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The majority of Kyocera’s product range is aimed at the SME business market, so it comes as something of a surprise to see the FS-820 pitch in at very much an entry-level price point. At this price it goes head-to-head with machines such as HP's LaserJet 1022 and sits between Lexmark’s E232 and E330.

FA Porsche has managed to take some of the square corners off this printer, giving it a curved top and a cutaway front face. The output tray in its top cover and the printer’s front are both coloured a dark slate grey, so it'll tone in with either a beige or a black system.

A 250-sheet paper tray slides out from the bottom of the machine and set into the tray’s top lip is a pull-out, fold-down multipurpose feeder, for envelopes or special media. Unlike some other lasers in this price bracket, the multipurpose feeder can't be used as a secondary feed tray, as it only takes a single sheet at a time.

Alongside the inset in the FS-820’s top cover are two indicators; one green and one orange, which indicate a variety of conditions, either by shining steadily or flashing. There are two buttons, too, to wake the printer up and to stop a running print job. At the back are both parallel and USB 2.0 sockets, so you can connect the printer to either type of port.

According to Kyocera, the FS-820 prints with an effective resolution of 1,200dpi, though the physical resolutions of its head and paper transport are 600dpi and 1,800dpi, respectively.

The front third of the printer's top cover hinges up to provide access to the toner cartridge. Being a Kyocera machine, the print mechanism lasts the life of the printer and toner is the only consumable. When you first switch the printer on, it takes around 15 minutes to jiggle toner into the developer unit, but this is a one-off setup process and after that the printer is available almost immediately.

The Windows driver installs simply enough and provides facilities such as watermarks and page imposition and can print from one to 25 pages per sheet. You can incorporate custom letterheads either by downloading them at print time or by storing them internally on a CompactFlash card within the printer.

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