New A-Series (306ci, 356ci, 406ci) - Thoughts?

[genesistech]

We just got our first look at these new machines. One of our customers ordered the 406ci with the 300 sheet internal finisher. It's sleek and tiny in comparison to the majority of MFP's that we our accustomed to seeing. However, it seems that it may have some underlining issues that we are concerned with. What are your thoughts on the new machine? Have you guys seen it in person yet?

We have not yet installed the machine... it's scheduled for this coming Monday. But after seeing the machine in person, we have decided as a company to install the machine and closely monitor it's progress over the next three months before allowing any other sales. Reason for this is some of the concerns that we noticed when inspecting the machine.

It's all plastic. The machine weighs in total 206lbs. That's including the DP, DF, and two PFs. In comparison, the CS4551ci weighs in at 256lbs, with no DP, DF, or PF. This could just be my personal thoughts, but heavy spells reliability in most cases. When anything on this machine can be broken by a user slamming or just bumping into it - I worry about replacing unnecessary parts and dealing with upset customers when trying to explain that abuse is not covered by maintenance.

The paper feed path is weak. With little rubber on these machines, I worry that constant PMs will be in our future.

There is no ledger capability. This isn't a service issue except that you have to trust your salesman to forward this information. I can definitely see installing one of these machines to find out that they are wanting to do ledger. "Uh... you can't."

The waste toner is part of the front housing. In order to switch the waste toner, you just have to pull out the entire front housing. That's right, just pull on it... no screws and nothing to stop the end user from wanting to touch the shiny drums and developers. "No... no touchy."

The DP is weak. We are already having trouble with these DPs in certain areas pulling multiple pages at once. This is most likely a humidity/static issue; however, the DPs on the larger copystars (DP-770, 772, etc) do not have these issues even though they are in the same building. Again, this may be a personal issue because I just have a bad taste in my mouth for these smaller DPs.

If you've read the TB, then you know that the toner for the 406 is adequate. However the other two are not. The 306 has color toner that gets about 7k pages at 5% coverage. And we all know that most people don't use 5% or less. The reason this scares me is because it has been marketed (as I took it) as a machine that can take the spot of a larger machine such as the 3551ci. Nope. Definitely nope.

There is no power switch. Just a button like some of the desktops. Me no likey.

And as if Kyocera knows all of this, these machines are cheap. REALLY cheap. Sales could get one in every single building in your area because it costs nothing to get one in comparison to other machines. But does the saying not go, "You get what you pay for?"

On the other hand, the speed is great. It prints and pulls pages like a beast, especially since everything is landscape (Portrait does not fit this machine.) The image quality is better than most desktops like a Ecosys M6535cidn, but still cannot hold a candle to something like a 4551ci. And like I said in the beginning, it's sleek. It looks great!

So there's my long, maybe too overly detailed review of what I've seen so far. I hope that the machine proves me wrong once it's up and running in the field. In the meantime, I would like to hear your opinion and thoughts on the machine if you have come across one, or even if you have not and would still like to share your thoughts.

[blackcat4866]

Clearly Kyocera is trying to break into that niche that Samsung has been catering to for 5 or 6 years. A4 size MFP's have their place, but will not replace the Alphard II in most applications. =^..^=

[JR2ALTA]

I think you need to train your sales staff to keep expectations reasonable. This isn't a high volume, high saturation, kick butt machine. But it will be loved by many small businesses for it's ease of use.

Plastic isn't so bad. Glocks are made of plastic. And at least Kyocera puts little arrows on where to pry.

Doing constant PMs not so bad when a PM takes 5 minutes. That's not a joke, the training video says a PM is 5 minutes.

I wish we had a private section on here to talk honestly about equipment. I'd hate for customers to search for reviews and see us trashing this stuff.

[JSC]

We have sold a few 306ci's and 356ci's. I have advised our sales not to sell the 306ci if possable simply because it has no hard drive. The toner is different for each machine, or should I say Kyocera have pakaged it and priced differently, the toner itself is the same if we could find a way to use the 406ci toner for the whole range it would save us a fortune.

Time will tell if its a winner or not, I'm expecting the normall mass firmware upgrades any day now. But its got to be better that the TA266ci range.

[walterman]

I have to be honest with you, I have never been a fan of Kyocera color, it seems their box's have more CQ issues than most. Now they are stepping in to the A4 realm, it rings the alarm bells for me, especially, when the color toners only last 5k @5% on the 306ci. In my opinion, to be competitive in this market, toners should at least have 10k yield @ 6% I have several P6026cdn's and M6526cdn's in operation and I quickly ran into replacing color toner cartridges at least twice a month on certain clients. It seems to me those toner cartridges for these box's are only half full right out of the box, I don't know why they will not add more toner into these cart, for a 10k, yield at least. Make sure if you put them on a service contract, you only supply toners for the stated amount and have them pay for any above what is covered in the service contract. I had a client that I sold a P6026cdn to in place of their HP 3600n, they started to run full bleed colors, I charged them for their extra toners and it became an issue. I siply went back to the contract and pointed out where it only covers a 5% yield and the rest would be on them for the month. I compared the cost of the HP toners to the Kyocera and the cost was significantly less and that seemed to calm them down a bit. It seems customers only hear and see what they want at times.

I remember when Sharp came out with the frontier series (MX-311- 401), they had issues from the start, fuser issues, registration issues, doc feeder issues the things were a nightmare. Now that, Sharp, has come out with all the updates the box's run really good for small office spaces such as doctor's offices and small home offices.

Time will tell is this MFP will be a turd or a hero. I personally would stay away from the 306ci, it seems to little toner for a floor standing A4.

[jmaister]

great for home offices, i expect 2000 prints a month. But that waste toner man... i dont like it.

[Ropariva]

Looks like a good box so far but pricing will be key. Agreed re 306 being an entry level. These would be aimed at very low volume users with no upgrade expectations (there are no upgrades available for the 306) Will probably just do 356 and 406 here. They are very robust compared to Brother, Samsung and even Xerox in this range. The ADF is a scaled down "Smart" series unit and will likely see no more issues than we face with the other brands in this market.

[walterman]

It would be interesting to have a 6 month review/ analysis on this post to see how these new A4 box's are performing.

[skynet]

Something that maybe overlooked is the firmware is different.

KM306

Release Firmware Version: 02.01.0010 114.95 MB

KM356 / 406

Release Firmware Version: 02.01.0010 196.34 MB

And you pull the power lead out when it says firmware update completed !

[copiertec]

Now, that this series has been out for sometime, I'm just curious to hear how they are performing so far? How is the color? Does it seem that they are reaching their expected toner yields, etc.?