Thursday, April 11, 2013

Ricoh Aficio 2238c

The Aficio 2238c is another good quality copier from Ricoh, aimed squarely at the larger business or workgroup. It offers affordability and features of much larger and more expensive machines and is robust enough to be able to service most needs.

The controls are simple but effective. They are simple enough to be able to service most needs and the helpful LCD screen is easy to read. The screen is colored a friendly blue and is bright enough to be seen clearly.
The paper drawers are a large pair at 500 sheets, which is upgradeable to 1050 if needed. There is a multi-purpose feeder at the top too which is fully duplexed adding further functionality.

Out of the box, the Aficio 2238c is quick and easy to install and configure. The toners are long lasting and the memory is large enough at 768Mb for even the most demanding of offices. The printer can be connected via USB, parallel or Ethernet. The drivers are comprehensive and include PCL and PostScript drivers for all operating systems. The bundled software contains most features an office would need to print a whole host of documents and images.

There are hardware upgrades that can be made such as a fax kit, stapler and sorter and more paper trays. The machine itself feels solid and dependable. The trays are made of stiff plastic, not the flimsy stuff that many other manufacturers favor. This should enhance the life of the device no end.

Reproduction is very good, with text appearing clean and fresh. Images looked a little on the dark side, which is actually good for presentations. Color is rendered accurately and graphs and photos appeared vivid and sharp. The Aficio 2238c also offers different finishing options in order to allow you to produce leaflets, booklets and other higher quality documents.

With a print speed of 35 pages per minute for monochrome and 28 pages for color, it is a quick mover for such an affordable machine.

Overall, the Aficio 2238c is a good, value for money office device with a rich enough repertoire to satisfy most busy office needs. It’s strength is its versatility and cost effectiveness. Replacement consumables are readily available and good value, while robust enough to last the test of time.

Those in the market for a good, solid color copier that can do other things too would be advised to check out the Aficio 2238c.