Konica Minolta may be known for their boisterous multi-purpose printers that have come to dominate large offices around the world, so who would have known that they could produce a blindingly quick personal printer for those on a budget? Their Magicolor 1600W laser printer was developed with the soul purpose of putting out decent quality black prints at a very high rate of speed. For any home or even small office that needs to print a towering stack of papers on a budget and on time, this may be the answer.
Design
The simple box design of the Magicolor 1600W is deceivingly plain. The front face flips down to reveal a 250 sheet input tray with the output tray situated on the top of the machine. There are three buttons on the entire printer to control power, rotate the Konica Minolta 1600W toner, and clear the print jobs. Six small LEDs gauge ink levels, jams, and power. The top of the printer is actually a lid which detaches to reveal the slots for the Konica Minolta 1600W toner replacement cartridges.
Advantages
As stated previously, the miracle of this printer comes down to the speed. With so many companies reporting print times that can never be matched in real world circumstances, it is refreshing to see a printer that actually exceeds the manufacturers specifications in some areas. When only printing 10 or 20 pages the Magicolor 1600W will only hit around 15 pages per minute, but when this is bumped up to 30+ pages of plain text this printer may hit speeds of 20 to 21 pages per minute. This makes it one of the fastest entry-level printers available.
Disadvantages
Outside of the speed and efficiency of this printer, there is not much else to say about the Magicolor 1600W. Both the colour and plain black prints can become slightly fuzzy near the edges after excessive use. If you print a lot, the cost of replacing your Konica Minolta 1600W toner cartridges with the high capacity version. Luckily, this is offset by the exceedingly low price of the printer itself. For a machine that does not have fax, wireless, or scanning capabilities the footprint and weight of the machine is a bit much as well.
