The Konica Minolta bizhub 652 and bizhub 552 multifunctional printers (MFPs) have both earned Buyers Laboratory Inc's (BLI) summer 2011 pick awards in their respective category: the bizhub 652 is the leader among A3 monochrome MFPs with an output speed between 61 to 70 pages per minute (ppm). For speeds from 51 to 60ppm, BLI's summer pick award goes to the bizhub 552.
“Today's printer market is a neck-and-neck race, so winning an award for outstanding MFPs is a major accomplishment,” says Andrew Griffith, product manager for office products at Bidvest company, Konica Minolta South Africa.
“The bizhub 552 and bizhub 652 were developed to offer high quality black and white output, while maintaining an attractive cost of ownership. The devices' scanning capabilities and application support enable comprehensive colour workflows. BLI not only proved those features, but also recognised them as being outstanding in their categories.”
After approximately two months of rigorous tests, the bizhub 652 won BLI's pick award for Outstanding 61- to 70-ppm A3 Monochrome MFPs, the bizhub 552 for Outstanding 51- to 60-ppm A3 Monochrome MFPs. Both are versatile multifunctionals with a black and white print speed of 65ppm (bizhub 652) and 55ppm (bizhub 552).
The devices offer professional finishing capabilities, including booklet finishing, z-folding as well as page insertion of colour printed covers and others. The two MFPs can be equipped with up to six paper trays for different media types and sizes, which can vary from A6 to A3+ and manage paper weights of up to 300gsm.
To support workflows for solutions and applications, the bizhub 552 and bizhub 652 are equipped with a colour scanner serving up to 78 images per minute (ipm) and offer OpenAPI and bizhub Extended Solution Technology (bEST) applications for workflow integration, especially in terms of document capture and distribution. Users can rely on high security standards in accordance with the Common Criteria for Information Technology Security Evaluation (ISO 15408, EAL3).
Both machines also use Konica Minolta's Simitri HD toner that combines high quality output with low energy consumption. The unique built-in Konica Minolta Emperon print controller features functions such as MyTab print driver or XPS Print Preview and offers support for PCL, Postscript, PDF and XPS.
“In addition to these tried and tested capabilities that we have come to expect from Konica Minolta, scan speeds are fast in both colour and black and white, and ease of use is excellent from the drivers and very good from the user interface, making the bizhub 552 and bizhub 652 an ideal fit for busy mid- to high-volume workgroup distribution,” says George Mikolay, senior product editor, A3/Copier MFPs at BLI.
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Konica Minolta South Africa
Konica Minolta South Africa, wholly owned by the Bidvest Group, stands at the forefront of business solution providers as the principal importer and distributor of the innovative and award-winning Konica Minolta range of bizhub digital multifunctional colour and black and white devices, laser printers, fax machines and business solutions, into South Africa as well as Namibia, Malawi, Botswana and Swaziland. Konica Minolta South Africa's head office is based in Johannesburg and its distribution network is supported by 14 branches and 43 dealerships. With an operational stance of consultative business partnering, the group provides clients with holistic document management solutions: through pre-sales analysis, audits to sales, installation, ongoing onsite technical and software management as well as the supply of spare parts and consumables.
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