News

DataMaster Labs tests the Intelligent A4 MFPs

12 January 2018

Always widening our services for our subscribers, we have been looking into the "intelligent A4" market in more detail. 

This market is as hugely differentiated as the A3 market.  There are some "all in one" machines priced as photocopiers - and there are a few real "communication platforms" which merit their price and categorization A4 variants on the office copier. 

We have a battery of tests and analyses specifically for intelligent A4 MFPS.  We define these as color A4 MFPs with the means to provide the same communication platform that their A3 stablemates do.  So they need to have a software development platform, and a screen and chipset capable of handling Solutions - and good flexibility and capacities. 

All modern MFPs need to perform well in today's business environments too - good, secure connectivity; high productivity in modern business scenarios - and be really easy to manage remotely.
As part of the review of our testing procedures, we brought a bunch of A4 MFPs into the DataMaster Lab, both "intelligent" and "professional" graded devices.  Our tests are highly detailed, market-focused and we find out stuff the manufacturers hide from you. 

We tested, among others, the Lexmark CX725dthe, the Ricoh MP C407SPF, the Canon iR Advance C355i, the Epson WF-5620DWF, the HP 477dw and the Brother MFC-L9570CDW.
Even with our experience, we were surprised at many of the results - some good surprises, but some frankly shocking discoveries too.
Subscribers to DataMaster Online - DMO - available on Printer-Benchmark.com can see the full test results.

Here is a little quiz for you:

1. One of these machines has such a tiny output capacity that after the fifth sheet has printed, the rest fall on the floor.
   
2. One of these machines memory management is so poor that its RIP times varied by over 300% on the same test file.
   
3. One of these machine's webpage is more complete than most A3 machines'
   
4. One of these machines is not an "intelligent A4"
   
5. One of these machines looks just like an A3 photocopier

Answers on an email please - and we will give one month of free access to Premium DMO to anyone who can identify each of the machines!

Productivity, print quality, usability, features and functions, security, mobility, flexibility and environmental aspects - all these criteria are assessed scientifically in the DataMaster Lab.  Given the growth of the A4 MFP market, the suite of tests developed for the A4 market's contenders are at the heart of the laboratory's strategy.
 
DataMaster Lab's analyzes and evaluations are fully independent.  The results will soon be available on your DMO benchmark portal.

See the product pages and other documents  

Lexmark CX725dthe	Certificate	Rosette
Canon iR Advance C355i	Certificate	Rosette
Brother MFC-L9570CDW	Certificate	Rosette
Ricoh MP C407SPF	Certificate	Rosette
HP PageWide 477dw	Certificate	Rosette
Epson WF-5620DWF	Certificate	Rosette