Oki C3600 Printer Review

A colour laser printer can be the best option regarding home offices that print a high number of coloured paperwork. Competitively priced around £270, the Oki C3600 is network ready and prints at a remarkable speed compared to its rivals, but unfortunately it is much larger than many printers and also does not have cool features like a full-colour LCD screen or wireless print server.

We are not so pleased with the C3600's style and design, but we were really never been too taken with laser printers generally. The matte white C3600 measures 371 x 290 x 478mm and weighs about 46lbs. We would'nt call it a behemoth, but it's larger compared to the Samsung CLP315W, which only measures 389 x 244 x 312mm. The C3600 also weighs about 9kg more as compared to the CLP-315W, so people who have modest desk space will likely be more happy with a smaller sized device.

All the ports needed to connect the printer to your computer is placed at the back of the chassis, including a USB and an Ethernet port for networking over multiple systems. Another important feature lacking on the C3600 is a front-mounted USB port for connecting PictBridge- compatible cameras and also direct printing from a USB flash storage drive.

Considering that it's just a single-function laser printer, there aren't many added features, on the contrary we commend Oki for making use of a 400MHz processor and also a hefty 128mb of memory, which allows the C3600 to handle even bigger print jobs as compared to the others. You can even upgrade to a maximum of 640MB of memory.

The C3600's cyan, magenta, yellow and black toner cartridges are individually separated and is placed directly underneath the top cover and is lined up horizontally. The printer is shipped with 'standard' capacity cartridges. Based on the statements from Oki, the black cartridge will last for 1,500 pages and each of the 3 colour cartridges lasts for 1,000 prints. The replacement for the black cartridge costs roughly £35, while replacement for the colour cartridges is approximately £55. Oki likewise offers high-capacity cartridges which can produce 2500 black pages at around £50 and £70 for 2500 colour pages. Compatible toner cartridges for the OKI C3600 are also available at a 30% saving. The recommended monthly work cycle for this particular printer is 35000 pages, which is more than sufficient for small businesses.

The C3600 fared very well in a direct output speed assessment with three other colour laser printers. It came 2nd best in all our tests, just a bit behind from the Brother Hl4040CN, also a single-function printer with a similar price. It printed black text at almost the same speed as the HL -4040CN, generating 15.61 pages per minute, compared with the HL-4040CN's 15.66. However, it could hardly match the Samsung CLP-315W in the colour demonstration test, but it's safe to say that you won't be waiting too long for any document with this printer.

The C3600 also performed well in all of our print-quality tests. The black text looked as good as we anticipate with a laser printer, with bold line formation as well as smooth gradation along font size scales. Additionally, the C3600 dealt with our text graphics very well, displaying excellent signs of colour separation as well as sharp image distinction, even in some of the delicate blending detail. As expected, a few of the images appeared a bit smudgy and pixellated, however the general print quality throughout presentations, graphics as well as simple text increased our general impression of this particular printer.

The Oki C3600 is quite large and weighty, and does not include an array of features. It does, however, turn out high-quality prints at a fast rate, which makes it among our most liked colour laser printers.


Oki C3600 toner cartridges can be found here.