The Oki B4100 is a black-only laser printer with a difference. Instead of the traditional lasers used by its rivals, it uses LEDs (light emitting diodes), which are designed to provide good print quality with low running costs.

We found that the B4100's print quality was generally of a high standard. The text we printed at average point sizes was reproduced accurately, as was text at small point sizes.

Looking at the text through a microscope revealed some slightly smudged characters, but admittedly, these are largely invisible to the naked eye and, therefore, irrelevant to all but the most demanding of requirements.

As with many LED printers, we found that images and PDF documents printed on the Oki tended to look slightly faded, but our straw poll found that many people actually preferred this look. Print speed was fast at 18 pages per minute, as was the time it took to produce the first page (six seconds). Usefully, the B4100 has a 'straight-line paper path' which makes it less susceptible to paper jams when feeding heavy paper, envelopes or labels.

The low running costs also are an impressive feature of this printer. Replacement toner cartridges cost about £19, and can produce around 2,500 pages.

The £150 price tag is a bit high but, if you want a printer that produces good results and will save you money in the long-run, the B4100 is hard to beat.

Contact:
Oki 01753 819819
www.oki.com