Color - 21 ppm Mono - 17 ppm Color - Parallel - Fast Ethernet - PC, Mac, SPARC - MPN: 400832
Strengths: Price, speed, ease of use, networking.
Weakness: None found yet
This is an awesome step up from the B/W laser & inkjet combination that I'd been using. I was able to set it up and get it running very quickly on a SOHO network with 4 Macs, a WinXp machine and a Linux box. It works beautifully with all of them, and grabbed a DHCP address right away from my router. From low power mode to printed page is about 5 seconds.
I've yet to see how consumable costs will really shake out, but they'll certainly be an improvement over my previous setup!
I'm about to try photo printing on HP glossy laser paper - I expect excellent results based on the plain paper images, but will post here once done.
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TopStrengths: The size is not much bigger than my monochrome HP4200, True 1200 x 1200 dpi for awesome output! True adobe postrscript, USB standard as well as NIC, and warm up time in less than 31 seconds!
Weakness: Ricoh does not advertise this great color laser? I found this product by mistake.???????
I had an LED color laser and I will never buy anything other than a true color laser like the Ricoh CL3000 again! I highly recommend it and feel confidence in the product as Ricoh is the #1 copier and multifunction manufacturer in the world! My duplex speed is also as fast as my simplex speed. I also can print up to 28 lb paper stock at up to 17ppms in color and 21 in black and white! I compared my Ricoh to Lexmark's LED color, OKI's LED Color and HP 4600 color laser and there is no comparison!
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TopStrengths: Low entry price, good quality & speed
Weakness: Reliability, high cost to maintain
Our company owns several of these printers. We were originally paying for maintenance and supplies on a "per-page" basis. That cost was a bit high, so we switched to paying for supplies and maintenance as needed. Our average coverage is low, so this seemed to make sense. The ongoing cost of these printers is very high. One needed a new black drum unit after about 10,000 pages. The number of maintenance calls and the cost of the toner makes these printers very expensive. Our page counts are 1/8 to 1/2 of the "duty cycle" that is published. Maybe they would work fine in a low volume situation. Don't be fooled by the high duty cycle. If this printer is pushed to page counts near the duty cycle, you will be sorry.
We also own comparable models from Xerox & HP that seem to be much more reliable.
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TopStrengths: High Speed, Outstanding Color, Optional Duplexer (which arrived before the printer), Compact, & Windows/Mac/LINIX Friendly
Weakness: Documentation could use a major rewrite - but on todays scale - guess it's as good as other companies. But could use improvements.
I researched over 20 Color Laser Printers - I needed Moderate Speed, Duplex Capability, Excellent Color Graphics/Photos, Low Operational Cost and ease of use. I use both PCs and Macs and need the printer on the network to work with both at ease. The Ricoh CL3000 fit the profile - the cost was quite reasonable - I did get the $200 rebate which paid for the duplexor accessory. It should actually be included - but it's an option. The color is outstanding - the printer is at least as fast as it's company speed tests, it's quiet and quite compact for a full function Color Laser Workgroup Printer. My highest recommendation - just wonder why Ricoh doesn't advertise this machine. Anyway, I have one and Love it!
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TopStrengths: Graphics, text, and photo quality - equal to any competition. Price, price, price - nothing compares. Small footprint - nothing compares in its class. Connectivity and ease of set-up excellent
Weakness: Noise
For the price, you simply cannot buy anything close to this printer, with all its features and quality. My first one had a manufacturing problem, which I let Ricoh and PC Connection know about. PC Connection had a new one at my house the next day before I even packed the old one up; I was astounded. In the past nine months, this printer has churned out thousands of pages of perfect color newsletters, etc., at a cost of about $.08 a color page, 1/3 less than the HPs, Dells, Minoltas, etc.
It makes a lot of strange noises when it's printing and setting up, and it runs hot if you print more than 100 pages at a time, but I can live with that (if you're doing double-sided, simply let the first batch cool off and come back for the other side after you've printed a second batch).
As for cheap plastic parts, that is nonsense, because this product has no more plastic parts than its competition, including the HPs (ALL cheap plastic parts - and I'm a longtime HP laser user and fan), the Lexmarks, the Dells and the Minoltas.
I've owned/used a number of lasers, and there isn't a model out there that doesn't have a paper-feed problem on occasion with heavy glossy stock, or suddenly get a mind of its own on occasion and print a washed-out copy. This printer is no different - it's the nature of the beast.
Out of perhaps 30,000 pages so far, I've had probably 10 sheets of business cards with color problems on the logo, probably 10-20 pages with "splotching", and a couple of page-size photos with UFO trails. The rest have been perfect (card stock, glossy, parchment, two-sided - which is NOT recommended but works fine, etc).
I even took on some photo jobs from friends with the OKI and others with the HP because their colors were so far off. The colors on the Ricoh are very true to photo-reality, unusual even in printers costing $2000 from my experience.
The simple fact that you can get a single-pass printer of this quality in this price range is a technology miracle.
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TopStrengths: fast, fairly accurate color, not difficult to set up
Weakness: utilities/functions available to Mac users not equal to Windows users
Worried after reading some reviews but glad I bought it. Set up was not difficult and knowing it connects to Macs with Ethernet cable made it simple, despite no clear instructions about that part of it.
After setup, when first starting up, calibrating, etc. it emitted loud, scary cracking noises, but nothing went wrong (no broken plastic). Can be a little noisy but so was old bubblejet -- energy saver mode is silent. A lot taller than my old Apple Laserwriter 360 but not much bigger footprint.
Re Mac vs PC weaknesses: example is ability to shorten energy saver mode start to 15 minutes instead of default 1 hour.
As a graphic designer, more color management info would be appreciated but figured out color is more accurate in RGB mode as opposed to CMYK, even with color calibration. Printing thumbnail spreads 2-3 up on letter paper is problematic--3 up is probably wanting too much. Got better results using the printer's set-up rather than the programs' set-ups (Quark, InDesign and Acrobat).
Still a very good color printer for the price! Seeing current prices I'm glad I bought it back then.
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TopStrengths: Fast at up to 21ppm, even printing complex and large files! Great true 1200 x 1200 dpi and speedy warm up time!
Weakness: It was a little awkward getting the waste toner bottle in, but once I did it, it will be a breeze next time!
I can not believe the small size of this color laser! Its slightly larger than most of the Black & White laser printers! I had a few questions on what types of paper Ricoh advises one to use and their 1-800-ricoh-38 line was extremely helpful!!!! I highly recommend this product and encourage one to recommend this product to other as this was how I was turned on to it!!!
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TopStrengths: Nice looking prints..... at least when it prints.
Weakness: Made of flimsy plastic parts, that are always breaking!
Big, heavy, loud, hot, and did I meantion it breaks.... ALOT! Every week I get a call about this printer, and every time I open it up some broken piece of plastic falls out!! Terrible printer! Bought this printer as a result of reading the reviews on this site. Don't believe them. This printer has given me trouble from day one.If your looking for a reliable printer, this isn't it. Had a quarter inch peice of plastic break on the color photo toner roller and then had to go buy a whole new roller. $330 for the roller!!! BELIEVE ME, DON'T BUY THIS PRINTER!
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TopStrengths: It's fairly fast.
Weakness: This printer is loud, so you don't want to put it in your office. Difficult to use. Very expensive to operate. The print quality leaves a lot to be desired.
I got sucked in by the low price, but I guess they were desperate to sell them. You give up a lot in print quality, and the speed doesn't live up to the specs.
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TopStrengths: nice looking prints, rewasonably fast for small office, cheap out of te box(uner 800)
Weakness: High maintenance cost
Operated one of these for a couple years.
Was constantly replacing photoconductor units( color and b/w) at under well under 50% of the rated life.
The cost of these units alone well exceed the cost of the printer annually. I just replaced this printer with a Xerox (solid color toner), sold my CL300) on ebay for $100 and was happy to cut my losses.
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TopStrengths: Good Color, moderate speed. I purchased it from COSTCO over the internet COSTCO store for $780. plus shipping and tax. It took about 3 days to deliver it.
Weakness: Ricoh has not finished thier Macintosh print Drivers for this machine. The Machine will only print on a local Ethernet. Ricoh needs to develop a USB2 Print Driver for the Mac.
I'm operating a Mac G4 with MAC OS System 10.3.3 System. Ricoh has only finished making print drivers for System 10.2.1 I wish Ricoh Japan would put more effort into finishing the Macintosh Print drivers for this printer because it is potentially a great printer. Ricoh also promised a wireless printing for the Mac. Ricoh still has not finished thier drivers. I worked with thier Chicago Techs for several hours and we made the Color Laser print even though Ricoh has not finished making the self install Mac Print Drivers. Costco recommended purchasing a printer wireless device. The printer wireless device Costco recommends will only work for ink jet printers.
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TopStrengths: Ease of use, print quality, size and print speed!
Weakness: Printer memory is a little bit expensive
Before purchasing the printer. I read 4 reviews that I found on the Internet. 3 Reviews were positive one was completely unflattering. This caused me to take a harder look at the machine before purchasing. When I got the printer I was able to set it up in less than 45 minutes. The printer is great! I printed using all three drivers and all of them produced excellent results. There was a concern from one of the reviews that the printer was noisy. Well I found it to be quieter and smoother than the $2500 Xerox color printer I purchased two years ago. It's compact and easy to use. You cannot beat this printer for the price. The people at Ricoh clearly have no idea about marketing because this printer is not available at the local retail shops (pity) and it should be! I would certainly write an e-mail to the marketing guru at Ricoh (if I knew his e-mail) and let him know of the lost financial opportunity he has missed for Ricoh; Ricoh could easily corner the market with this printer and set the standard for printer companies such as HP to follow. I also purchased the duplex unit, which I have not received yet. But I will bet it will work flawlessly like the printer. The only thing that I found a little problematic was the fact that the printer memory is a little on the expensive side. I only wished Ricoh had used standard memory instead of their proprietary memory.
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Ricoh Aficio CL3000 Laser Printer
Strengths: Price, Speed, Cost of consumables, Quality!
Weakness: None that I can find. Super reliable. Not one paper jam.
This printer is amazing in my opinion. It is remarkably well priced for a one pass color printer. It is four times faster than the Minolta 2300 series. Has a 50,000 copy per month duty cycle and comes network ready. This handles paper wonderfully and the by pass tray can handle heavy duty glossy laser card stock. Make sure that you never use anything but laser rated paper. Inkjet paper will melt and ruin your laser on the first pass.
I can't imagine what the negative feed back was about. This is an astoundingly great printer at a killer price. Great photos, crisp black text, quiet, economical. What's not to like?
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