Oki Printing Solutions C5800Ldn Review

If you’re looking for a reasonably priced color printer capable of speedily churning out quality text printouts and does not require you to keep refilling the paper, the Oki C5800Ldn is the best thing in the market for you.

The Oki C5800Ldn is the latest descendant from the line of laser printers produced by the same company, only edgier. Though there isn’t much distinction from the printers before it in terms of hardware design, the difference is in the performance.

The C5800Ldn is faster. Best of all, it’s cheaper than its predecessors. Priced at $799, it has a built-in duplexer, which allows the simultaneous printing on both sides of a paper. The duplexer feature is made available to older Oki printer models for an additional $320.

A certain questionable aspect to the Oki Printer Solutions C5800Ldn is its way of using your computer’s processor to tap into the Windows graphical device interface (GDI). Many other printers make use of Printer Control Language (PCL) and use its own processor for faster printing.

Surprisingly, the C5800Ldn stands its ground when put to the test. Text documents can come shooting out at 19.5 pages per minute, while color graphics get churned out at 6.1 pages per minute. Text printout quality is sharp and crisp, albeit a bit lighter.

The printout is also lighter with line art, but it cleverly picks up even the thinnest and most precise lines. Despite of the impressive attention to detail, slight vertical banding and graininess can appear in lines close to each other.

Grayscale printing on the C5800Ldn can get a bit more perplexing. The printout on this one came out too dark to illustrate proper shadow detail and had a slight off-color cast. Color graphics come out looking very much like an actual photograph, thanks to the glossy quality of the ink.

However, look out for the dithering patterns that show up in the finished printout. It doesn’t help either to use glossy paper or crank the driver up to a higher-quality printing. Narrow banding can make horizontal and vertical lines come up with dark and off-color tints.

This printer can hold up to 300 sheets of paper, so you don’t have to keep refilling the drawer every time you want to print. The multipurpose feeder tray can be folded down and can hold 100 sheets extra. Nevertheless, it probably isn’t a good idea to load more than ten envelopes of paper at a time.

For those of you who demand more paper-carrying capability from their printers, it is possible to add a 530-sheet drawer for the price of $456, allowing the C5800Ldn to carry up to 930 sheets maximum. The output bin on top of the printer unit can hold up to 250 sheets, while a separate face-up stacker that can fold down from the back of the unit can carry another 100 sheets.

One toner cartridge for this particular printer should be able to handle up to 200 pages. The C5800Ldn comes with four toner cartridges. Because the printer has a horizontal paper path, its large footprint is understandable (16.7 by 22.1 by 13.6 inches-at least it doesn’t loom over the desk like vertical printers). The horizontal path plan makes replacing ink cartridges easier.

Even the inks are cheaper by far with this printer, with the black inks going for $90 and $144 for each of the three colors. Each ink cartridge has a 5000-page capacity. At every 20,000 pages, it may be necessary to replace the ink drums. At least they come at a reasonable price of $68 for black and $74 for each of the three colors. Both the fuser unit and the transfer belt boasts of a 60,000 page capability and are under warranty replacement. The breakdown of finances comes down to 2.1 cents per monochrome printout and 11.9 cents for color.

The Oki Printing Solutions C5800Ldn handles its paper well, prints quickly, and is cost-efficient, making it a good choice for any active office environment.