The C251i is the entry model of the bizhub C361i, C301i and C251i trio, running at 25 pages per minute against 30 and 36. Processor, 8 GB of memory, 256 GB SSD, the 10.1-inch panel, the dual-scan feeder, paper capacity and finishing are shared across all three.

The comparison that matters is against the older bizhub C250i, which also runs at 25 pages per minute on the same 8 GB and 256 GB platform. Two things separate them. Maximum paper capacity doubles from 3,300 sheets to 6,650. And the scanner adds digital skew correction, which straightens originals fed in at an angle rather than producing a crooked scan that has to be redone.

So the choice between C250i and C251i is not about speed at all, because they match. It is about whether the paper ceiling and the scanning refinements justify the difference. For an office scanning archives daily, skew correction alone repays the gap. For a light user, the older machine does the same work. We will price both.

Against the entry C227i family at 22 ppm, this machine carries 8 GB rather than 6 and scans at up to 200 originals per minute against 55 images per minute.

The C251i suits offices of roughly 15 to 35 people that produce colour regularly and scan in volume: accountancy and audit practices digitising client files, legal offices handling case papers, architecture and design studios, and administrative departments converting paper archives.

The 6,650-sheet maximum capacity is unusual at this speed and worth thinking about, because it means a slower machine can still be the right answer for an office that prints in long infrequent runs rather than continuously. The Remote Monitoring and Management platform is also worth weighing if you run more than one bizhub, since firmware and security are handled centrally rather than machine by machine.