Inkjet printers are generally much cheaper than colour lasers. But because of the time needed for their ink to dry, few inkjets are able to match lasers when it comes to speed.

Ricoh's GelSprinter technology employs special high-viscosity, gel-based inks which dry more quickly, eliminating the smudging and bleeding prevalent with more conventional approaches. Indeed, it enables Ricoh to claim speeds of up to 29 pages per minute for the Aficio GX7000, and the ability to produce quality results at inkjet prices.

Capable of printing in full colour at up to 1,200dpi, the GX7000 can handle both A4 and A3 documents and comes with an integrated 250-sheet paper tray and a duplexer, for double-sided printing. A second paper tray can be added underneath, plus there's a 100-sheet multi-purpose feeder for things like envelopes and labels although, on a printer like this, it's not likely to see much use.

It's not small, but the GX7000 doesn't take up a huge amount of room and its grey plastic casing is clearly designed to appeal to the business buyer, making it look quite smart. PC attachment is via an integrated USB port, with an Ethernet interface and network print server an optional extra.

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A small but clear LCD panel is to be found at the front along with associated controls and a door below, behind which lurk the cartridges. These we found quick and easy to change with no messy fingers, our only real concern being the speed at which the ink was consumed.

Standard cartridges are supposed to last for up to 1,000 A4 pages (1,500 for black) while high yield cartridges are rated for double that. A full set, however, will cost around £190 + VAT, making the Aficio far from cheap to run. Cheaper than a colour laser, perhaps, but not as cheap as some other inkjets.

Print quality was pretty good, although we have seen better and we did notice some banding on large blocks of colour and photographs, requiring tweaks to the driver settings to eliminate. Text, however, was crisp and well defined and for general business documents the GX7000 certainly delivered on its promise of laser-like results.

The duplexer was slow but worked well, but even without it we didn't get the 29ppm claimed; achieving, on average, around 16ppm for mixed A4 colour business documents. A3 documents, naturally, took a lot longer and there was some paper curl where a lot of ink was involved.

The Aficio GX7000 is far from cheap, and something of a specialist buy for businesses looking for A3 colour capabilities. However, cheaper A4 models based on the same GelSprinter technology are available, offering the same speed and quality from as little as £99 + VAT.

An A3 colour inkjet printer with integrated duplexer, the Aficio GX7000 uses Ricoh's GelSprinter technology to deliver what's claimed to be laser quality and speed at inkjet prices. In terms of speed it appears to deliver and, although not up to professional graphics standards, quality is acceptable. Cartridge yields and prices, however, cast doubt on the cost claims.