Kyocera Ecosys M6235cidn review: Worth splashing out on

Busy workgroups looking for a workhorse laser MFP need look no further. Kyocera’s Ecosys M6235cidn is designed for huge duty cycles, with a quoted maximum of 100,000 pages a month.

It’s cost-effective, too. The ceramic print drum and developer are designed to last the life of the MFP, so toner is the only consumable. You’ll find 6,000-page black and 5,000-page colour cartridges supplied in the box, after which Kyocera’s high-capacity black toner cartridges last 13,000 pages, while colour ones are good for 11,000 pages. That works out to a very reasonable 1p per mono page and 5.4p for colour.

The M6235cidn is a versatile creature, thanks to Kyocera’s HyPAS (Hybrid Platform for Advanced Solutions) app library. There’s a good range to choose from, including apps for access control and document management. Sadly, due to changes in security policies, some cloud apps are being discontinued, including Cloud Direct for Dropbox and Google Drive, so this might not be the ideal MFP for teams that are heavily invested in the cloud.

Happily, mobile devices get a better deal. Kyocera’s Mobile Print app still works with Dropbox, Evernote and OneDrive, while the MyPanel app can remotely send scans straight to email, once you have provided your mail server details in the MFP’s web console.

The web console is also where you’ll find security features, with controls for print, scan and copy operations, colour usage and page limits. Users must enter their ID number in the printer driver to access these functions; they can also set a PIN to hold confidential jobs until they’re manually released, or use the Print and Hold feature to check a single printout before releasing further copies.

Walk-up operations of all types are a pleasure, thanks to the M6235cidn’s big 7in colour touchscreen. The menu layout can be easily customised from the web console, and with room for up to 40 icons, you can easily set up quick shortcuts for virtually any task.

In use, the M6235cidn makes short work of big print jobs. The engine is rated at a speedy 35ppm, and our 35-page Word document indeed took exactly one minute to print at the default 600dpi resolution. The printer also offers a true 1,200dpi mode, but we found this pulled print speed down to 13.5ppm. Similarly, our 24-page colour DTP document emerged at 35ppm at 600dpi, but fell to 10ppm at the higher resolution.

Still, this shouldn’t be a deal-breaker: with default settings, the Kyocera delivered excellent output quality, with pin-sharp text down to 6pt fonts and highly detailed mono photos with bags of detail.

It’s just as good in colour. Our test chart revealed no noticeable stepping across complex colour fades, and composite grey shades looked perfectly clean and neutral. In the real world, this translates to eye-catching photos, reports and marketing material, even on cheap 75gsm copier paper.

If you’re about ready to splash out on the M6235cidn, be aware that you might need to price in some optional extras. The printer comes with only a single 250-page paper tray; up to three extra 500-sheet trays can be added, but these cost £150 each. If you want to connect to a wireless network, you’ll also need Kyocera’s IB-51 802.11n expansion card, which will set you back £250.

Even so, the Ecosys M6235cidn is a very strong contender for SMBs that want fast print speeds and great access security. Its large touchscreen is very user-friendly, print quality is excellent and running costs are among the lowest you’ll find for a business laser MFP.

Kyocera Ecosys M6235cidn specifications