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Kyocera Mita is a very focussed company. It doesn’t make inkjet printers and it doesn’t bother itself much about the consumer market. It makes laser devices, pure and simple, from small, one-per-desk devices to huge, floor-standing departmental printers. Much closer to the one-per-desk end of the market is the FS-1300D. This printer is similar to the FS-1100 and would suit a SOHO or small workgroup environment.

Decked out in cream and dark grey, this is a modestly sized machine, a bit deeper than some personal lasers, but low to the desk and still with both a 250-sheet paper tray and a 50-sheet multi-purpose tray, which folds down from the front panel.

On top, the control panel has been reduced to a circular dial, with six coloured LEDs, indicating things like low toner, paper jam and incoming data. There are just two control buttons, to turn the printer on and off and to kill a running print job.

A small, inset, triangular paper stop folds up from the top panel and through the middle of the triangle you can see the top of the toner cartridge. As we’ve commented before, this would be more useful if it actually showed you how much toner was left in the cartridge. As it is, it just reminds you of the consumable’s part number.

The FS-1300D has only a USB 2.0 socket at the back, though you can add an Ethernet adapter as an option. You can also set the printer on two additional 250-sheet paper trays, for a maximum input of 800 sheets.

Kyocera Mita has patents on a unique coating for its photoconductor drum, which makes it a lifetime component, so it doesn't need to be changed periodically as a consumable. The only thing that needs to be fitted is the toner cartridge, which plugs in easily under the top cover once you flip it up. The printer takes between 10 and 15 minutes to charge itself with toner the first time you switch it on, but after this it’s virtually an instant-on device.

Software comprises a pretty simple driver, enabling you to select the source paper tray and to choose single-sided or duplex prints. You can select up to 16 pages per sheet, too, but there are no facilities for watermarks or overprinting.

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