Kyocera Ecosys M6526cidn review

Kyocera’s Ecosys M6526cidn is no run-of-the-mill A4 laser MFP: this is a HyPAS printer. More accurately, it has Kyocera’s HyPAS (hybrid platform for advanced solutions) enabled, which supplements standard print, copy, fax and scan functions with a choice selection of onboard apps.

Note that you’ll need an SD card of at least 4GB installed in the printer, and you’re limited to five HyPAS apps, but there’s a huge range of free and paid-for apps to choose from. We tested Kyocera’s free Cloud Connect app, which provides direct access to Google Drive and Evernote. The PKG file is installed on the printer from a USB stick, and you then apply the included security certificates using the HyPAS web interface.

Selecting Google Drive from the printer’s touchscreen allowed us to easily browse folders and print files, or scan directly to specific folders in our account. We had no problems with Evernote either: we could browse and print selected notes or upload scans as new notes.

Kyocera’s SmartScan and Colour Control apps cost £125 each, and there are many third-party developers offering all manner of paid-for apps. It’s a great way to add functionality to your device.

Our only issue is with the printer’s 4.3in colour touchscreen: it’s a little too small for comfort, so precise fingerpresses are required to enter account details and control your HyPAS apps.

At the M6526cidn’s foundation is a 26ppm print engine, teamed up with a 600ppi flatbed scanner and 50-page ADF. The scanner is a duplex model, but not in the true sense: the ADF reverses the paper after scanning the first side, so you’ll be waiting a little longer for results to emerge.

The Ecosys M6526cidn has a 250-sheet input tray and supports two more 500-sheet lower trays. Running costs are on the high side for this market sector: the four toner cartridges and engineer-installed maintenance kit push costs for mono and colour pages to 1.3p and 6.5p.

Print speeds are fine: a 26-page Word document was quietly delivered in 59 seconds, while a 24-page DTP document with large photos and graphics took 55 seconds using the Publications driver setting. Duplexing the latter returned 14ppm, with a time to first page of 11 seconds.

Along with pin-sharp text, the M6526cidn delivers high-quality mono photos. Colour quality is good enough for business reports, but colour photos appear slightly pallid and lack the vibrancy of Dell’s C2660dn.

Network scan options abound: you can send captures to an email address, an FTP server, an SMB share or a USB stick in the front port. Kyocera’s TWAIN driver also lets you remotely access the scanner from a PC.

There’s support for AirPrint, and we also used Kyocera’s Mobile Print app on our iPad to print to and scan from the M6526cidn. We could send documents directly to the printer’s FTP server using the FileZilla app, and add up to three POP accounts where emails were printed on receipt.

The Ecosys M6526cidn is speedy, and delivers a fine range of office printing features. The HyPAS support elevates it above the average A4 MFP, but has a dramatic impact on the price: this printer is more than £300 more expensive than the non-HyPAS model.