its current range of products is unlikely to raise any temperatures.
~End~
