Kyocera Mita Ecosys FS-1100 Monochrome Laser Printer

Kyocera Mita is a stalwart among business laser printer manufacturers and its new FS-1100 personal mono laser continues in a tradition of solidly built, long-lasting printers. The company says it's quick, robust and reliable and it looks as though it should be well suited to the SOHO market.

The printer's case has been revamped and styled in black and cream, with a couple of highlights to show its individuality. The first of these is a circular ring of LEDs, four green and two orange, providing status indications for low paper, low toner, paper jams and other calls for attention.

The second is a triangular, fold-out paper stop with a clear window through to the top of the toner cartridge inside the machine. While this is a good reminder of the part number of the toner cartridge, it would be more useful if it could show the current toner level. As it is, a sticky label would do just as well.

At the front there's a 250-sheet paper tray at the bottom, with a single-sheet slot above this for special media, such as envelopes. Flip open the top cover and you get easy access to the 4,000-page toner cartridge, the only consumable in the machine. At the back is a single USB 2.0 socket, as network connection is only an option for the FS-1100. Other options include a second 250-sheet paper tray and memory upgrades from the 32MB supplied as standard.

Setup is very straightforward; unseal the toner cartridge, clip it into position and wait for a one-time, five-minute charging cycle. Software installation is little more than a driver, though this is both well-designed and well-featured. It includes support for multiple pages per sheet, poster prints, scaling and the inclusion of separate covers, page insertions and watermarks.

Kyocera Mita claims a top speed for the FS-1100 of 28ppm, which is presumably meant to be a draft print speed. Our five page text print completed in 19 seconds, with the five page text and graphics print taking a second longer. These times equate to speeds of 15.8ppm and 15ppm, respectively, only just over half the top speed. We tried printing our five-page text and graphics test in draft mode and timed only from the start to the end of paper movement in the printer, removing all rasterising time. It still took 13 seconds for the job to complete, giving a maximum print speed of 23ppm.

30 PPM Black & White Laser Printer

Controller: PowerPC405F5 360MHz

Standard Hi-Speed USB 2.0 Interface

Standard 251 Sheet Paper Capacity

Maximum Monthly Volume of 20,000 Pages

Optional 250 Sheet Paper Feeder

Optional Network Card

Toner Yield: 4,000 Pages @ 5% Coverage

Toner Cost Per Page: $0.018000 (MSRP)

Kyocera Mita Ecosys FS-1100 Monochrome Laser Printer