All-in-one machines based on inkjet print engines have been around for some while, but those using other colour systems are only just reaching the market. OKI has traditionally used high-intensity LED light to illuminate the photo conducting drums in its 'laser' printers and that's the technique used in its first colour LED All-in-One, the C5510MFP.

You can see where this machine has come from, as the printer section is a C5000 series unit, with a modified case to take a colour flatbed scanner mounted on top, for scanning and copying. This hybrid approach is further emphasised by the rather clumsy clutter of connecting cables and a separate clip-on, black block power supply required for the scanner head. It doesn't help that set-up instructions are spread between several different instruction sheets.

Even so, setting up the machine is fairly straightforward as the top cover, complete with flatbed scanner attached, lifts up out of the way. There are four colour toner and drum units and a developer, all lined up under the cover. Paper is fed from a 300-sheet tray at the front of the machine and only has to pass through once, giving comparatively quick print times. A fold-down, multi-purpose tray takes up to another 100 sheets of plain paper, or various types of special media.

Both black and colour prints have a gloss finish, which some people won't like, but which others may feel give them a professional appearance. They feed out to the top surface of the printer, which sits underneath the scanner section. Most of the controls on the C5510MFP come from the scanner and it helpfully includes a number of preset copy enlargements and reductions.

There's a two-line, backlit LCD display, which means the menu system isn't quite as easy to negotiate as multiple-line alternatives, but is still no real problem. At the back, a single USB 2 connection links the device to a local PC, or there's a 10/100Mbps Ethernet socket for networking.

OKI rates the device at 20 pages per minute (ppm) black or 12ppm colour, but we only managed around 10ppm and 2ppm respectively - and longer than that if the machine had to wake up from standby first. An A4 colour copy took just under 30 seconds.

Print quality is good for business graphics and particularly so for vivid colours, though reproduction of colour photos is rather over-bright. Although you can compensate for this, and OKI provides colour swatches and a tweaking applet to help you, we'd have liked more accurate reproduction straight out of the box.

Verdict
Although it's between £250 and £300 more than its main rivals from Epson and HP, OKI's C5510MFP does offer significant advantages. It's network enabled, including facilities to send documents directly from the scanner, and has better paper handling than either of its competitors. Currently you get a spare set of toner cartridges free, too.

Company: Oki

Contact: 0800 917 6015

Tags: printers image scanner universal serial bus liquid crystal display personal computer ethernet printing hardware