CLP300

For creatives, the CLP300 sounds like the perfect proofing device: small format A4, four-pass colour laser, 300dpi, optional network support and cheap to boot. But surely nothing is really so perfect? What’s the catch?

First things first: a four-pass laser printer is always going to take four times longer printing colour than printing black. What astonishes us about the CLP300 is that even its black printing is slow. Quoted at 16ppm, we actually recorded a mono print taking eight seconds – that falls under 8ppm. And when it came to colour, the fastest page output it managed was recorded at 32 seconds; 2ppm. For a laser, this isn’t just sluggish, it’s verging on lifeless.

Putting the speed issues aside, printing and maintenance are particularly straightforward. The larger black toner cartridge and smaller cyan, magenta and yellow are easily accessible and extremely simple to get in and out.

Cartridge yields are quoted at 2,000 pages for black and 1,000 pages each for CMY. A waste collector needs replacing every 5,000 mono or 1,250 colour pages and the imaging unit is good for 20,000 pages. This is all pretty reasonable, and given the pricing of the cartridges (£26 for colour, £31 for black and £5 for the waste), it’s relatively good value, too.

In terms of quality, laser printing is lagging way behind inkjet at the moment. Still, the CLP300’s results are remarkably good when used on standard settings. And, while tight colour edges flair a touch, and on our first run the blacks and greys were far too heavy, considered simply as a proofing tool, the CLP300 is only let down by its speed.