User Review of the Okidata 5150 Color Laser Printer

Prior to purchasing the Okidata 5150N color laser printer my wife and I spent several hours on the web searching for user reviews of color laser printers. Based on only a few user reviews (all positive) of the Okidata 5150N color laser printer we purchased this printer. We are delighted that we made the purchase. This printer takes the place of Epson inkjet printers that were continually suffering clogged heads if not used for a week or so and for which purchasing the inkjet cartridges was a frequent and expensive necessity.



From the moment we arrived home with our Okidata 5150N the entire experience of unpacking it and installing it has been a pleasure because of the care and attention to detail shown by Okidata in their packing of the printer and in the clear installation instructions which they provide (with separate manuals in six different languages!). We had our color laser unpacked hooked up and printing within 20 minutes. Installation of the drivers and other software provided on three CD's by Okidata with the printer was fast and straightforward. The printer was installed on a USB 2.0 hub attached to a P4 running Windows XP Pro SP2. By installing the Okidata drivers for the 5150N on our other two networked computers we were quickly able to begin using the printer on those computers as well. Note that the 5150N also comes complete with an ethernet print server as well which is rare for a color laser printer in this price range.



We have been extremely pleased with the speed and quality of the prints made on the 5150N. This includes both text business color graphics including web pages and color photos printed on Hammermill laser photo paper. While Okidata thoughtfully provides a utility for color matching which is useful in printing photos I have found that the auto color setting of the 5150N also does an excellent job on photos as well as everything else. In fact the Okidata 5150N does almost as good a job with photos as my Canon i9900 photo inkjet printer which I believe represents the current state-of-the-art in consumer level inkjet photo printers.



If you are used to printing large jobs of many pages on an inkjet printer you will be really impressed with the speed of the 5150N. My 5150N is in Power Save mode (using 20 watts only) for most of the time since it is used only occasionally by my wife and I for print jobs but the first page rolls out in about 20 seconds after clicking on print on our computers and the speed with which the remaining pages appear is a joy to behold. We anticipate that the cost per page of using the 5150N will be significantly less than that of using any inkjet printer.



The physical size of the 5150N is noteworthy and a clear level desk space area is necessary for locating the printer. The construction quality of the printer is first rate and the printer driver provided by Okidata is straight forward includes lots of features for enhancing printing and runs flawlessly.



We have now printed several hundred pages of images graphics and text on several different weights of paper without a single paper jam or other problems.



I highly recommend this printer to anyone considering the purchase of a color laser writer.More detail ...

Satisfied Okidata owner

We used an Okidata OL400 for over 12 years. It still printed fine but the paper feed became problematic. We don't print photos or other color pages and preferred the OL400 over any of the HP ink jets we worked with.



So another monochrome toner based printer was our best bet. Toner packs especially the larger 7000 page size require fewer changes and are less expense per page than ink jet cartidges. The B4600 has a similar footprint as the OL400 and the same or improved capabilities so it seemed the likely choice.



We've only had it for a few weeks but are pleased with the set-up so far. The cooling fan is louder and it does run longer after printing the last page than the OL400 but the per page speed of the new printer is much faster... I'll take that trade-off. It has a larger paper tray so running a larger print job (100 pages or more) at one time is easier than the old printer. The installation was simple and since the functions are similar to the OL400 we had nothing new to learn.



I was not sure about the black body of the printer but it matches all the other electronics in the work area. I'd get another black one but I expect this one to last another 10 plus years.More detail ...

Drum less than advertised

I had the same experience as others. Prints fine but the toner cartridges don't last as long as promised and because this was used only for a Friends meeting newsletter we kept a fairly exact page count and the drum only lasted for 12000 pages which is 13000 short of the advertised 25000. The drum costs between $160 and $170 which is as much as many printers. I did my homework and the reviews were good but I feel disappointed.More detail ...

NO REFILLS!

I found out the hard way that the Oki Data people will not let you refill the toner cartridge. You must buy a new one at 120 dollars a pop instead of only 60 dollars for a refill. How do they do this? You get a "credit card" with each NEW cartridge and insert this to "zero" out the toner error message. It will keep printing for a while with the refilled cartridge but eventually it stops printing. DO NOT BUY THIS PIECE OF JUNK!More detail ...

Great Printer

Just purchased this printer to print Quickbooks invoices and it works great. Easy to setup.More detail ...

Okidata ML321Turbo Wide Epson IBM Printer

This printer is wonderful! It is so much faster and quieter than the older model we had to "retire". I still can believe the speed! I highly recommend this printer!More detail ...

The B4250 is nothing but a flimsy piece of junk

I had my Okidata OLE810 for at least 12 years. What a great machine. My best guess is I used at least 30 drums. It finally gave it up....it owes my nothing.



I just bought the B4250. What a flimsy piece of junk. Constant paper jams since the paper must make *2* VERY tight U-turns inside the machine. Whoever designed this has apparently never used a printer in real life.



The list in the manual detailing what kinds of paper you *can't* use is very very long. To use heavy paper like pricey letterheads or card stock....the only option is to feed them in ... o n e ... a t ... a ... t i m e. Wish I had that kind of time.



It is VERY fast...when it works. Regular hammermill white paper kept jamming. Run of the mill (sorry about the pun) paper seems to be a problem.



It shipped with the toner leaking all over. My hands were black by the time I got it set up.



Sorry Okidata....but it's time for me to move along. Whoever decided that paper can make 2 tight U-turns and be reliable needs to find another line of work. Try a job or office that actually uses it's printer and get some daily hands-on experience before designing another one.More detail ...