Bizhub C368 from Konica Minolta Inc. - 36 ppm office workhorse with smart touch panel

Reviewed: ad hoc news Classics & Longseller desk. Edited and checked on 2026-06-28, 16:11. Details in the imprint.

The Bizhub C368 from Konica Minolta Inc. sits in the corner of a mid-size office, its soft fan noise blending with the murmur of keyboards and phone calls as a thick stack of mixed-color reports glides out onto the tray. Finger taps on the bright 9-inch touch panel feel almost like using a tablet, with icons sliding smoothly under the hand. You notice how the machine’s doors and paper drawers close with a tidy mechanical click, more solid than the flimsy plastic many office printers still get away with.

What the Bizhub C368 does

At its core, Bizhub C368 is a classic A3 color multifunction system that prints, copies, scans and can optionally fax, aimed at workgroups that churn through large volumes of documents every day. It offers a rated speed of around 36 pages per minute in both color and monochrome, which means a 100-page client presentation finishes in under three minutes in real office conditions. The standard paper capacity typically starts around 1,150 sheets with options to expand well above 3,000 sheets for teams that hate refilling trays.

The device supports automatic duplex printing, so double-sided handouts and internal reports become the default rather than the exception. High-resolution output around 1,200 dpi makes graphs, logos and small text look clean on standard office paper, which matters when marketing and finance both share the same machine. For scanning, the document feeder can process multi-page originals in one go, feeding PDFs or TIFF files directly to email, shared folders or USB sticks without any PC in between.

The touch panel and usability

Walk up to the Bizhub C368 and the first thing your hand meets is the large capacitive touch panel, which behaves much closer to a modern tablet than to the rigid screens of older copiers. Konica Minolta’s product managers, including people like Jun Haraguchi who have long pushed for simpler user interfaces, designed the layout around clear tiles and swipes rather than nested text menus. That helps casual users quickly select “scan to email” or “copy two-sided” without needing an IT cheat sheet taped next to the machine.

The panel can be customized with shortcuts for common tasks, so a law firm might have buttons for “scan to case folder” while a marketing team saves layouts under named workflows. The machine also supports user authentication via PIN or optional card readers, which keeps print jobs from piling up unclaimed and helps companies track usage per department. Once authenticated, personal settings such as preferred language or default paper size can follow the user, giving the interface a slightly more personal feel than the anonymous grey boxes many offices grew up with.

How it fits into the network

Networking is handled via standard Ethernet, with support for typical office protocols like SMB for file sharing and SMTP for email, so integration into existing Windows or mixed environments remains straightforward. IT administrators can access a web-based configuration page from their desks to set up address books, security rules and device status alerts, reducing the need for walking over to the machine for every tweak. For mobile workers, optional support for printing via mobile apps or standard protocols such as AirPrint or Mopria can help occasionally send jobs from phones and tablets, though heavy users will still rely on PCs.

Security-wise, modern firmware on devices like Bizhub C368 typically includes features such as encrypted data on internal storage, secure deletion of temporary print data and controlled access to configuration menus. That becomes increasingly relevant as multifunction devices sit on the same networks as finance systems and HR tools, and auditors expect evidence that documents are not casually exposed through unsecured printers. Regular firmware updates, configured by IT, help keep the machine aligned with company security policies.

Strengths and everyday trade-offs

The core strength of Bizhub C368 is its balanced combination of speed, print quality and finishing options, without veering into the bulk and price of heavy production presses. Offices can attach finishers that staple, hole punch or create simple booklets, letting teams produce internal brochures in-house instead of sending everything to external print shops. In everyday use, staff appreciate how the machine handles long print runs of color charts without obvious banding or washed-out skin tones on standard paper.

On the trade-off side, this is still a sizable A3 system that demands floor space and proper ventilation rather than a corner on a small desk. For very small teams with only a few hundred monochrome pages per month, the purchase and maintenance costs may be higher than necessary, compared with compact A4 devices. And while the touch interface is much improved over older generations, staff who rarely print might initially feel overwhelmed by the many options visible on the home screen until IT or the office manager trims them down.

Position in Konica Minolta’s lineup and shares

Within Konica Minolta’s lineup, Bizhub C368 sits as a long-running workhorse in the A3 color office segment, positioned below heavy production machines and above smaller departmental devices. The model forms part of a broader Bizhub family that remains central to the company’s document solutions revenue, even as Konica Minolta adds services around workflow automation and cloud connectivity. Overall, these stable office systems help underpin Konica Minolta’s cash generation, and Konica Minolta shares (ISIN JP3300600008) trade primarily on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in Japanese yen.

This article was AI-assisted and editorially reviewed. Product information without guarantee; prices and availability may change at short notice. No investment advice, no buy or sell recommendation. Stock-market transactions involve risks up to total loss.