WEST CALDWELL, N.J. -- The Production Printing Business Group (PPBG) of Ricoh Americas Corporation announced today several of its premier products, including the Ricoh Pro 906EX, Pro 1106EX, Pro 1356EX and Pro C900 and C900s, were granted an Editor's Choice award in the not-yet-released 2009 High-Volume Printer & Digital Duplicator's Guide. Announced only once a year, the Editor's Choice Award is given by expert testing staff to only those models that serve as benchmarks of high quality, exceptional performance and real value. Hundreds of models from all major manufacturers are evaluated, but typically only one of two from each category receives an award.

Ricoh Pro C900 / Pro C900s
Introduced within the last year, both the Pro C900 and Pro C900s are Ricoh's entries into the high-end color production printing market. The key difference between the two products is the RICOH Pro C900s offers printing, scanning, and copying functionality allowing customers to complete a wide range of applications within one encompassing system. Both products deliver maximum productivity for immediate turnaround time, while also offering time- and money-saving scanning, copying and document storage solutions. Customers are able to save valuable production time by scanning hardcopy originals directly into any TWAIN-compliant desktop application such as Adobe Photoshop. An EFI Fiery print controller is standard on both machines, as well as 2GC of memory and 500GB hard disk drive. Estimated at handling between 50,000 and 400,000 pages per month, the Pro C900 and C900s serve as Ricoh's platform high-end production printing products.

Ricoh Pro 906EX / Pro 1106EX / Pro 1356EX
Ricoh introduced this line of production printers to gain a competitive advantage in the growing area of high-speed black-and-white printing. Differentiated by speed and price, these three models all offer high productivity at a lower price than many competitors. Equipped with scanner and copier features, they also offer security functions such as user authentication. Additional standard features include Web-based administration tools and a large color touchscreen, increasing ease of use for the customer. Each machine also comes with dual 160GB hard drives and with 256MB of memory (which is expandable to 512MB of memory), Ethernet and USB connectivity. These fast, well-equipped machines are based on solid technology with strong paper handling and a variety of user-friendly options, making them viable competitors to comparable high-speed models.

"To have several products named as a Better Buys Editor's Choice this year is a tremendous honor for Ricoh and our Production Printing Business Group," said Carl Joachim, vice president of Marketing, PPBG, Ricoh Americas Corporation. "We've made significant strides to bring high-quality, yet affordable, production printing products to the marketplace and will continue to introduce products that benefit our customers in both ease of use and price."

Ricoh's Production Printing Business Group continues to expand its color production strategy and focus on technology trends and pain points facing the industry. PPBG is dedicated to bringing innovative products to the marketplace, offering the best return for its customers and end-users.

Better Buys for Business employs an experienced team of office equipment analysts and experts who together provide objective product reviews to help inform buying decisions about all types of office equipment. Its research is grounded in real-world performance testing of equipment, and every recommendation in every guide is backed by more than 15 years of experience in equipment research and analysis.