Hackensack (NJ) - In the final week of its month-long recognition of the products that performed the best in its rigorous lab testing, Buyers Laboratory announced the winners of its Spring 2005 "Pick of the Year" awards in the color and special categories.

In the color category, several outstanding models were selected as "Picks." They are the Konica Minolta bizhub C350 in two configurations (one with the IC-401 [Fiery] controller and one with the Konica Minolta controller), the Imagistics cm3520, an OEM version of the Konica Minolta product that was also tested (one configuration with a Fiery controller and one with the standard PCL controller) and the Xerox WorkCentre Pro C2636.

The Konica Minolta bizhub C350 and its Imagistics OEM equivalent (the Imagistics cm3520), which was also tested, were selected for their impressive performances, which included excellent reliability, good output quality and, for the Konica Minolta models, very good per-page supplies costs.

"As time goes by and more business color models undergo BLI's testing, the more impressive the bizhub C350's performance is in comparison," said BLI Lab Manager Pete Emory. "While the Fiery controller offers superior performance, the PCL controller provides a good, lower-cost alternative for those who do not need PostScript," added Emory.