Opinions on Konica and Kyocera MFDs

[tdh1987]

Hi guys

 

We are close to end of our lease agreement with United Carlton. We've had a great relationship with United Carlton, PaperCut and the Sharp MFDs they've supplied us over the years, however they were not competitive this time round.

 

Konica and Kyocera have come in much much cheaper but I have very little experience of either.

 

I would be really grateful if anyone could provide feedback (positive of negative) on their experiences with either Konica or Kyocera.

 

We have been offered the following devices:

 

Konica

Bizhub C650i (reprographics colour)

Bizhub PRO 1100 (reprographics mono)

Bizhub C300i (follow me printers)

 

Kyocera

Kyocera Taskalfa 7353ci (reprographics colour)

Kyocera Taskalfa 9003i (reprographics mono)

Kyocera Taskalfa 3253ci (follow me printers)

 

Thanks

 

Tom

Edited January 22, 2021 by tdh1987

[mavhc]

Kyocera drivers aren't good

[robyholmes]

Not had experience with Konica in the last 5 years or so but before that there were very good. Not had any experience of them on heavier work loads mind, the ones I saw where in primary schools so got pretty light use.

[caffrey]

We've had a small fleet of the Taskalfa's (3253 and 8353) installed last summer with follow me \ Papercut and they have been reliable up to now with very little support needed. The only outstanding issue is a Communication error on the MFD usually first thing in the morning after being asleep during the night. It's totally random and not a problem.

So much cheaper than the last fleet we had

[MatthewL]

From personal experience Sharp have the best interface for the users to use the machines, some of what you would do on them its not as easy on the others. The PaperCut inbuilt scanning wasn't available on all manufactures I know Kyocera was one of the first with Sharp but this may have changed.

 

The others might come in cheaper but what are their extra charges for things like support, do they install and configure everything for you or are you expected to do it all, what are their response times like. Obviously existing PaperCut can be used but additional licenses will be required to change from one manufacturer to another. If you have card reader technology is that included? Also look at the cost per copy charge, would you end up spending more if that is higher?

[mavhc]

Do they ever update the firmware of the device when it has 100s of known security flaws?

[DaveTheTech]

Schools here use a lot of Kyocera printers - they seem to work OK. Just a simple network share affair.

 

Previous place swapped to a Follow Me system.

Leased the printers and bought a licence of Papercut through Apogee.

Renewal time came around and the costs were still good so went with them again.

[3s-gtech]

Our experience with our two lots of Konicas was very good. Firmware updates did trickle through (the SMB v1 flaw hit part way through our lease) for scanning to folders. Engineer call outs, toner and general reliability all good.

 

Better than our current ones (a different brand)!

[chris11256]

We're a Kyocera school as well. Two TaskAlpha 8002i's and one 6052ci. Both of the mono copiers are fairly reliable with adequate print quality for a black & white copier. Not to happy with the 6052ci though, print quality is quite poor. Colours can be almost completely different when printed to how you have it on screen.

 

Support has been ok ish, engineers are almost never here same day and spare parts can sometimes take a few days to arrive,

Edited January 22, 2021 by chris11256

[Squelch]

I have 9 Konica C300i's with papercut and follow me printing. Can't fault them at all, service is quick and efficient when they go wrong which isn't often. Highly recommended.

[Aprice]

Hi Tom,

 

We've got Kyocera's mainly 4551's from memory, there getting a bit old now but still working well. I was told that the school bought these second hand for £350 each nearly 4 years ago.

There's a pay per click contract on them which covers toner and servicing.

 

I'll either be sticking with Kyocera or moving to the shiny Toshiba estudios I used at a previous trust.

Edited January 23, 2021 by Aprice

[sparkeh]

Used Konica a lot and currently have a couple of hundred MFDs across several sites and approx 3000 users and the load is heavy. Devices don’t miss a beat and give us little trouble. Support has been excellent if needed. Wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them.