Aficio SP C222DN

  • Review
  • Specs
  • Images
  • User Reviews
  • Buy Online

Ricoh's Aficio SP C222DN, the company's latest foray into lower-cost colour laser printers, demonstrates some of the challenges of price cutting. This mid-priced printer performs adequately but could use some refinement.

Pros

  • Automatic duplexing

Cons

  • Cheap-feeling construction, expensive toner

Would you buy this?

  • Price

    $ 1,025.00 (AUD)

The problems begin with the installation. The poster-size guide for physical setup is wordless but pretty clear. It says to proceed to the "Software Installation Guide for Network Connection" for further instructions, but those are woefully inadequate, missing steps and key details. Worse, a document covering USB installation is available only on the included CD, making it less than readily available. The rest of the documentation, available in both HTML and PDF, is good.

The design also flummoxed us at various points. The control panel's few buttons perform some functions through obscure key combinations, and the printer has no LCD to spell them out for you. The foldout front panel lacks handles and feels flimsy, as does the 250-sheet main input tray. Extending the tray for legal-size paper involves a finicky pinch-and-pull process; the handle for pulling out the tray is in the same area as the manual-feed slot, too, which can be confusing. The top-exiting, 150-sheet output tray is straightforward, at least. An optional 500-sheet input tray is available. Automatic duplexing is standard, which is nice.

In our tests text documents ambled out at a pace of 17.4 pages per minute (ppm) and graphics pieces output at 2.4 ppm (at best). Text looked dark and precise; but graphics we printed on plain paper suffered from a slightly faded look, as well as graininess or moire patterns. Glossy laser paper only partially mitigated the flaws.

Because the SP C222DN's toner capacities are low, its consumables costs are high. The machine ships with 1000-page black, cyan, magenta, and yellow cartridges. The standard-size cartridges last for 2000 pages each and cost $79 for black (3.9 cents per page) and $129 for each colour (6 cents per color, per page). The cartridges are easy to lift in and out of their respective slots inside the machine, but we didn't like how the transfer belt lies exposed during the process.

Ricoh's Aficio SP C222DN is targeted at small offices or workgroups, but its spotty installation documentation and subpar design elements miss the mark. Such users deserve a more friendly experience than this printer offers.

Keep up with the latest tech news, reviews and previews by subscribing to the PC World newsletter.

Be the first to comment.

Post new comment

Users posting comments agree to the PC World comments policy.

Login or register to link comments to your user profile, or you may also post a comment without being logged in.

Best Deals on PCWorld

Printers & ScannersView all »
NotebooksView all »
Desktop PCsView all »
TabletsView all »
Software and ServicesView all »

Resources

Printers & Scanners Product Finder
Find the product you're looking for with our Printers & Scanners search tool.

Latest User Reviews