OKI MB451W Mono Multi-Function Laser Printer

Comments about OKI MB451W Mono Multi-Function Laser Printer:

For the price, this thing has impressed me at every turn. It was easy to set up and connect to my wireless network, prints and copies surprisingly fast, can scan straight to PDF on a USB key (haven't tried to e-mail), and it's jammed only once in about 5 months of fairly intensive office use.

The overall size leaves something to be desired, but it's smaller than the monsters of old. Note that it has only one tray so legal etc. require adjusting the tray or feeding. Prints envelopes and labels flawlessly.

Great deal and price.

Comments about OKI MB451W Mono Multi-Function Laser Printer:

I bought this based on the review I read but I think the review is bogus. We bought this and the first one doesn't work and had to replace it. The second one would not work properly. The wireless connection won't connect. I spent hours on the phone with Oki tech support without success. The tech would check other solutions with Oki's engineers and call me back but nothing worked. They blamed it on my wireless router. I have other wireless printers and equipment working but not this one.

We also have problems with wired connection now and it won't work. Found out the USB printer port name changed. After changing the port and called Oki Tech for help, they can't solve the problem.

Called Staples to want to return and get something else. Now Staples said it is more than 14 days and won't accept the return. We had it for only about a month and during this month, we've been trying to get it working. Now, I've a large paper weight in my office.

Comments about OKI MB451W Mono Multi-Function Laser Printer:

I've had it for about 4 weeks. I'm a corporate home office worker with low volume, but I need every printing, scanning, faxing, and copying feature I can get. This unit is packed with features for the price. The no-touch full-duplex feature is great, and really saves paper. The large LCD control panel is great. Automatic feed for full-duplex scanning--wonderful.

A few things to consider:

1) Print cost isn't real cheap. At my volumes, the cost of the printer is more important than the cost per page. But if you print a lot, there may be better choices.

2) It's pretty big, and pretty heavy. No problem for me, but for some users those are important considerations.

3) I keep it about 3 feet away from my desk, and it's rather noisy when printing. But noise is no problem once the print job is done.

It may not be for everyone. But for the right user (me), this is a great printer at a great price.

Comments about OKI MB451W Mono Multi-Function Laser Printer:

Staples had free ship and specified it would take 7 days. Imagine my surprise when it arrived the next business day!

My old all-in-one is an HP Officejet Pro 7580. It worked great for 16 months until the genuine HP ink began to leak. Replacing the ink did no good. It was costing a fortune to keep buying HP ink so I began using generics, but generics are NOT at all water resistant. The ink jets have slowly gotten clogged over time until the color does not work anymore and B&W is iffy. I am feed up with ink jets. You cannot beat the per page cost of lasers, but what to buy?

Specs: excellent
I compared the following similarly priced monochrome laser all-in-one printers: Brother MFC7860, Cannon imageCLASS MF4880, Cannon imageCLASS MF4890, Samsung SCX-4729FW, and Okidata MB451w. All scan in color. All have auto duplex print, but ONLY Okidata and the Canon 4890 have duplex (double sided) copy and scan. Okidata has a Duty Cycle (a measure of durability) of 50,000 pages per month while all the others are rated about 10,000 pages. The Okidata is not flimsy and weighs 44 lbs while the others weigh about 22-25 lbs. Samsung and Cannon have toner cartridge integrated with the drum (replaced whenever you replace the toner), while Brother and Okidata have a separate drum. Brother and Samsung have annoying 2-line displays while Cannon has 5 lines with backlight. Okidata 3.5 inch display is variable, but has about 5-6 lines with backlight AND a help function. Print speed for Okidata is 30 cpm single sided and 17 cpm duplex (duplex is much faster than the other printers). Time to first page (in idle) is 5 seconds, but requires 25 seconds warm-up from Power Save, and longer from Sleep.

Customer support: very good
I called Okidata tech support several times, once getting though immediately, and the other times on hold for a few minutes. They claim an average 60 second wait time and to be open 24 hours/day! You will reach an actual person here in the US and they don't use a script with canned answers. They seen both helpful and friendly and were able to answer my questions or quickly email me with the answer. Warranty for the US and Canada is one year on site.

User manuals (basic, advanced and wireless setup): good
The manuals are detailed, generally clear and well illustrated and are available on line and as a physical copy of the basic manual in the box. Cannon and Brother have equally good manuals, but Samsung has an annoying pictogram type manual.

Installation and setup: easy
I have Win 7, but drivers are available on-line for Win 8. Unpack, add paper and you are ready to copy. Wireless setup (using manual wireless setup) is only a few steps and is similarly easy IF you know your SSID (network name), password and security type (mine is WPA). It took much longer to read through the extensive manuals to see if I wanted to change any of the default options.

Function.
For the most part, the display menu system is self explanatory and guides the user in a helpful way. Many menus have a displayed "?" which means you can press the "help" button for more information. I see no problems with the print quality and Toner Saver seems almost as good. It prints fairly quietly (55dB), it is very quiet in Power Save and silent in Sleep. Power Save is 18 watts while Sleep is 3 watts. Both single side and duplex copying and printing are all a snap. Scanning from a PC is a bit confusing until you realize you have to select Scan/Remote PC (confusingly not Network or Local) on the printer, and then go to the PC. Then the ActKey software works great to scan (much like the software for my HP inkjet printer and the scan result is just as good as HP). I don't have the included OCR software working yet. I have not faxed yet.

Cost to Own:
The Okidata comes with a 1000 page starter cartridge. There are no generics. There are generics for Brother, Samsung and Cannon, but I see a lot of online complaints concerning generic toner. The Okidata Toner currently sells for about $40 and has a spec of 1500 pages. This seems to be a roughly similar per page cost to Cannon and Samsung, but a higher cost to that of Brother toner, but Brother laser printers generally cost more upfront. Okidata claims a life of about 25,000 pages for their drum. For what ever it is worth, Okidata claims their lifetime total cost to own is substantially less than Samsung and slightly less than Brother.