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Friday, December 08, 2006
"KONICA MINOLTA GETS STURDIER, MORE ROBUST THAN COMPETING ALTERNATIVES" AS STATED IN THE LATEST BERTL INDEPENDENT RESEARCH ANALYSIS ARTICLE.
The Konica Minolta bizhub 750 is the company’s latest in its high end departmental front office offerings and has built up a good reputation for being sturdier and more robust than some other 60-80 ppm alternatives. Since the company’s last generation production, Konica Minolta has incorporated a multitude of enhancements and options including the addition of the bizhub OP open architecture and the new Emperon™ Print System. These are key to a smarter and more efficient workflow. During its evaluation, the Konica Minolta bizhub 750 was put through a rigorous series of tests spanning copy, print, and scan functions that simulate a wide range of end user environments and workflow situations. The diverse feature set of the Konica Minolta bizhub 750 allowed it to accommodate a wider range of workflow tests than with many competing units. BERTL analysts were impressed with its wealth of production and finishing options, including the flexible media selection options and diverse finishing options. What the device may lack in user friendliness compared to some of its rivals, it makes up for with a sturdy build quality making it a strong contender in the high volume front office or light production back office environment. In a back office, the usability issues will fade away as trained operators quickly grasp the feature set of the device during the daily chores. The high feature set of the device will take over, offering greater user friendliness with fewer manual steps having to be done compared to some other units in the market. Media handling proved to be very impressive with the ability to accommodate up to 12” x 18” mixed media sizes and up to 110 lb. /200 gsm Index media weight without issues. The large capacity unit, which can accommodate up to 12” x 18” stock, allows long uninterrupted 2-up print runs. This is a common back office workflow, reducing click charges for those who have negotiated a same click charge letter/ ledger agreement. The Konica Minolta bizhub 750 inline finishing options boast saddle-stitch booklet handling up to 20 pages (80 page-booklet), tri-folds, z-folds, and up to 100-sheet wire cut stapling capacity. Users also have the ability to insert covers for a commercially produced look and feel. BERTL would have liked to have been able to incorporate pre-printed pages inside documents and hopes that this is possible in the next generation product. The document feeder performed impressively when compared to other manufacturers, handling several media and document types that proved too much for some other 70ppm+ models. While many manufacturers offer batch printing capabilities, the Konica Minolta bizhub 750 takes it a step further. While selecting the stored jobs, users can view the filenames of the documents from the control panel, select multiple files to be printed, reorder document placement, and choose from a multitude of finishing options to create one finished document. Security is now regarded as a core buying consideration for every buyer in today’s high technology world. In BERTL’s detailed report a wealth of security workflows were put to the test and some valuable time saving user friendly features highlighted including a very extensive batch security print workflow. The bizhub 750 has a wealth of accessibility features, such as easy access to the front of the device for paper jam removal, toner refills, staple and hole punch unit maintenance, paper tray handles that are accessible from the top and bottom, and a touch screen panel that tilts, to name a few. These will all go a long way towards winning buyers over (especially government and education) who are keen to or have to satisfy Section 508 and other disability acts. In conclusion, the Konica Minolta bizhub 750 is a powerful production solution encased in a durable compact footprint that will find many takers in a business and public sector world always looking to reduce the volume and cost of outsourced printing.
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