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| Sharp AL-1670 |
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Hardware Reviews February 2001 • Vol.4 Issue 2 |
Sharp AL-1670 | ||
 Our first glance at the Sharp AL-1670 left a big impression—a $3,000 impression, which is the size of the manufacturer's price tag. Fortunately, we found the same unit on some Web sites for about $500 less, which still makes this a printer/copier of considerable expense. The question is, does this monochrome laser printer/copier have the performance to match its extravagant price tag? If size is any indication of value, this printer/copier gives you a lot for your money. It measures 25.75 inches high x 22.23 inches wide x 20.71 inches deep and weighs 92.7 pounds. The paper capacity is good; there are two 250-page trays and one 100-page bypass tray, and it handles letter, legal, and ledge-sized paper. The unit comes with a 133MHz processor and 8MB of RAM. It has 45 scalable fonts installed and supports PCL 6 and 5e. Resolutions for the printer include 300dpi (dots per inch) in draft mode to 600dpi in normal mode to a 1,200 dpi "equivalent." The copier scans at 400dpi with output of 600dpi. We tested the printer with our standard battery of tests. The first test included a 10-page text file. We also printed a six-page Word document composed of a mixture of text and graphics and then three PowerPoint slides. Lastly, we printed a high-resolution graphic. The text file results were impressive, as the first page was completed in 0:9, with all 10 pages done in 0:43, or about 16 pages per minute. Fonts were excellent, with crisp, dark text and no fuzziness. This was all the more impressive considering the speed at which they were produced. The Word document quality was also very good, with the first page done in 0:9 and the sixth page completed in 0:29 seconds. However, the graphics were a little on the dark side. The same applied to the PowerPoint test, which resulted in graphics that were darker than normal but otherwise acceptable. The three pages took only 0:16 to finish. Our experiences with the results of a high-resolution graphic were less than impressive. The final print came out much darker than normal. There was also noticeable banding, and the graphic was "cut" in a few places, rendering it little more than recognizable. Because you probably won't buy this MFD for its graphics potential, this isn't a fatal flaw, but we would have expected more from a unit in this price range. Our attempts to copy produced outstanding results. The copies were nearly exact duplicates of the original document, but just a touch darker. Our final verdict on the AL-1670 is that it's not worth the extravagant price. The configuration we tried did not support PostScript, there was only 8MB of RAM, and the 1,200dpi "equivalent" is a poor substitute for the real thing. Speed-wise, this unit is great, and the copier has a multitude of options, but better printer/copiers are available at a more reasonable cost. by Nathan Chandler
$2,999 Sharp (800) 237-4277 http://www.sharp-usa.com
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