Oki C3600 Cartridge Review

A colour laser printer is most likely the ideal option with regard to home offices that print a great number of colour docs. Available for close to £270, the Oki C3600 is network ready and prints at a striking speed compared with its competitors, however it's bigger as compared to most printers and also lacks the latest features like a full colour LCD screen or wireless print server.

We are also not so impressed with the C3600's style, but we've really never been too taken with laser printers generally. The matte white C3600 measures 371 by 290 by 478mm and weighs approximately 21kg. We wouldn't call it a behemoth, but it's larger than the Samsung CLP315W, which measures only 389 by 244 by 312mm. The C3600 even weighs about 9 kg more compared to the CLP-315W, thus those with limited desk space will probably be happier with a more compact machine.

All the ports needed to connect the printer to your computer is placed at the back of the chassis, including a USB and an Ethernet port for networking around multiple systems. One important feature lacking on the C3600 is a front-mounted USB port for connecting PictBridge- compatible cameras or direct printing from a USB flash storage drive.

Given that it is only a single-function laser printer, there are not many extra features, but we compliment Oki for making use of a 400MHz processor along with a hefty 128mb of memory, which enables the C3600 to cope with larger print jobs as compared to its competitors. You can even upgarde the memory up to 640MB.

The OKI C3600 printer cartridges are individually separated and are lined up in a horizontal row below the top cover. This printer is shipped with 'standard' capacity cartridges. Based upon the claims from Oki, the black cartridge will last for 1,500 pages while each of the three colour cartridges lasts for 1,000 prints. A replacement black cartridge costs roughly £35, while replacement for the colour cartridges is about £55. Oki likewise offers high-capacity cartridges that could produce 2500 black pages at around £50 and £70 for 2500 colour pages. You can also get compatible toner cartridges for the OKI C3600 at a much lesser price. The suggested monthly duty cycle for this particular printer is 35000 pages, which is certainly more than sufficient for small businesses.

The C3600 fared very well in a direct output speed evaluation with three other colour laser printers. It came out 2nd best in all of our tests, just behind the Brother Hl4040CN, also a single-function printer at thesame price range. It printed black text at almost exactly the same speed as the HL -4040CN, producing 15.61 pages per minute, compared to the HL-4040CN's 15.66. This couldn't keep up with the Samsung CLP-315W in the colour presentation test, but it's safe to say that you won't be waiting too long for any document with this printer.

The performance of the C3600 in all our print-quality test looked extremely well. The black text appeared just like we anticipate with a laser printer, with bold line formation as well as a smooth gradation on font size scales. The C3600 also dealt with our text graphics very well, displaying outstanding signs of colour separation not to mention well-defined image differentiation, even in some of the subtle blending detail. Not surprisingly, some of the images appeared slightly smudgy and pixellated, but the general print quality throughout presentations, graphics as well as simple text strengthened our general impression of this particular printer.

The Oki C3600 is rather large and weighty, and doesn't boast a plethora of features. However, it does deliver high-quality prints at a swift rate, making it one of our favorite colour laser printers.

Oki C3600 printer toner cartridges are available here.