The OKI Printing Solutions 9650 ledger-size printers have replaced the excellent C9600 family. They add more power, more memory and additional finishing options to those very good departmental color printers.

It is speed that makes this series stand out. They print at 36ppm in color and 40ppm in black-and-white. With street prices in the $3,400-$4,100 range, these models aren’t the cheapest, but they are priced competitively for what you get.

The C9650 series is made up of three models:

• The C9650n ($3,399 street) comes with standard networking.
• The C9650dn ($3,699 street) adds standard automatic duplexing.
• The C9650hdn ($4,099 street) adds a 40GB hard disk.

Paper handling is quite good on this family, especially on the input side with a maximum capacity of 2,880 sheets.

The drawers have built-in sensors that identify the size of paper loaded in them, a nice plus for busy offices. The main trays handle pages up to 12″ x 18″ in size, so you can print proofs with crop marks and color bars. You can also feed 12.9″ x 47.2″ paper into this machine by using a banner feed tray in order to make signage or small posters, another nice plus. The multifunctional tray can handle media up to 75lb. cover or 170lb. index.

Consumables costs for black are very good (1.4¢ a page by our estimate) and good in its speed range for color (8.6¢). These OKI machines are excellent business machines.

For a fuller review and for information on other similar products, see the Better Buys for Business Color Laser Printer Guide.

Tags: 9650, C9650dn, C9650hdn, C9650n, OKI