Customer Rating: 
Summary: Great but with some quirks
Comment: For $99 that I paid, I have certainly received my money's worth. Text is great. It's not a workhorse, but then again, I'm a one-man biz. My only need to upgrade is I need to print mid-quality photos, which the 1350w doesn't do well, lots of lines in the photos. I don't want an inkjet - too costly and I don't need color. And to replace my scanner and inkjet that were lost in a flood, I'm looking into a mono multifunction item.
Issues and workarounds:
toner refill: I bought a kit off ebay that comes with a chip. Refill took me 10 minutes with no mess. Be sure you get a HY (high-yield) refill AND a HY chip...mine came with HY refill and a normal-yield chip, doh. On my machine, even though it said it was out of toner, it still continued to print until there really wasn't any toner left. The first several pages printed after the refill there were some glitches on the pages - I removed the toner cartridge, re-shook it, reinstalled it and it's been fine ever since.
Output tray: the cheapest part of the printer. It doesn't hold the output sheets well and after a couple months, mine broke. It's still connected to the printer, but it doesn't extend anymore. The jerry-rig I did was to stick a 12-inch wooden ruler under the output tray, which holds well up to 50 sheets or so. Tacky but functional.
I've had the printer about 2 years now and it recently started having a hard time picking up paper. It tries twice and then says it's paper-jammed (it isn't). I open the door of the printer to reset it and sometimes have to hold the paper in to get it to catch. Annoying.
An upside is that it prints envelopes quite well for a $99 printer. They get curled a bit, but once they're stuffed with whatever I put in them, they straighten out. Labels print excellent.
I would buy the printer again.
Customer Rating:
Summary: How NOT to design a printer.
Comment: A Cnet reviewer tested this and discovered that its output tray could only handle 10 pages and then the pages went everywhere. I wish I had known that. I would never have bought it. Consider this. It prints 21 pages per minute. So you can only leave the printer for 30 SECONDS before you're in deep do-do. And THAT is when the output tray is still on the printer. Mine broke in the first week and you can't repair it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent Printer
Comment: I am using this printer for more than a year and so far seen no issues. PPM is excellent. I would hight recommend this printer.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Overall a nice, quick, cheap laser; but note the quirks
Comment: I've put this printer through a difficult time over the past year, and went through two high capacity toner cartridges (over and above the cartridge that came with the laser). This printer never let me down, and was always quick and clean. The setup was easy, and the printing really did start within 13 secs like it said it would.
Having said that, you should be aware of some of the quirks as they are significant and can and will affect performance, period.
1. Can only replace toner with Konica-Minolta catridge. There is a chip that "talks" to the printer and computer. Absent that, and the printer and software freaks out. The result is a drop of output from approx. 21 ppm to about 8ppm. There is no doubt that this sucks. But, really I've only seen about a 10-15 dollar difference between "compatible" and Konica-Minolta cartridges. I was willing to put up with that for the gain in performance, but you may not. Choose with care.
2. Software monitoring of the printer supply status: I have seen some slowdown when approaching the end of the cartridge life as defined by the software. What I did for a quick fix to bring the performance back to normal was set the notification for the supply left from 25% to 10%. When I reached 10%, yeah, the printer slowed its output (but not by as much as I have been reading in the reviews), but by then at 10%, I actually needed a new catridge.
3. Loud engine
4. Seems to be a power hog (no kidding, connected to a full power surge strip with a lamp, computer speakers, cordless telephone, fan, and iPod charger, this printer tripped the fuse when it started printing) Obviously the strip was overloaded, but just FYI.
Overall I've found printers to be very tempermental. This is perhaps the least tempermental printer I've ever owned. It's performed very well under grueling conditions and for that I'll pay the extra for the "official Konica-Minolta cartridge".
Customer Rating:
Summary: Shop around before Konica
Comment: "- Paper falls out: The top deflector panel has two positions. ... everyone that has a problem just needs to make sure that theirs is extended. "
The above is what some company-paid poster wrote (I suspect). I have the extended position and pages drop all over the floor when I print more than ONE PAGE. Page 2 MAY stay but page 3 always ends up on the floor.
Did not know about the chip that forces you to buy the printer mfg ink. Rotten trick, I think.
I will probably dump this box after I consume the extra ink that I already purchased.
Summary: Great but with some quirks
Comment: For $99 that I paid, I have certainly received my money's worth. Text is great. It's not a workhorse, but then again, I'm a one-man biz. My only need to upgrade is I need to print mid-quality photos, which the 1350w doesn't do well, lots of lines in the photos. I don't want an inkjet - too costly and I don't need color. And to replace my scanner and inkjet that were lost in a flood, I'm looking into a mono multifunction item.
Issues and workarounds:
toner refill: I bought a kit off ebay that comes with a chip. Refill took me 10 minutes with no mess. Be sure you get a HY (high-yield) refill AND a HY chip...mine came with HY refill and a normal-yield chip, doh. On my machine, even though it said it was out of toner, it still continued to print until there really wasn't any toner left. The first several pages printed after the refill there were some glitches on the pages - I removed the toner cartridge, re-shook it, reinstalled it and it's been fine ever since.
Output tray: the cheapest part of the printer. It doesn't hold the output sheets well and after a couple months, mine broke. It's still connected to the printer, but it doesn't extend anymore. The jerry-rig I did was to stick a 12-inch wooden ruler under the output tray, which holds well up to 50 sheets or so. Tacky but functional.
I've had the printer about 2 years now and it recently started having a hard time picking up paper. It tries twice and then says it's paper-jammed (it isn't). I open the door of the printer to reset it and sometimes have to hold the paper in to get it to catch. Annoying.
An upside is that it prints envelopes quite well for a $99 printer. They get curled a bit, but once they're stuffed with whatever I put in them, they straighten out. Labels print excellent.
I would buy the printer again.
Customer Rating:
Summary: How NOT to design a printer.
Comment: A Cnet reviewer tested this and discovered that its output tray could only handle 10 pages and then the pages went everywhere. I wish I had known that. I would never have bought it. Consider this. It prints 21 pages per minute. So you can only leave the printer for 30 SECONDS before you're in deep do-do. And THAT is when the output tray is still on the printer. Mine broke in the first week and you can't repair it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent Printer
Comment: I am using this printer for more than a year and so far seen no issues. PPM is excellent. I would hight recommend this printer.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Overall a nice, quick, cheap laser; but note the quirks
Comment: I've put this printer through a difficult time over the past year, and went through two high capacity toner cartridges (over and above the cartridge that came with the laser). This printer never let me down, and was always quick and clean. The setup was easy, and the printing really did start within 13 secs like it said it would.
Having said that, you should be aware of some of the quirks as they are significant and can and will affect performance, period.
1. Can only replace toner with Konica-Minolta catridge. There is a chip that "talks" to the printer and computer. Absent that, and the printer and software freaks out. The result is a drop of output from approx. 21 ppm to about 8ppm. There is no doubt that this sucks. But, really I've only seen about a 10-15 dollar difference between "compatible" and Konica-Minolta cartridges. I was willing to put up with that for the gain in performance, but you may not. Choose with care.
2. Software monitoring of the printer supply status: I have seen some slowdown when approaching the end of the cartridge life as defined by the software. What I did for a quick fix to bring the performance back to normal was set the notification for the supply left from 25% to 10%. When I reached 10%, yeah, the printer slowed its output (but not by as much as I have been reading in the reviews), but by then at 10%, I actually needed a new catridge.
3. Loud engine
4. Seems to be a power hog (no kidding, connected to a full power surge strip with a lamp, computer speakers, cordless telephone, fan, and iPod charger, this printer tripped the fuse when it started printing) Obviously the strip was overloaded, but just FYI.
Overall I've found printers to be very tempermental. This is perhaps the least tempermental printer I've ever owned. It's performed very well under grueling conditions and for that I'll pay the extra for the "official Konica-Minolta cartridge".
Customer Rating:
Summary: Shop around before Konica
Comment: "- Paper falls out: The top deflector panel has two positions. ... everyone that has a problem just needs to make sure that theirs is extended. "
The above is what some company-paid poster wrote (I suspect). I have the extended position and pages drop all over the floor when I print more than ONE PAGE. Page 2 MAY stay but page 3 always ends up on the floor.
Did not know about the chip that forces you to buy the printer mfg ink. Rotten trick, I think.
I will probably dump this box after I consume the extra ink that I already purchased.