Konica Minolta vs. Toshiba

[JasonSBE]

Any techs that have worked on both lines? The company I work for is considering picking up Toshiba as a second line to offer a lower-cost alternative, as well as get into state sales. How would you compare their image quality, maintenance needs, and ease of repair? Any feedback would be wonderful.

[Phil B.]

run forest RUN!

[tsbservice]

Toshiba was my first brand and maybe I learned 90% of my skills from there(hint). But KM are far better in office color machines, also high end machines. You will have rough times if need to switch from KM to Toshiba.

[JasonSBE]

Toshiba was my first brand and maybe I learned 90% of my skills from there(hint). But KM are far better in office color machines, also high end machines. You will have rough times if need to switch from KM to Toshiba.


We know that Konica Minolta is the superior product, we aren't looking to replace it. We are looking to add Toshiba as a second brand for state sales(KM does not active bidding for state sales in my state) and a cheaper alternative for customers that don't want to pay the premium. We would probably be doing mostly black and white with Toshiba.

[tsbservice]

How would you compare their image quality, maintenance needs, and ease of repair?

OK, if you didn't get Phil answer let me try again.
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[blackcat4866]

Toshiba color is currently comparable with KM.

**this is me sitting at the keyboard trying to say something enlightening, but nothing is coming to me**

Toshiba still rebuilds fuser, drum, and developing units. KM does not.
I guess I'd have to say that they are different but equal.
=^..^=

[JasonSBE]

OK, if you didn't get Phil answer let me try again.
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I'm not going to go to my boss and tell him that we shouldn't consider a brand because of a movie quote.

If you worked with Toshiba, how long ago was it? What kind of problems did you find they had? Specifically the black and white lines. Are they user-friendly? Did you ever have to do any network troubleshooting with them? Setting up folder/email scanning?

[blackcat4866]

On the 4508, 4518 series' the engine is basically solid. The first items to fail before the PM are the upper fuser roller at 100K, the lower drum seal and the charge grid at 150K (then the PM at 210K). If you close the trays hard you'll get a yellow triangle instead of the paper size indication. If you close the trays GENTLE it works fine.
=^..^=

[Phil B.]

I'm not going to go to my boss and tell him that we shouldn't consider a brand because of a movie quote.

If you worked with Toshiba, how long ago was it? What kind of problems did you find they had? Specifically the black and white lines. Are they user-friendly? Did you ever have to do any network troubleshooting with them? Setting up folder/email scanning?

ok i guess I should have explained it better.

ANY toshiba I have worked on IMHO was a piece of SHIT!

PM cycles on the color units were CRAZY! 300-350 for one section 600 for another and 800 for another.
most times the 600 group didn't make it to 450pgs. so you do the 330 group.. not the 600pg and then you get another call in no time.

We ALWAYS used Tosh parts/kits but the customers were not happy. Some times the corp stock would be on BKO because they were crap.

Toshiba .. samsux and some xerox were again IMHO POS's!.

you asked for suggestions I gave mine

for what it's worth

I have worked on most major brands over the 31+ years in industry.

and YES as service manager for that company I handled the network end of it .. email..scanning etc

from looking at some threads here, they haven't seemed to improved the product much.

frankly the A3=A4 xerox (todays lines) seem to have better results as long as the tech is competent.

You boss might want to look into wide format or a good label line. Epson Murtec respectively

[copiertec]

I second a lot of what most say so far about Toshiba. I have been working on copiers since '94 and worked on Toshiba when they had the Estudio 20 series introduced. That series was not too bad, but it seems Toshiba copiers IMO are not well thought out as far as tech friendliness, most recent Turdshiba boxes I worked on seemed cheaply put together and had strange jam/no jam issues and their HDD's fail often and are way more expensive than any other HDD on the market but could only use their expensive HDD to get them working. I just walked into a real estate office and was told that they are going to be replacing their Konica Minolta with a Toshiba from their other office...little do they know what they are about to do, replace their 284e with a estudio 2550....lmao! Some sales person sure feed them a line of crap!
If your boss is going to add these to your line you will see how cheaply made they are, failing HDD's, broken adf handles, and not too tech friendly to replace maintenance items, connectivity, etc., but you get what you pay for. Turdshiba is on top of my list of worst mfp's made along with Xerox, Samsux and Okidata.

[copyman]

Konica Minolta: user friendly, tech friendly, inexpensive to run, and way too many good things to list!

Toshiba: Light fuse get away !!!!

[SalesServiceGuy]

I work with several dealers who represent both Konica Minolta and Toshiba product in 2020 across Canada.

It is common for Konica Minolta dealers to say they are amazed that when they put out a current model Toshiba they never have to come back for many months.

I have many Toshiba's in the field that run extremely well way past their PM cycles making these machines very profitable for dealers.

The problem with Konica Minolta is they will promise you the moon but never back up their promises. They are now too big and represent so many product lines that to some extent they seem to have lost their focus. Just review the debates on the Konica Minolta thread about their new iSeries copiers.

While Konica Minolta has the lock on Production copiers the Toshiba's are superior to the Konica Minolta's in almost any SMB business situation. KM does have the edge in the rare situation where you need a trifold brochure.

All of the blabber about dissing Toshiba earlier in this thread is from technicians who have likely not worked on a Toshiba copier since the eBridge Next line came out in 2016.

The Toshiba LCD panel has much superior customization capabilities. Toshiba's app integration with Office 365 is superior to Konica Minolta's.

IT Managers comment that they prefer the Toshiba web browser to Konica Minolta's.

You will not find a Toshiba dealer who plans to give up the product line for a different copier vendor. If you do, they always comeback in about two years when all of those promises do not come true.

[SalesServiceGuy]

We know that Konica Minolta is the superior product, we aren't looking to replace it. We are looking to add Toshiba as a second brand for state sales(KM does not active bidding for state sales in my state) and a cheaper alternative for customers that don't want to pay the premium. We would probably be doing mostly black and white with Toshiba.

Toshiba colour quality is excellent and equal to any copier vendor in the market. Toshiba no longer offers Fiery as an option as it represents only a small % of potential sales.

[SalesServiceGuy]

OK, if you didn't get Phil answer let me try again.
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Toshiba copiers are easy to repair. The ease of swapping out the paper feed system in the paper drawers is way superior to Konica Minolta.

[SalesServiceGuy]

I'm not going to go to my boss and tell him that we shouldn't consider a brand because of a movie quote.

If you worked with Toshiba, how long ago was it? What kind of problems did you find they had? Specifically the black and white lines. Are they user-friendly? Did you ever have to do any network troubleshooting with them? Setting up folder/email scanning?

I often place Toshiba product in places like a pharmacy as print for convenience pay and watch people approach the copier and with no interaction from anyone quickly figure out how to use the copier without assistance.

A dirty slit glass or worn out rollers and blades will cause lines on copier just like any other copier brand.

I network troubleshoot Toshiba's via TeamViewer and in person almost every day. The most common request is my scan to email is not working. It is not the copiers fault. Something else changed on the customers network.

Setting up scan to network folder requires some skill. No more than on a KM.

[SalesServiceGuy]

I second a lot of what most say so far about Toshiba. I have been working on copiers since '94 and worked on Toshiba when they had the Estudio 20 series introduced. That series was not too bad, but it seems Toshiba copiers IMO are not well thought out as far as tech friendliness, most recent Turdshiba boxes I worked on seemed cheaply put together and had strange jam/no jam issues and their HDD's fail often and are way more expensive than any other HDD on the market but could only use their expensive HDD to get them working. I just walked into a real estate office and was told that they are going to be replacing their Konica Minolta with a Toshiba from their other office...little do they know what they are about to do, replace their 284e with a estudio 2550....lmao! Some sales person sure feed them a line of crap!
If your boss is going to add these to your line you will see how cheaply made they are, failing HDD's, broken adf handles, and not too tech friendly to replace maintenance items, connectivity, etc., but you get what you pay for. Turdshiba is on top of my list of worst mfp's made along with Xerox, Samsux and Okidata.

This tech has obviously not worked on a new Toshiba box since 2016.

The HDD issue has been resolved. Yes the HDDs are more 50% more expensive than off the shelf HDDs but they rarely fail now.

I predict like the new Konica Minolta iSeries copiers, in approx may 2020 Toshiba will refresh the product line with SSDs. Toshiba is a world leader, Top 3 tier player having inventing many new storage technologies (like the SSD).

Toshiba dominates the global automotive HDD market.

[SalesServiceGuy]

ok i guess I should have explained it better.

ANY toshiba I have worked on IMHO was a piece of SHIT!

PM cycles on the color units were CRAZY! 300-350 for one section 600 for another and 800 for another.
most times the 600 group didn't make it to 450pgs. so you do the 330 group.. not the 600pg and then you get another call in no time.

We ALWAYS used Tosh parts/kits but the customers were not happy. Some times the corp stock would be on BKO because they were crap.

Toshiba .. samsux and some xerox were again IMHO POS's!.

you asked for suggestions I gave mine

for what it's worth

I have worked on most major brands over the 31+ years in industry.

and YES as service manager for that company I handled the network end of it .. email..scanning etc

from looking at some threads here, they haven't seemed to improved the product much.

frankly the A3=A4 xerox (todays lines) seem to have better results as long as the tech is competent.

You boss might want to look into wide format or a good label line. Epson Murtec respectively

In all of the nonsense spoken above, one good point was made. Toshiba offers an excellent label printer line #3 in the world. Label printers are an excellent source of recurring revenue(labels and ribbons) with very few skilled players in your local market.

Toshiba Point of Sale line (formerly IBM) is #1 in the world. Prove it to yourself and walk into any big box retailer like WalMart and look for the name plate on their point of sale devices.

[tsbservice]

If you worked with Toshiba, how long ago was it? What kind of problems did you find they had? Specifically the black and white lines. Are they user-friendly? Did you ever have to do any network troubleshooting with them? Setting up folder/email scanning?
It was quite long time ago. I guess I quit when eBridge 2 machines came, something like 10 years before. Even nowadays I still work occasionally on few newer Toshiba.
I don't know today Toshiba line but their first 2-3 generations of color machines were very tricky to maintain and poor designed. As for B&W lineup midrange Toshiba were Ok.
I have a lot of problems with many Toshiba models dropping developer, dumping toner, many-many parts to replace. So for example, at midrange Toshiba I have to PM 3 times fuser with PM kits and with KM you just change 1 Fuser unit.
If they don't print much with KM you can forget about Fuser 4-5 years, but with Toshiba that wasn't the case. KM engine and controller seems very solid. As for networking, etc they're comparable it really depends on tech IT skills not the machine. I read BC says today Toshiba models haven't many HDD failures but at my time they fail a lot.

[SalesServiceGuy]

By picking up Toshiba as a 2nd line, Konica Minolta will hopefully pay your dealership a lot more respect with better pricing and more promotional $.

If not, let Toshiba eat their cake.

Back in Japan, Toshiba & KM eye each other constantly. Product development often mirrors the other.

For example, Toshiba invented the thin wall induction heating heat rollers. KM copied it the next generation of copiers.

As far as end user customer loyalty goes, some will stick with KM but most want the best deal.

[copiertec]

This tech has obviously not worked on a new Toshiba box since 2016.

The HDD issue has been resolved. Yes the HDDs are more 50% more expensive than off the shelf HDDs but they rarely fail now.

I predict like the new Konica Minolta iSeries copiers, in approx may 2020 Toshiba will refresh the product line with SSDs. Toshiba is a world leader, Top 3 tier player having inventing many new storage technologies (like the SSD).

Toshiba dominates the global automotive HDD market.

It's been a while since I have worked on a Toshiba. Maybe I should re-evaluate them, I know I disliked working on Konica Minolta's back in the mid to late 90's, but they improved their product since then.

[copyman]

No sure what salesguy could of posted that many times in a row because have him blocked. Hopefully he hit the submit button by mistake and not going on a tirade with dem rhetoric.

Anyway I wanted to add something to be fair about Toshiba. I really based my opinion on 40+ years of working on them very seldom, going back to the Tos 3301 (which for the time wasn't a bad little machine) but most I worked on over the years were bad. I'm sure they had a good box every now and then but not often enough to compete with the big boys. I did post on here a while back that I worked on an older E-studio 288 about a year ago and it had a really nice print for older model! Had to replace a paper lift gear which I had never done before. Turned out to be easy to work on and only took 10 mins to replace the gear. So guess my lack of experience with them I have to take everyones word they are that bad.

Never liked their TV's and copiers aren't much better.

[slimslob]

No sure what salesguy could of posted that many times in a row because have him blocked. Hopefully he hit the submit button by mistake and not going on a tirade with dem rhetoric.

Anyway I wanted to add something to be fair about Toshiba. I really based my opinion on 40+ years of working on them very seldom, going back to the Tos 3301 (which for the time wasn't a bad little machine) but most I worked on over the years were bad. I'm sure they had a good box every now and then but not often enough to compete with the big boys. I did post on here a while back that I worked on an older E-studio 288 about a year ago and it had a really nice print for older model! Had to replace a paper lift gear which I had never done before. Turned out to be easy to work on and only took 10 mins to replace the gear. So guess my lack of experience with them I have to take everyones word they are that bad.

Never liked their TV's and copiers aren't much better.

He was replying with quote to a number other techs that he disagreed with only instead of grouping them all in one post he replied to each individually so as to up his post count.Remember, he is a whacko Canadian.

[copyman]

He was replying with quote to a number other techs that he disagreed with only instead of grouping them all in one post he replied to each individually so as to up his post count.Remember, he is a whacko Canadian.


Thanks slim, figured it was something like that. He's like every other dem I know, they are in panic mode with Sanders likely nominee. Socialist vs Trump = 4 mores years of Trump = at least one more supreme court justice (can't prop up ginsberg in a chair anymore) Haha

Wanted to add, what the hell is a Canadian getting invloved with our politics for! Take care of your own liberal country. Last thing we need here is to become like Canada! GET LOST
Sales can reply but I'll never see it:cool:. Not interested in one thing he has to say. Typical copier saleman, ALL LIARS

[SalesServiceGuy]

Unlike Konica Minolta,Toshiba America is much more brand agnostic.

Becoming a Toshiba opens up to your dealership the Lexmark, HP and Brother Pro line hardware.

Toshiba is Lexmark USA's largest distributor.

Toshiba relabels three of Lexmark's most popular A4 MFPs.

Expect a new line of A4 Toshiba manufactured MFPs to be announced in May 2020.

Many Toshiba apps are no charge. Many Konica Minolta apps have a fee.

To get an excellent feel for how current Toshiba copiers work, I recommend you review the many "How to" videos found on Linkedin called "Toshiba Tip Tuesday".

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/hashtag/?keywords=%23ToshibaTipTuesday

[avio2]

[QUOTE = SalesServiceGuy; 1299831] A differenza di Konica Minolta, Toshiba America è molto più indipendente dal marchio.

Diventare un Toshiba apre alla tua concessionaria l'hardware della linea Lexmark, HP e Brother Pro.

Toshiba è il principale distributore di Lexmark USA.

Toshiba rietichina tre delle più popolari stampanti multifunzione A4 di Lexmark.

Aspettatevi che una nuova linea di prodotti multifunzione stampati Toshiba A4 sia annunciata nel maggio 2020.

Molte app Toshiba sono gratuite. Molte app di Konica Minolta hanno un costo.

Per avere un'idea eccellente di come funzionano le attuali fotocopiatrici Toshiba, ti consiglio di rivedere i molti video "How to" trovati su Linkedin chiamati "Toshiba Tip Tuesday".

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/hashtag/?keywords=%23ToshibaTipTuesday [/ QUOTE]


you work for toshiba?: D

toshiba are made of waste paper and have hallucinated firmware

[allan]

I started on toshiba just when the e-studio range was released. The manuals were in mandarin and very broken English.
Was helish to follow the manuals and they were fragile..

Strange because right before that i serviced a toneon government Toshiba analogs, and they were brought in to the shop for PM's and al most every last one was still good to go past PM time.
Solid and joy to work on in comparison to the FT3130 Ricoh of the time that had no auto adjustment for anything the Toshiba had none of that.

So asking B.C just because im sure he will not sugar coat anything.
On running cost comparing a new Toshiba color and a Biz Hub, if you had to put out your own machines there witch one makes more sense.

Here Toshiba and Risograph always stick together, The schools like the combo for the much reduced running cost of the Riso and the convenience to edit documents on the copier platen.

[SalesServiceGuy]

Reviewing again all of these comments, they are made by technicians who all agree that they have not worked on a Toshiba in maybe 10+ years.

Currently, according to Xerox, Toshiba has the #5 A3 market share in the USA. That does not happen by luck or get held back by grumpy copier tech comments.

[allan]

Then again the Toshiba's was not that difficult to repair, they did work.
Just recall the amount of glue for the side door and fuser area i used.

Lighter than a Canon...

Hey i like Konica Minolta machines. They are kick ass.

[tsbservice]

Here when I was working on Toshy they rise to the number one on the market. Many big dealers. Then market changed and KonMin started to arise, they are bigger now as Toshiba was. So almost all Toshiba dealers started to sell KM in place of Toshiba. I have a lot of ex colleagues and friends that was working on Toshiba and then KM. No one to regret. All said KM are more reliable, easy to work and much profitable.
Again, that was some time ago and Toshiba may improved on their weak sides. Number 5 in 🇺🇸 means something.
Still would love to work on Toshiba 13xx analog copier every day, they are unbreakable.

[allan]

The KM machines are also getting lighter.
If you had to pickup a machine would it be a C350 or a C364?

Remember those Toshiba analog's as being a bright colorful machines the work on.
The cam shell design on those was so modular it was super quick to take apart.
Like the old Risograph machines rainbow color ribbon cables puts a smile on my face.