M5526cdw

Kyocera aren't a well known brand but I've owned some of their products before (Contax cameras) and was impressed with their quality and engineering. This is a big printer/MFD - it weighs 35 kilos and is really designed to serve the needs of a small business or a department, so it is overkill to use it for home office use. But after shelling out a fortune on HP and Epson plastic and inkjet cartridges all of which ended up in the skip before their time, I wanted something that would last a bit longer. This has a two year guarantee out of the box, which tends to indicate that it has some durability.Setup is easy in Windows 8.1 and 10, you can just add the device to your network, and then point your PC at it, and it will download the drivers and the accompanying app to your computer. It also comes with a CD if you want to use that. Once on the network you can surf to the internal web site of the device and change settings there. There is a ton of functionality built in to cater for its use as a departmental printer, you can assign accounts, manage shared job folders, put extra memory in the printer if you want to store documents on it and so forth. I won't be using the fax but it has got a full feature set. The interface is fine, if a bit quirky as you'd expect with a Kyocera device. However, if you dislike typing stuff in on the screen on the printer using the number keys (such as when you want to scan to folder or FTP), you can just plug in a standard USB keyboard and presto, easy-peasy to type in lengthy file names. Personally I prefer this to touch interfaces especially as keyboards are much more reliable. If you're buying one of these for your business I'd suggest getting a mini keyboard permanently attached.The problem with this printer is really that for every thing you want to do there is probably five ways of doing it, which is very confusing. The flipside of this is that it is good to have the choice. When the Android app didn't print to the printer from my phone, I just used the Mopria app instead and that worked just fine.As a printer this is a high res device at 1200dpi, scanning is at 600x600dpi, and its colour copying is fast and colour accurate. I haven't yet managed to get my PC colour calibration done yet but quality is good enough when printing photos to produce pictures you could hang on the wall (in fact I have). For me there is no point having a low end inkjet printer for artwork photos because you'll get better and bigger prints from your local lab which will likely be more cost effective. This printer is fast, energy efficient, quiet and produces great copy and prints. It has the ability to use an eco toner mode which seems to lighten text but works well, as well as true double sided printing which is really excellent. It works well as a scanner and has the capability of doing OCR straight out of the box - but that all needs a bit of experimenting to figure it all out!Put 100 gsm paper in it, and with double sided printing you won't see through to the text on the other side and the result looks very professional. Nowadays if you're going to the trouble of printing something, rather than emailing or showing on screen, then you want your printed output to look sharp and smooth, and this printer delivers on that front. This is just a world away from the wrinkly results you get from an inkjet printer and high resolution double sided colour print looks very good indeed, and is very easy to achieve.For some strange reason when I got the printer it used to tick every five seconds or so like a clock while on standby but now I've changed the energy settings to power itself into low power mode after 5 mins rather than 1, that seems to have gone away. It does have a quiet mode as well but doesn't really need it as it is so quiet anyway.Should you purchase this printer in the UK you should check out the importers web site. There are usually good cashback deals to be had, however, make sure you read the small print, as usually they specifically state that Amazon sales are excluded!So, a lot to like, a massively capable device for really not much money, if you're technically capable this is a good choice for a home office printer, otherwise find a technical friend!

No more dried out ink cartridges... This multi function colour laser printer is very approachable to use, very easy to set up in a home environment, but is also office capable (menu option on first start). The machine is probably overkill for our needs but I really had got fed up of dried out ink jet heads and cartridges, so a colour laser machine was the way to go.It is quite tall due to the duplex paper feed and scanner on top, so consider where you are going to place this item. It feels hefty and the unit has some weight to it (NOT a flimsy item).It connects to USB and has an ethernet port (neither cable supplied, but a Fax lead and a UK and US power lead were included). I connected both and they both work very well. A wifi network capability (via access point or Wifi Direct) means ipads, android and PC's / Macs can all print or scan using this machine.A web interface on the machine, makes setup very easy. On Windows 10 the printer drivers loaded themselves with no interaction from me and offered to install an app to help with scanning (inc and OCR feature - not tried that yet).On OSX / Macintosh, you need to be aware of the fact that the driver is provided but no apps are on the DVD that accompanies the printer.{Update} On Mac Catalina, scanning can be accessed via the 'system preferences / printers and scanners menu. Even the duplex feed is supported. Be aware that you may need to select the correct printer driver in order for scanning to be available to you.As I say, Windows 10 has software in buckets.If your first language isn't English, a number of plastic templates are supplied to replace the English wording around buttons / the display.Printerland delivered this M5521cdw in under 24 hours from ordering. This was very impressive.

Good print quality, easy to set up and use. Ink very expensive, so expected it to last longer than it did. I printed just over a standard pack of paper and ran out of black ink. Maybe that's just because that was what came with it and it isn't supplied with a full cartridge. Apart from it's great.

I cant fault this machine. We used a big one in our office for 6 years and it never broke down at all, so I thought I would give it a go at home as I am fed up of cheap machines not lasting and costing a fortune for toners etc.I did have problems setting up but the seller was brilliant and talked me through it. Nothing was too much trouble for them. So far very pleased with the machine, good quality copies and quite fast. Too good for home really.Delivery was 1 day (unheard of in Cornwall)Dec 2020I have had this machine over a year now and to be honest I cannot fault it. 1st pack of toners supplied did approx 500 copies colour and 700 B/W.The software is with the machine for scanning and copying, using remotely from the PC.Only minor problem is top scanner feed can slip if paper not put in correctly so make sure you feed it properly.I am so pleased with this machine I got rid of the leased multi printer at my company office and bought another one of these on the basis if it lasts 1 year it will be more cost effective than the leased one and it prints about 150 pages a day. scans probably 25 pages for pdf emails and faxes a few as well.My I T guy wasn't happy to start with but recently informed me he has now got one at home too.I use a generic toner and this also works fine with this machine.