The Kyocera Mita FS-2000D is a double-sided monochrome A4 laser printer ideal for small to mid-sized business or departmental use. The printer boasts quality prints with 30 pages a minute output, 1200 x 1200 dpi resolution and 64MB of standard memory some of its features. Networking is not available out of the box however both wired and wireless networking with print server capability can be purchased.

Many laser printers use an imaging cartridge that integrates a drum, developer and toner into a single unit which is replaced each time the toner is exhausted. Kyocera printers instead feature a ceramic and metal drum with tiny ceramic particles that continually polish the drum during printing. This, Kyocera claim, allows the drum to remain in use for up to 300,000 pages. The initial toner pack will print 6000 pages (5% coverage) and replacement toner, easily inserted into the printer via a convenient slide tray at the rear, costs $137 and will print up to 12,000 pages (5% coverage). When the drum does need to be replaced it will cost $799.

The printer is quite heavy at 15.8kg, but surprisingly compact. Measuring 382 x 394 x 285mm, it doesn't take up much bench space at all and is largely inconspicuous thanks to a clean design. Setup is simple; we used a USB connection and inserted the paper into the slide-out 500-sheet A4 tray located on the front. After installing the driver software we were up and running in a matter of minutes.

For the price, you get a small but effective LCD display on the top of the unit, surrounded by an intuitive control panel. The menu was very easy to use and we didn't have any problems grasping any part of the FS-2000D's operation. You can tweak most print settings via this LCD screen and controls.

The FS-2000D may be targeted at business workgroups, but it still has features that would appeal to home and small office users. The best of these is a standard USB 1.1 port at the rear of the unit, meaning it is possible to print PDFs directly from a USB storage device. We tested this with a USB key and it worked well, although the USB port would be much better situated at the front of the unit for easier access. As well as a high speed USB 2.0 interface, the FS-2000D can also be connected via parallel.

Kyocera has not included networking capabilities straight out of the box so you'll have to purchase an optional network adapter if you require this function. There is a internal wired Ethernet option available for $145 while internal wireless networking costs an extra $729 - both are print servers.

Claiming up to 30 pages per minute of A4 and 15.5 of A4 duplex printing, we found Kyocera's quoted print speeds pretty close to the mark. On the high print quality setting we managed 27 pages a minute, which is an excellent result. Furthermore, we printed six pages of high quality A4 duplex with greyscale test charts and photos in just 37 seconds, with the FS-2000D taking just nine seconds to print its first page. Overall the FS-2000D is an extremely quick printer and doesn't suffer slowdown when configured for high quality printing.

The FS-2000D is rated by Kyocera for a maximum duty cycle of 150,000 pages per month and Kyocera offer a 2 year on-site warranty which can be extended. The 500 sheet paper capacity can be increased to 1100 pages via an additional paper tray. Memory can also be upgraded by replacing the 64MB DDR SDRAM DIMM with a 128, 256 or 512 MB module.

The FS-2000D print quality is very good, producing crisp and dark text but perhaps leaving a little to be desired with shaded graphics. However, the quality of text printing was excellent on a whole. With its combined speed and print quality, the FS-2000D is definitely an appealing proposition.