Art Post
Whoa! Ricoh may have finally almost gotten it right with the new Aficio MP 301SPF A4 system. Kudos for bringing this A4 31-ppm system to market; With an MSRP of only $2,960 you get a lot of bang for the buck. Network color scan, network print, network fax, walk-up fax, and copy all in a neat footprint that covers a space of 19.0 w x17.7 d x18.1 h. However the really big news is that the new MP 301SPF, which will scan color, print, copy and fax in black and follows the A3 (systems that print 11×17) cost per page model for toner; Get this, the cost per page for black toner based on MSRP is only .0041. Nice, very nice indeed.
Aficio MP 301SPF
It’s my understanding that the MP 301SPF will be the replacement for the Aficio MP 201SPF. I hate to see the MP 201SPF go, however I believe the MP301SPF is an excellent replacement choice.
Basically, there’s a lot that I like about this system and I’m exciting to have this in our product line. There’s so much that I like I just can’t fit them all in this blog. The likes far outweigh the dislikes.
What I Don’t Like:
User Interface Screen: What’s with the 4.3-inch inch color LCD? Color LCD screens are cheap. Why skimp on something that is used every day when it comes to LCD screens bigger is always better
Wireless Card (option): Ricoh, have you all gone mad? The MSRP for the wireless card is $593? Why even offer one for that type of price? Best bet is to pick up a wireless router with an Ethernet port and direct connect to the MP 301SPF and it will cost you $80 or so.
What I like:
Batch Scan: Nice feature for a value system, batch scanning allows you to scan the more than 50 originals into a single file. You’ll select the batch scan feature before you scan and when the document feeder empties you just add the additional pages.
ARDF (automatic reversing document feeder), enables users to automatically scan two sided originals, nice and it was much needed with the A4’s.
Scan Speed: For the price, 31 ppm black @ 300 dpi and 21 ppm @ 300 dpi for full color. Nice that Ricoh is now quoting scan speeds at 300 dpi and not 200 dpi.
Document Server: The Document Server is a feature I’ve been talking up for years, the MP301SPF can store up to 3,000 pages and can really reduce costs if used properly in the office. I instruct users to put their most popular forms, or information on the document server. This eliminates the time to find the file and print to the local printer and also reduces cost because you would print to the MPC305 instead of the higher cost local printer. Plus, if people are constantly asking you to re-print documents (which decrease your productivity), you can point them to Document Server and have them print the documents themselves.
Scheduled Print: Set the time to print and away you go, excellent feature for workgroups.
Auto Job Promotion: It’s about time. I love this feature; too many times in the office I’ll send a document that is a mismatch meaning the paper orientation maybe the wrong way or I selected the wrong paper size and or the wrong media. If I did not go to the system to clear the print job, no one else could print. The Auto Job Promotion allows the print job error to be parked and allows others to print! Nice.
Scan2PDF/A: Is a file format and ISO Standard for long-term archiving of documents.
Access2Cloud: The browser card is an option and is needed to connect to cloud solutions, it’s only $170 but well worth the cost especially for scanning to MS 365 with UDOCX.
Scan2folder, scan2email, scan2documentserver plus you can also set up scan2dropbox (you can do this on your own and it is not a Ricoh solution)
What Should Have Been Added:
- Document Feeder that can sense mixed sizes of originals, thus you could put letter and legal documents in the feeder, scan them to a folder and when you open the document you have both letter and legal size scanned pages.
- Larger Color LCD Screen
- Wireless Card as a Standard feature, go figure I can buy a wireless printer from staples or Office Max for $200-$300 or so and they have standard wireless print, why oh why does the wireless card for the MP 301SPF cost almost $600.
- Browser Card as a Standard feature.
Tips:
- You’ll need to add the HDD (hard disk drive) in order to have Internet fax, LAN Fax, IP fax and Forwarding to e-mail.
