Oki C711n review

The Oki C711n is a real monster of a printer. lt comes with a warning sticker on the box that says “heavy item”- and at 28kg, they aren’t joking. lt’s also spatially large: this isn’t a printer that you’ll be able to install in every classroom. Not only will the size of it mean you wouldn’t want to, but the high price point also means it would cost too much money. At more than £650, this is the most expensive printer in this test.

lt may just be a single-function colour laser printer without any wireless networking capabilities, but it’s a highly specified colour laser. lt has exceptionally high print speeds, reaching 36ppm in our tests, and print quality is excellent: crisp black text, and detailed photo prints with natural colours. lt’s the only device here to come anywhere near the quality of the HP CP2025n in this respect.

However, while the Oki is quick, it’s also very noisy: it emits some impressive banging and clanking from inside the plastic shelL You wouldn’t want this printer in the classroom while you’re teaching.

The Oki can take a whopping 530 sheets of paper in its main input tray, and a further 100 sheets in a multipurpose tray that can also take transparencies and card stock. This model can be connected to a PC or server via a USB cable, or networked over Ethernet. Thanks to the easy-to-use software, we had no problems getting the printer up and running reliably across the latter.

The C711n’s toner cartridges are expensive, with a full set costing around £427. However, these last around 11,500 pages, which puts the price per colour page at less than 1p. Mono print costs are even cheaper, at 0.7p per page. If you need high throughput, the Oki could end up saving you money long-term. Its sheer size, weight and noise means it isn’t the perfect printer for a classroom – and the purchase price is undeniably hefty – but if you need a printer to share across many users, it’s still a worthwhile choice.