The Konica Minolta 1400W is a monochrome laser printer designed for the personal or small office user. It offers good printing speed at an affordable price, but its print quality is not as good as competing models.
The design of the 1400W makes it a good choice for a home user or a college student, as it is quite compact lightweight, allowing it to be easily moved around. The printer measures 9.4 inches by 13.9 inches by 16.1 inches (HWD) and weighs 15.6 pounds. There is no real control panel to speak of, just two status lights and a Cancel button, but for a simple personal laser like this one, not much more is needed. The printer’s settings and functions are controlled by the software.
Setting up the 1400W is as simple as one would expect. Users simply unpack, install the toner cartridge, plug in the power cable, and start the installation software. The software installation process will tell you when to plug in the USB cable. The USB connection is strangely located behind an access panel which must be removed, an odd design decision, but it keeps the cable more hidden. The toner cartridge has a capacity of 2,000 pages, which should be more than enough for the average home user or college student. At current prices for toner cartridges, the printer can print at a cost of around 3 cents a page, but using third-party compatible cartridges can bring the cost down to around 1.9 cents a page, for a very economical solution.
Print speed is good, especially for a personal printer, at around 17 pages per minute. Print quality, unfortunately, is the major downside for the 1400W. Its text is not as sharp as competing products. Graphics quality, especially, is prone to fuzziness, blocky gradients, and other defects, making the overall print quality unimpressive.
Overall, the 1400W is a well-designed printer that combines fast speed and a compact, affordable package. Unfortunately, poor print quality across the board makes it difficult to recommend, despite its many good qualities.
