Ricoh MP 1350 User Manual

Ricoh Aficio MP1350

135 PPM Copier • Printer • Scanner

Test duration: Two months, including a one million-impres-

sion durability test.

May 2007

Ricoh Aficio MP1350

BUYERS LABORATORY INC. Lab Test Report

A Comprehensive BLI Laboratory Evaluation

Reliability .............................................Very Good

Multitasking ................................................. Good

Administrative Utilities ............................. Very Good

Feedback to Workstations ........................... Excellent

Ease of Network Setup .............................. Very Good

Print Drivers .......................................... Very Good

Applications Compatibility .......................... Excellent

Scan Functions ....................................... Very Good

Print/Copy Quality ................................... Very Good

Print/Copy Productivity ............................. Very Good

Ease of Use ............................................ Very Good

Feature Set ................................................. Good

Toner Yield ............................................. Excellent

Cost per Page .................................................. NA

Value ................................................... Very Good

* Cost per page could not be calculated as pricing is set by dealers

and was not provided by Ricoh.

1

Maximum monthly duty cycle: 1.9 million impressions.
Manufacturer’s maximum recommended monthly volume: 1 million impressions.
BLI’s recommended monthly duty cycle for peak usage: Up to 850,000 impressions.

BLI RECOMMENDATION

The Ricoh Acio MP1350 gave a good overall performance in BLI’s battery of

ALSO INSIDE

 Test Procedures

 Specications

 Certicate of

Reliability

Ratings scale:

Excellent, Very

Good, Good, Fair

and Poor.

tests, earning excellent or very good ratings in most aspects of performance.
With one of the lowest prices compared to the group when comparably
congured, the 135-ppm unit produced very good output quality and was found
to offer very good overall ease of use, distinguished by its excellent control
panel user interface and intuitive programming. The unit also earned high
marks for a number of the network connectivity aspects of its performance,
including its feedback to workstations and ease of network setup.

BLI recommends the Acio MP1350 for environments in need of a multifunctional
product for monthly volumes of up to 850,000 impressions.

LAB TEST

This report has been reproduced with the written permission of Buyers Laboratory Inc. Any duplication of this report, in whole or part, in any form or manner,

© 2007 Buyers Laboratory Inc. WARNING: This material is copyrighted by Buyers Laboratory Inc. and is the sole property of Buyers Laboratory. Duplication of this proprietary report or excerpts from this report, in any man-

without the written permission of Buyers Laboratory, is unlawful and violators will be prosecuted. © 2007 Buyers Laboratory Inc. To purchase reprints,

ner, whether printed or electronic (including, but not limited to, copying, faxing, scanning or use on a fax-back system), is illegal and strictly forbidden without written permission from Buyers Laboratory. Violators will be pros-
ecuted to the fullest extent of the law. To purchase reprints of any BLI reports or articles, contact BLI at [phone]. Buyers Laboratory Inc., 20 Railroad Avenue, Hackensack, NJ 07601. Contact us at [e-mail].

contact BLI at [phone] (x17) or at [e-mail].

PERFORMANCE OVERVIEW

, — and  represent positive, negative and neutral attributes, respectively.

Ricoh Aficio MP1350

Buye rs LaBo rator y Lab TesT RepoRT

 

 

RELIABILITY

MULTITASKING

VERY GOOD

 The Acio MP1350 proved to be a highly reliable unit in BLI's two-month,

1,000,000-impression durability test. Although in its initial 1,000,000-impres­sion durability test, the unit misfed 36 times and required seven service
calls, a modication performed around 615,000 impressions into the test, in
which the duplex unit was replaced and a duplex mylar guide was installed,
proved to correct the problems. BLI technicians proceeded to run the model
for an additional 1,000,000 impressions. During this testing, the unit misfed
just 10 times, which translates to a misfeed rate of one per 100,000 impres­sions. No service calls were required, and 3 PMs were conducted.

 The unit's rated developer yield, at 500,000 impressions, matches up with its

preventive maintenance schedule. Further, the drum replacement (2,000,000
impressions) coincides with the fourth scheduled preventive maintenance
call. However, the fact that the fusing unit needs to be replaced at a differ­ent interval offsets this benet.

GOOD

 The unit allows multiple print jobs—limited only by memory resources—to

reside at the device.

— The number of copy jobs that can be programmed ahead while another job

is in progress is limited to 10. Most other units allow the operator to program
an unlimited number of copy jobs while another job is in progress.

 When the operator presses the Interrupt key during a copy or print job to

program an interrupt job, the job being interrupted continues to run until
the operator has completed programming the job and presses the Start key,
allowing for maximum productivity.

 The device requires the user to press a key to program another copy job

while one is already in progress.

 The device requires users to wait until all the pages of the copy job have

completed scanning before programming the next job.

 When a print job followed a copy job and when a copy job followed a print or copy

job, the Acio MP1350 paused for approximately 3.5 seconds between jobs.

LAB TEST

This report has been reproduced with the written permission of Buyers Laboratory Inc. Any duplication of this report, in whole or part, in any form or manner,

© 2007 Buyers Laboratory Inc. WARNING: This material is copyrighted by Buyers Laboratory Inc. and is the sole property of Buyers Laboratory. Duplication of this proprietary report or excerpts from this report, in any man-

without the written permission of Buyers Laboratory, is unlawful and violators will be prosecuted. © 2007 Buyers Laboratory Inc. To purchase reprints,

2

ner, whether printed or electronic (including, but not limited to, copying, faxing, scanning or use on a fax-back system), is illegal and strictly forbidden without written permission from Buyers Laboratory. Violators will be pros-
ecuted to the fullest extent of the law. To purchase reprints of any BLI reports or articles, contact BLI at [phone]. Buyers Laboratory Inc., 20 Railroad Avenue, Hackensack, NJ 07601. Contact us at [e-mail].

contact BLI at [phone] (x17) or at [e-mail].

Ricoh Aficio MP1350

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 The unit did not scan pages at a consistent speed. Two pages would be

scanned quickly and then there would be a pause before the next page was
scanned.

 The Acio MP1350 provides users with a lot of exibility in relation to assign-

ing a priority level to the units’ functions, as users can select either print,
copy/Document Server, display (the function currently displayed on the con­trol panel takes priority), interleave (output alternates between pages of
print jobs and pages of copy jobs) or rst-in, rst-out for job handling.

 The User Tools menu cannot be accessed while a job is running.



ADMINISTRATIVE UTILITIES

 Ricoh's Web Image Monitor utility allows operators to check toner and paper

levels, as well as change the order of jobs in the queue, merge jobs and
receive e-mail error notications. Up to four e-mail notications can be
congured.

 Web SmartDeviceMonitor enables an administrator to monitor and manage

all the models on a network regardless of brand.

 The device's intelligent remote management system automatically reports

usage meter data.

 The unit's meter counter is printed in the form of a fax cover sheet, and

provides users with the total count of the device and serial number.

VERY GOOD

Ricoh's Web Image Monitor

LAB TEST

This report has been reproduced with the written permission of Buyers Laboratory Inc. Any duplication of this report, in whole or part, in any form or manner,

© 2007 Buyers Laboratory Inc. WARNING: This material is copyrighted by Buyers Laboratory Inc. and is the sole property of Buyers Laboratory. Duplication of this proprietary report or excerpts from this report, in any man-

without the written permission of Buyers Laboratory, is unlawful and violators will be prosecuted. © 2007 Buyers Laboratory Inc. To purchase reprints,

3

ner, whether printed or electronic (including, but not limited to, copying, faxing, scanning or use on a fax-back system), is illegal and strictly forbidden without written permission from Buyers Laboratory. Violators will be pros-
ecuted to the fullest extent of the law. To purchase reprints of any BLI reports or articles, contact BLI at [phone]. Buyers Laboratory Inc., 20 Railroad Avenue, Hackensack, NJ 07601. Contact us at [e-mail].

contact BLI at [phone] (x17) or at [e-mail].

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A range of reports are available from the Web Image Monitor utility.

 A plug-in is available for HP’s Web Jetadmin so that administrators who

use it to manage their HP printers can use it to manage their Ricoh output
devices as well.





FEEDBACK TO WORKSTATIONS

 The device provides feedback both in its bidirectional print drivers and in its

software-based SmartDeviceMonitor and Web Image Monitor utilities. How­ever, the print drivers do not offer paper or toner gauges.

 The device's Web page features color changes and status/error messages.

 Icon changes on the taskbar alert users to device or print job errors or warn-

ing conditions.

 Web Image Monitor utility allows operators to check toner and paper

levels.

 An e-mail can be sent to the key operator when consumables are depleted.

 Users can see the status of the device's paper supply and paper size prior to

sending a job to the device in SmartDeviceMonitor for clients.

EASE OF NETWORK SETUP

EXCELLENT

VERY GOOD

 Installation procedures for the PCL and RPCS drivers were highly automated.

The PCL and RPCS drivers, as well as the SmartDeviceMonitor for Clients,
can all be accomplished in one session.

LAB TEST

This report has been reproduced with the written permission of Buyers Laboratory Inc. Any duplication of this report, in whole or part, in any form or manner,

© 2007 Buyers Laboratory Inc. WARNING: This material is copyrighted by Buyers Laboratory Inc. and is the sole property of Buyers Laboratory. Duplication of this proprietary report or excerpts from this report, in any man-

without the written permission of Buyers Laboratory, is unlawful and violators will be prosecuted. © 2007 Buyers Laboratory Inc. To purchase reprints,

4

ner, whether printed or electronic (including, but not limited to, copying, faxing, scanning or use on a fax-back system), is illegal and strictly forbidden without written permission from Buyers Laboratory. Violators will be pros-
ecuted to the fullest extent of the law. To purchase reprints of any BLI reports or articles, contact BLI at [phone]. Buyers Laboratory Inc., 20 Railroad Avenue, Hackensack, NJ 07601. Contact us at [e-mail].

contact BLI at [phone] (x17) or at [e-mail].

Ricoh Aficio MP1350

Buye rs LaBo rator y Lab TesT RepoRT

— The optional Adobe PostScript 3 print driver must be installed separately

and, unlike with PCL and RPCS, requires an administrator to manually spec­ify congured accessories.

 

PRINT DRIVERS

VERY GOOD

 The Acio MP1350's optional print controller, which is based on a 866-MHz

processor, offers users true Adobe PostScript, PCL and Ricoh’s own graphical
and customizable RPCS drivers.

 An EFI print controller and MicroPress print controller are also available.

— Layout of the print drivers is dissimilar, which makes use less convenient for

those who frequently switch among them.

 As is typical of a true Adobe print driver, the PostScript 3 driver is text-based,

and most of the features required for a typical print job are not available
on the main tab. However, the Advanced key displays a review/check of all
the current job settings from one window when selected, and users can also
change current settings from this window.

 Although many of the commonly used features for a print job are on the

Setup tab of the PCL 6 print driver, users must go to the Paper tab in order
to program selections for paper source and output destination.

 Ricoh's RPCS is an icon-based print driver that allows users to create, save

and share output icons based on their specic job requirements. Thus, selec­tions for multiple features such as duplex and staple can be enabled with

just one click.

 Although the PCL and RPCS print drivers of the device feature a point-and-

click interface for selecting paper source, its Adobe PostScript 3 print driver
does not.

 The PCL 6 print driver eliminates the confusion for users determining whether

to use the collate function of the print driver or the application in use, as it
can be set to default to one or the other.

 Although programming is simple, booklet printing only worked properly from

the RPCS print driver. Eight clicks are required to program booklet print jobs.

 Although the Acio MP1350's print controller supports watermarks and

custom watermarks from its PCL and RPCS print drivers, it does not support
custom watermarks from its Adobe PostScript 3 print driver.

LAB TEST

This report has been reproduced with the written permission of Buyers Laboratory Inc. Any duplication of this report, in whole or part, in any form or manner,

© 2007 Buyers Laboratory Inc. WARNING: This material is copyrighted by Buyers Laboratory Inc. and is the sole property of Buyers Laboratory. Duplication of this proprietary report or excerpts from this report, in any man-

without the written permission of Buyers Laboratory, is unlawful and violators will be prosecuted. © 2007 Buyers Laboratory Inc. To purchase reprints,

5

ner, whether printed or electronic (including, but not limited to, copying, faxing, scanning or use on a fax-back system), is illegal and strictly forbidden without written permission from Buyers Laboratory. Violators will be pros-
ecuted to the fullest extent of the law. To purchase reprints of any BLI reports or articles, contact BLI at [phone]. Buyers Laboratory Inc., 20 Railroad Avenue, Hackensack, NJ 07601. Contact us at [e-mail].

contact BLI at [phone] (x17) or at [e-mail].

Ricoh Aficio MP1350

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Setup of the PCL 6 Print Driver Advanced Tab of Ricoh's Adobe

PostScript 3 Print Driver

— When printing multiple sets with "Collate" selected in the Adobe PostScript

3 print driver, the le size increases.



 

APPLICATIONS COMPATIBILITY

 No problems were experienced with any of the test les used in the applica-

tions compatibility tests. Units are tested for compatibility on Windows XP
platforms with Microsoft Word 2000, Microsoft PowerPoint 2000, Microsoft
Excel 2000, Adobe PageMaker 7.0, Adobe Photoshop 6.0 and Adobe Acrobat

6.0 using 25 application test les, which contain text, graphics, halftone
images, tables, etc., enabling BLI technicians to evaluate memory usage,
le processing, font rendering and grayscale capability.

SCAN FUNCTIONS

Ricoh's RPCS Print Driver

EXCELLENT

VERY GOOD

 The unit supports both color and black-and-white scanning as standard, each

at 80 ipm.

 The unit supports scan to e-mail, and users can review images of scanned

data before sending them.

 LDAP is supported, so users can search for e-mail addresses on a network

mail server.

LAB TEST

This report has been reproduced with the written permission of Buyers Laboratory Inc. Any duplication of this report, in whole or part, in any form or manner,

© 2007 Buyers Laboratory Inc. WARNING: This material is copyrighted by Buyers Laboratory Inc. and is the sole property of Buyers Laboratory. Duplication of this proprietary report or excerpts from this report, in any man-

without the written permission of Buyers Laboratory, is unlawful and violators will be prosecuted. © 2007 Buyers Laboratory Inc. To purchase reprints,

6

ner, whether printed or electronic (including, but not limited to, copying, faxing, scanning or use on a fax-back system), is illegal and strictly forbidden without written permission from Buyers Laboratory. Violators will be pros-
ecuted to the fullest extent of the law. To purchase reprints of any BLI reports or articles, contact BLI at [phone]. Buyers Laboratory Inc., 20 Railroad Avenue, Hackensack, NJ 07601. Contact us at [e-mail].

contact BLI at [phone] (x17) or at [e-mail].

Ricoh Aficio MP1350

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 The device also supports scan to folder, with protocol support for SMB, FTP

and NCP. File types supported include single-page TIFF/JPEG, single-page
PDF, multi-page TIFF, multi-page PDF and high-compression PDF.

 Scan to URL is also featured.

 TWAIN scanning with resolutions from 100 to 1,200 dpi (color and black and

white) is also featured.

 Internet faxing is not supported.

 

IMAGE QUALITY

VERY GOOD

 In both print and copy modes, the text output produced by the Acio

MP1350 exhibited above average darkness and smooth curves and serifs.
Upon visual examination, characters also appeared to be fully formed,
although when viewed under magnication, break-up was visible along the
left side of characters. The sharpness of characters was also above aver­age, with no toner overspray visible even under magnication in both copy
and print modes.

 Lack of toner overspray also contributed to line art that was judged to be

above average for sharpness. In addition, closely spaced ne lines remained
distinct; horizontal lines didn’t exhibit any stair-stepping; and consistency
of line thickness was above average, with circles fully formed.

 Although the Ricoh unit’s solids were Very Good overall, test technicians

noted less consistent coverage on the left side of the page.

 Halftone range in print mode was Excellent, as output was visible from the

2% to 100% dot-ll levels, with distinct transitions between all levels.

 Halftone range and halftone pattern was rated Very Good in copy mode.

Halftone output was visible from the 15% dot-ll level (which is the mini­mum coverage level on the original) to the 100% level, with distinct transi­tions between most levels and distinct separation between levels.

 

7

PRODUCTIVITY

 The Acio MP 1350's print efciency in BLI's job stream test using both the

PostScript driver and PCL driver is competitive for the group. The job stream
consisted of four large les (PowerPoint, Word, Adobe Acrobat and Microsoft

VERY GOOD

LAB TEST

This report has been reproduced with the written permission of Buyers Laboratory Inc. Any duplication of this report, in whole or part, in any form or manner,

© 2007 Buyers Laboratory Inc. WARNING: This material is copyrighted by Buyers Laboratory Inc. and is the sole property of Buyers Laboratory. Duplication of this proprietary report or excerpts from this report, in any man-

without the written permission of Buyers Laboratory, is unlawful and violators will be prosecuted. © 2007 Buyers Laboratory Inc. To purchase reprints,

ner, whether printed or electronic (including, but not limited to, copying, faxing, scanning or use on a fax-back system), is illegal and strictly forbidden without written permission from Buyers Laboratory. Violators will be pros-
ecuted to the fullest extent of the law. To purchase reprints of any BLI reports or articles, contact BLI at [phone]. Buyers Laboratory Inc., 20 Railroad Avenue, Hackensack, NJ 07601. Contact us at [e-mail].

contact BLI at [phone] (x17) or at [e-mail].