No Compromise with Sharp new range
Published June 30, 2009 at 12:26 pm · Filed under Printer / Copier
With Sharp’s new range of mono
MFPs, customers can enjoy the
same productivity features as users
of the company’s colour MFPs, from
network colour scanning to an 8.5in
colour touchscreen display.
Last year Sharp invigorated its
colour MFP range with the launch
of a new platform that combines
outstanding functionality with the
industry’s most daring design. Now
it’s the turn of Sharp’s mid-range
B&W devices to be transformed.
This August, Sharp will be building
on the success of its colour MFPs
with the launch of a new generation
of B&W devices that share the same
tactile fi nish and powerful feature
set as the MX-4100/01N and MX-
5000/01N colour devices.
The new workgroup/departmental
devices are not just stunning to
look at: they are also Sharp’s most
productive B&W MFPs to date, with
‘colour-centric’ features previously
unavailable on mono devices.
Sharp will be launching four
devices, with print speeds of
28-50ppm. Three - the 36ppm
MX-M363, the 45ppm MX-M453
and the 50ppm MX-M503 - are
offered in a choice of ‘N’ or ‘U’
confi gurations, making a total of
seven models in all.
Best of everything
Sharp ‘N’ series MFPs come with
the best of everything, including
an 8.5in colour display; colour
network scanning; a 100-sheet
DSPF (duplex single pass feeder)
that scans both sides of a page
in a single pass; and an optional
retractable QWERTY keyboard.
‘U’ series MFPs are a lower cost
option for customers that don’t have
a requirement for colour scanning.
They have a smaller mono LCD
display, B&W scanning, a slower
reversing single pass feeder (RSPF)
and no retractable keyboard option.
But in almost every other respect
they are identical to the ‘N’ series.
The 28ppm MX-M283 is available
in an ‘N’ version only. However, to
keep the price at a level attractive to
smaller businesses, it comes with a
lower-cost RSPF.
Product marketing manager
Marc Brion is confi dent that these
products will meet the growing
demand for high speed, highly
featured mono devices.
“For customers who are
unsure about standardising on
colour devices, we now offer a
range of competitive mono MFPs
offering unrivalled ease of use
and advanced features, such as
colour scanning and the Sharp OSA
development platform,” he said.
Ease of use
In designing these products
Sharp has considered the needs
of everyone, from end users,
facilities managers (FMs) and CSR
professionals to IT administrators,
developers and dealers.
End users will love the unrivalled
ease of use offered by the N series’
8.5in colour touchscreen display
and optional retractable keyboard;
FMs will appreciate the superquiet
operation, compact design
and space saving options like the
internal fi nisher/offset stacker;
CSR managers will welcome the
manual power save button and
energy consumption of less than 1
watt in standby;
IT administrators will appreciate
class-leading data security features
and a Remote Access Interface
that lets them take remote control
of a device’s front panel to change
settings, show how to perform a
function or diagnose and rectify
problems; and
Developers will love Sharp’s OSA
development platform, which can
be used to produce customised
interfaces with rich graphics, webbased
HTML, Java and Flash video
clips, in crisp B&W or eye-catching
colour on N series colour displays.
“These MFPs are the most
powerful B&W MFPs Sharp has
produced,” Brion explained. “We
have addressed every aspect of
the machines to offer customers
unprecedented ease of use and
productivity in every area.”
High quality printing
The MX-M283N, MX-M363N, MXM453N
and MX-M503N are fi rst
and foremost outstanding B&W
MFPs, offering high quality printing
(true 1200 x 1200 dpi), colour
scanning, copying and optional fax,
with time and cost-saving features
such as automatic duplexing;
electronic sorting; scan-to-email;
and a 100-sheet DSPF (excluding
MX-M283N).
Compared to the Sharp MX-M350
and MX-M450, the new machines
have faster warm-up times (20
versus 80 seconds); more memory;
a larger hard drive (80GB vs. 40GB);
more paper capacity; the ability
to handle a wider range of media
(56-209gsm); a larger document
feeder (100 vs. 50 sheets); and an
800MHz multi-tasking controller that
can process network scanning jobs
while the MFP is outputting copy,
print or fax jobs.
“Every aspect of these devices has
been enhanced to improve end user
productivity and remove bottlenecks,”
Brion explained. “This makes
them ideal for busy workgroups in
companies of all sizes.”
Just as important from a
productivity perspective are the
8.5in high resolution colour
touchscreen display (N models
only), which makes it easy for users
to make job selections or view
thumbnails of documents stored
on the MFPs’ 80GB hard drive, and
the retractable QWERTY keyboard
option (N models only) that
provides a convenient alternative to
the on-screen keyboard for typing
email addresses and indexing data.
Electronic workfl ows
The Sharp OSA development platform
on all seven new MFPs offers further
scope for productivity improvements.
Customers can use it to integrate
their Sharp MFPs with network
applications and implement electronic
workfl ows to eliminate the errors and
ineffi ciencies associated with paperbased
processes.
Sharp OSA provides bi-directional
communication between the MFP
and network applications. At its
simplest, this makes it possible for
a user to walk up to a device and
retrieve and print a fi le from any
folder on the network, but it also
allows users to scan documents
straight into an enterprise
document management or ERP
system and input indexing data at
the MFP itself.
“Despite the many benefi ts of
in-house colour printing, there
are still organisations or individual
departments that only require a
black and white device,” Brion
said. “With the Sharp MX-M283N,
MX-M363U/N, MX-M453U/N and
MX-M503U/N MFPs, they can
be confi dent that they are
getting all the functionality
enjoyed by users of Sharp’s
top-end colour devices but with
the low running costs of a black
and white device. For existing
colour customers, the MFPs are
the perfect complement to our
latest colour MFPs, as they share
the same platform, fi nishing units
and options for simpler device
management.”
for more info www.sharpinbusiness.co.uk
