NEC-870 Super? Not! Good? Yes!
Written: Jan 31 '00 (Updated Jan 24 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: High quality printouts (text & graphics), price, resolution quality, Great copies, solid, reliable, good technical support clear text Fast and Reliable, speed and reasonable size.
Cons: Prints slightly skewed, no USB connections, Noise. Annoying sterile robotic voice which repeats error and need messages (i.e. out of paper, etc.).
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| gridtex's Full Review: NEC SuperScript 870 Laser Printer |
I use my NEC 870 as a backup printer when my other printers are being used. The printer has done a fine job for me. I do think that there are superior printers that can be had for the same money if you are patience and wait for the right deal to come along.
The things that I like about the NEC 870 are:
Response time-short warm up period and prints come out fast.
The NEC 870 has the capacity for up to 32mb of upgradeable memory.
Text prints are sharp and photos print without banding or printer added shading.
Input tray safely holds about 135 sheets (at the claimed 150 you are more likely to get misfeeds.)
600dpi capacity
Fast output.
Small footprint (takes up little space).
Reliable, durable.
Very easy set-up.
Comparatively inexpensive to operate.
Good technical support at NEC (Microsoft should learn from these guys).
Seldom misfeeds.
Facedown or face up output.
Prints about 7 pages per minute text; 5 ½ ppm mixed text and graphics.
2MB Ram included upgradable to 16 MB.
The shortcomings of the NEC-870 are:
The NEC-870 can print material skewed with alarming frequency. This is a real killer for presentation materials of any kind.
Cheesy feel to the printer.
Noisy
Not for volume use, can cause problems with continuous use (3 or more hours of constant output.
No low toner warning, (best to keep a spare cartridge around and insert when you seen your prints starting to fade).
TIPS:
$69 toner cartridge prints about 3,000 (2200 real world) pages; $125 high capacity cartridge that is supposed to last for 6,000 (4100 real world) pages.
(Why do all of these guys always overstate cartridge capacity?)
Page Computer out of California offers the NEC-870 for 261.95 delivered; Egghead for $270 delivered, and Buy.com for $274 plus shipping.
Check C-Net or Pricewatch.com for the current lowest prices.
Input paper tray holds 135-140 sheets of paper or 20 envelopes, don't overload.
There is an optional 500 sheet paper tray available from between $119 to $169. But it is not as reliable as the standard tray and will subject you to more misfeeds.
Check to see if you can order through BizRate and get an additional 1% to 5% off.
Networking with Macs and PCs will require another $189 to $249 investment in an optional ethernet card.
The 870 won a PC editor's choice award. Assuming that the 870 deserved the award, it is sad that the printer could win and is probably the best for the money. I would expect more.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
gridtex
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Location: D/FW Metroplex, TEXAS
Reviews written: 8
Trusted by: 45 members
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