Ricoh Aficio SG 3110DNw

The Ricoh Aficio SG 3110DNw is an inkjet printer for people whose first thought is to look for a low-end color laser. Like a growing number of other inkjetsincluding the HP Officejet Pro 251dw Printer and the Editors' Choice HP Officejet Pro 8100 ePrinterit delivers laser-like speed and paper handling. More important, its balance of speed, paper handling, and price is enough to make it an Editors' Choice.

Like both the HP 251dw and HP 8100, the SG 3110DNw offers enough capability for heavy-duty use as a shared printer in a micro or small office. Unlike the two HP models, however, it's small enough, at 8.4 by 15.7 by 17.2 inches (HWD) to share a desk with comfortably, making it more appropriate as a personal printer too.

The Ricoh printer also differs from the two HP models in providing only limited support for mobile printing. It can print from both iOS and Android devices over a Wi-Fi connection, for example, but only if you have an access point on your network, since it doesn't offer Wi-Fi Direct. On the other hand, it delivers in spades on the basics, with even more capable paper handling than the HP printers and with faster speed on our tests.

Basics, Setup, and Speed
Like the HP models, the SG 3110DNw comes with a 250-sheet tray and duplexing standard. That should be enough for most micro or small offices, but if you need more capacity, the SG 3110DNw lets you add up to 350 sheets more than you can with the HP printers, with a 100-sheet bypass tray ($140 direct) and up to two more 250-sheet drawers ($153 direct each), for a total of 850-sheets.

Ricoh uses a variation on inkjet technology that it calls GelJet, based on fast-drying, viscous inks. However, setup is standard fare for an inkjet. For my tests, I connected the printer by Ethernet and installed the driver on a Windows Vista system.

As I've already suggested, speed is a definitive strong point. On our business applications suite (using QualityLogic's hardware and software for timing) the SG 3110DNw came in at 7.2 pages per minute (ppm), making it convincingly faster than both the 8100, at 5.9 ppm, and the 251dw, at 6.0 ppm. And note that both of the HP printers are faster than some lasers.

Output Quality and Other Issues
The SG 3110DNw's output quality on our official tests is best described as more than acceptable for most business use, but unimpressive. Text output was well below par for an inkjet, which translates to printing most fonts on our tests at a quality level that's readable, but not well formed, at sizes below 10 points.

Graphics output was relatively better, but still a touch below par. That makes it easily good enough for any internal business use, but you may or may not consider it high quality enough for PowerPoint handouts or the like, depending on how critical an eye you have.

Photo output was a special case. Unlike most inkjet manufacturers, Ricoh didn't provide photo paper for the printer. Following our standard testing procedures, I printed the photos for our official tests on the same color copy paper we use for lasers. Here again, the quality was well below par for an inkjet. It was easily good enough for printing recognizable photos from Web pages or even printing what you can think of as newspaper-quality photos, but it was well short of the true photo quality that most inkjets deliver.

That said, because the SG 3110DNw's default settings are so aggressively chosen for fast speed, I ran some additional tests as well, using the printer's best quality mode. I also tried printing photos on some glossy paper I had left over from testing another printer. As you'd expect for any inkjet, quality improved dramatically, with photos on the glossy paper at the low end of true photo quality and with text and graphics better than par.

Of, course, the speed slowed down dramatically as well. The time for our two-page Word file, for example, went from 14.8 seconds in the default mode to 161.0 seconds in the High Quality mode. So if you choose the High Quality setting, you clearly give up the advantages of fast speed. The point here is that the default mode is good enough for most business purposes, but when you need better output quality, you can get it if you're willing to wait for it.

The Ricoh Aficio SG 3110DNw won't be your first choice if high quality output is your main concern. Both of the HP printers I've mentioned can best it on that score, with the HP Officejet Pro 251dw Printer delivering the best looking output in the group. If all you need is output that's good enough for business use, however, and you're more concerned with moving lots of paper through the printer, the Ricoh Aficio SG 3110DNw can do the job well enough to likely be your preferred printer. It certainly does the job impressively enough to make it Editors' Choice.