Kyocera FS-1200

Why wait longer than you have to for your documents to print? This zippy 12ppm laser printer can churn through the work and it will grow with your business as it can be upgraded to a become a network printer.

Kyocera's FS-1200 is aimed at the grey ground between high-end consumer and small business user. It's an upgradable, 600dpi, 12-page-per-minute black and white laser printer but at a price point that many home users would be happy to stretch to.

Bearing more than a passing resemblance to a standard networkable office printer, the FS-1200 does not however cost the earth - £599 for the basic model. But if you want to network it, you'll have to delve into the optional extras and buy yourself the 10/100BaseTX Ethernet card. Other extras include boosting the memory to a maximum 68Mb, adding various paper feeders and a duplexing unit.

Print quality is of a high standard. Indeed, the FS-1200 scored a creditable 82.4 per cent in our Labs tests, and the mono text speed of 9.23ppm is not too far off the manufacturer's own claims. This slumps somewhat when printing colour images, to just under 5ppm, but this is common.

The FS-1200 had no problems printing either the smaller or larger fonts thrown at it, and lines of white amid seas of black were well defined. Nor was there any banding of note.

It fared slightly less well when printing high-density colour images, but again, this is not unusual.

Perhaps the greatest selling point of Kyocera's printer ranges is the excellent Ecosys technology. Unless you're an eco-warrior though, the fact that it's environmentally friendly probably won't overly excite you.

What will please you more is that running costs are incredibly low. At under a third of a penny per page, it's a winner for SoHo users where money is a key factor when it comes to buying IT equipment.

Contact Kyocera 0118 931 1500