Genuine evolutionary leaps are rare in the
printer world, but the London EvoJet Office is just that, claiming colour print
speeds of 60 ppm.
With standard inkjets, the print head
scythes left and right across the page as the paper is fed through. The EvoJet
uses Memjet technology, where a single massive print ahead – 223 mm wide and
with 70,000 print nozzles remains static, lazying down a ‘waterfall’ of ink as
the paper passes through. The nozzles create 1 Picoliter ink drops, the same
size as the leading Canon PIXMAs, and Lomond says the fixed head makes it more
durable than a standard inkjet engine.
The
Lomond EvoJet’s astonishingly fast output is made possible by its ‘waterfall’
print head
We were skeptical of such heady claims as
we set up the device. It has a low, long shape, with the four ink tanks dropped
in from a flap on the top and the paper loaded into a 250-sheet tray in the
base. There’s a single-sheet feed at the back, and the only controls are a few
buttons on the sloping top. We connected via USB and first printed multiple
copies of a single mono page. Sure enough, after around ten seconds of
preparation, the pages began spitting out at an amazing 60ppm. We tried again
with a full-colour document and the speed didn’t drop at all. Lomond’s claims
are bang on the money.
There’s no draft mode – as if you’d need
prints any quicker than that – but there is a Best mode. With that engaged, the
speed was 30 ppm with every document we tried. Apart from a slightly more solid
look to blocks of colour, we really couldn’t see a difference between the two
modes, so even at top speed you’ll get clear text and accurate colours. It
isn’t perfect – blacks are a bit pale and prints lack the boldness of the best
inkjets – but the results are absolutely fine to all but the pickiest eye.
The EvoJet can also print photos, albeit
only on A4 paper. We loaded a few glossy sheets and opened out test photomontage
in Photoshop. Again, we didn’t expect much, but it came rocketing out at the
same speed as a normal print. There were faint lines visible in places, and the
detail wasn’t quite there, but with remarkably accurate colours we’d put in a
single rung below the best from Canon or HP.
There’s a major downside to all this: the
$988.5 price tag. It’s offset to some extend by print costs of 1.1p for a mono
page and 3.1p for colour, although you’ll need to shell out $345 to replace the
all-important print head after 50,000 pages. It also lacks a few important
office features, such as a duplex mode and the ability to add extra paper
trays.
We’ll wait to see how this new generation
of turbo inkjets develops, but with amazing speed, good quality, and running
costs lower than most colour lasers, this is a real advance and an appealing
workgroup printer.
Labs team
Price:
$988.5
Website:
memjetuk.com
Info
evojet.lomond.com
Needs OS X
10.5-10.7 (Mountain Lion support not confirmed)
Pro
Incredibly fast. Quality output. Low running costs
Con Large
initial outlay.
(MacUser_31 August 2012, 28)
