Reviews4,313 Reviews

All Reviews > Hardware > Printers > Mono laser printers

June 26, 2009

Oki B6500n review

Product Code: 09004455

Oki's B6500n competes with monochrome laser printers using its distinctive LED-based technology (the machine uses a page-wide array of LEDs, instead of a moving laser beam, to create images). Like other printers in its price range - such as the HP LaserJet P4014n and the Lexmark T652n - it's designed to be a workhorse. The B6500n could compete better with the others if it weren't hampered by various design problems.

Although the B6500n is fast, its print quality varies. Oki claims a top engine speed of 45 pages per minute (ppm); and in our tests it reached 40.1ppm - better than most competitors could manage. Its graphics speed was a more typical 7.3ppm, but the Oki's graphics quality dismayed us: regardless of the type of image we printed, we saw washed-out shades and roughness or horizontal banding.

The Oki B6500n comes standard with a 550-sheet input tray and a 150-sheet multipurpose tray, plus a 500-sheet output tray and an auxiliary, straight-paper-path rear output that holds 70 sheets. The unit doesn't include automatic duplexing, but it is an optional extra. Not enough paper capacity? You can also ass one or two more 550-sheet input trays.

Unfortunately, these trays were carelessly designed. Neither the guides nor most markings are colour-coded, so it's easy to miss things such as where to stop the length guide for letter-size paper. Extending the trays to legal-size requires unlocking two latches; the instructions for doing this are stamped into bottom of the Oki B6500n's tray and are not coloured, so they're hard to find, let alone read. Connectivity includes USB, ethernet, and even the older parallel and serial ports.

The control-panel design is almost perfect: clearly labelled and uncluttered. Oki provides four-way arrow buttons for navigating menus on the two-line, 16-character monochrome LCD. Which arrow direction to choose can be unclear, particularly when the B6500n's left/right arrows must be used for moving up or down.

The Oki B6500n ships with a 6000-page starter cartridge and per-page costs are good.

Buy it now: click here

VERDICT >
1 | 2 | NEXT >

null

Best Prices

£623
Go»
£624
Go»
£636
Go»
Prices, delivery and availability at 8 retailers
Go»

Keep up to date by adding PC Advisor Reviews to your iGoogle home page or Google Reader

What is this?

Subscribe to PC Advisor now and claim your FREE gift

Question of the day!

Does your smartphone replace your need for a laptop when on the move?

Question of the day!

Does your smartphone replace your need for a laptop when on the move?

% of PC Advisor readers agree with you

Yes
TBC
No
TBC

What tasks can your smartphone do that would have traditionally been done on a laptop?

119 characters remaining

Follow the conversation at @SmartphoneFocus

web browsing, search facilities, voip, email, word processing everything RT @Graham_D_C

Mainly email but getting better at spreadsheets etc, RT @IDGdan

Total reviews: 4,313

Click here to buy now

See product specs

expert rating

Overall

3.5/5

expert rating

Oki B6500n

READER REVIEWS


Google


Recent reviews

Reviews index


Latest reader reviews

Latest reader reviews


Top news

News index


Latest blog entries

Blogs index


Sponsored Content

  • Take the internet to new places with the Nokia N800
    Communicate how you want to, where you want to with instant messaging, email and internet calling. View movies, browse the internet wirelessly and watch TV on the high-resolution screen and listen through high-quality stereo speakers with headphone jack.
    Buy now