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Kyocera claims print speeds of up to 30ppm for the FS-2000D and while these are likely to be for draft mode print, we managed to print a five-page text test piece in 23 seconds, giving it a real world, normal print speed of just over 13ppm. The mixed text and graphics page, which is a five-off print of a single page, completed even more quickly, in 20 seconds, so touching 15ppm.

The printer's built-in duplex unit handles two-sided printing economically, taking each page back in from the output tray to print the second side. Print speeds are slightly lower, but at 13ppm, are still very respectable.

Print quality isn’t the best we’ve seen from a mono laser printer. Text output is clean and fine, though there is some spatter and emboldened text is a bit over-printed, losing a little detail. Our text and graphics prints threw up a few problems with the graphics, where some greyscales which should have shown as different tones merged into one.

Best quality print, at 1200dpi, is also not perfect. Although detail is good and there's some reproduction of shadow detail, areas of smooth transition suffer from noticeable banding. While photo reproduction isn't the main use of mono laser printers, the prints we saw were bettered by other mono lasers, too.

Kyocera’s unique lifetime drum and fuser means that the only consumable you’re paying for is toner and a cartridge sufficient for around 12,000, five per cent cover pages costs just under £60. This gives a page cost, including VAT and paper, of 0.95p.

This figure is among the very lowest we've seen for a mono laser, or indeed any printer in the last couple of years and supports Kyocera's claims for a very low cost of ownership. It also makes maintenance extremely easy, because of the simple toner replacement and the high capacity of the cartridge.

Verdict

The key feature of the Kyocera FS-2000D, like so many of its stable mates, is it's low running costs. At less than a penny per page, even the comparatively high price of the machine seems reasonable. However, the print quality we saw under test is no great shakes and isn't as good as from some previous FS models. While for many general office uses it will be adequate, we’ve seen more balanced greyscale output from several other mono lasers under test.

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