Printer Review: Oki C330dn

Bigger than a breadbox yet smaller than the C610 office printer we reviewed a few months ago, the Oki C330dn -- like that larger model -- is a color hard-copy workhorse that won't let you down in a pinch. With the C330dn you lose some of the C610's considerable functionality, but in return you get a more desktop-friendly footprint and an overall package that is more streamlined -- at the appealing price of $400 for a printer with everything from duplex printing and Ethernet to PCL 6 and PostScript 3 emulation.

Like the C610, the C330dn leverages Okidata's LED (light-emitting diodes) printheads -- functionally equivalent yet mechanically different from what you find in a traditional laser printer. While you get similar levels of performance in terms of speed and output quality between an LED and laser printer, the former requires fewer moving parts as it beams light directly from a stationary array of LEDs. This presumably makes LED printers more reliable over the long haul. Indeed, Oki teams its one-year overnight-exchange warranty on the printer with a five-year limited warranty on the printheads.

Speaking of the long haul, the C330dn's rated maximum monthly duty cycle is robust for a desktop printer at 45,000 pages. Though that's no match for the 75,000 pages of the enterprise-ready C610, the 49-pound C330dn fits far more comfortably on a desk at 16.1 by 19.8 by 9.5 inches. And while it has a USB 2.0 port for solo use, standard Ethernet, along with a fairly comprehensive set of specs and nice range of accessory and expansion options, make it a solid choice for pulling double duty on a small- or even midsized office network if required.

Ready for Action

According to Oki, the C330dn delivers 1,200 by 600 dpi resolution at speeds of 25 pages per minute for monochrome and 23 ppm for color printing. A 532MHz PowerPC CPU (the same as the C610, by the way) and 128MB of memory, upgradeable to 640MB, are under the hood.

A 250-sheet legal/letter-sized paper tray sits at the bottom front of the printer, with a 100-sheet multipurpose tray is located just above that. Simply pop the latter down to print to material such as labels, envelopes, and transparencies, as well as banner sheets up to 8.5 by 47 inches and card stock up to 220 grams per square meter.

Increasing the paper capacity of the C330dn to a whopping 880 sheets is a cinch. All that's required is the purchase of a second, 530-sheet paper tray, which we found easy to snap onto the bottom of the unit. The tray, however, will set you back an additional $210, more than half the cost of the printer itself.

Often, during a review, the writer will say, "Setting up the such-and-such was a breeze." With the Oki, that would be an understatement. In fact, the C330dn corrects one of the biggest flaws we had with the C610 setup process.

You see, with that printer, you're required to remove protective plastic sheets and tape from toner cartridges during installation. This proved particularly messy for us as we found the directions to be a little unclear. Not so with the C330dn. For this printer, all you have to do is slide a blue-colored collar or shutter from the right to the left of each toner cartridge. That's it -- no cartridge removal necessary.

When it's time to replace a toner cartridge (like nearly all printers, the Oki unfortunately comes with "starter" -- in this case, 1,000-page -- cartridges instead of full ones), simply slide the collar back to the right and pop it out -- no fuss, no muss.

Cyan, magenta, and yellow replacement cartridges rated for 3,000 pages go for about $108 each, while a 3,500-page black cartridge is cheaper at around $72. Unlike the C610, each individual toner cartridge does not require its own image drum, as there's a single large drum (rated for 20,000 pages) in the unit. A replacement drum costs $124.

Counting both cartridges and drums, Okidata claims, you'll pay about 2.7 cents per black and 13.5 cents per color page printed. That's not cheap, but it's not out of line for a relatively low-priced desktop printer.

The company says the C330dn drops from a typical power consumption of 480 watts (peak 1,170 watts) during printing to 90 watts when idle and 14 watts in power-save mode. We greatly appreciated that Oki placed the on/off button toward the front of the printer, just to the right of the paper tray, instead of making us have to reach around to the back of a crowded desktop to turn the device off. But would it kill printer companies to bundle a USB or Ethernet cable with their wares every once in a while?

No Waiting for Pages

Our first-page-to-print times of nine seconds for monochrome and ten seconds for color came close to the C330dn's rated times (0.5 and one second shorter, respectively). A full-page color document with photos printed in 17 seconds; a complex five-page, color- and text-rich document took 25 seconds. As is typical, longer files came closer to rated print speeds, with a 40-page text file printing in 1 minute and 50 seconds, just a bit off the Oki's rated monochrome pace of 25 ppm.

While we appreciated the sharpness of the text and good quality of the color output in standard mode, pictures took on an added richness and crispness when using the driver's higher-quality settings, especially on coated paper. Since the speed of output was essentially the same, we highly recommend going with the superior settings when printing in color, except of course when saving toner is of the utmost concern.

Like its network-centric predecessor, the C610, the C330dn is a solid printer that's a good alternative to traditional laser printers. And while it is clearly targeted at the desktop, the C610 can easily double as a network printer when necessary. Best of all, it's the easiest color laser/LED/whatever to set up and install that we've ever tested.

The C330dn does the job it is supposed to and does it well.