Yup, I've pulled and peeled from my wallet for an All-In-One Color Inkjet my last time. After seven years with a $250 Compaq model, I finally decided it was time to buy a type such as those I've always used reliably in my offices. Those at the office are much larger, and I don't do their maintenance - but they do see a lot more use that isn't needed at my home. I replaced $120 in my inkjet's cartridges in the past year. Let's see, that's roughly about $840 plus the $250 I paid for the All in-One Inkjet over the last seven years. Oh, and those cheap cartridges you can find sometimes? I tried a few - they were a complete waste of my time and money. Somehow $1090 doesn't sound very good for my Inkjets low use - and it made the higher initial price of the
Xerox Phaser 6110MFP/S much more enticing.
Did I print that much? Maybe 60 pages total per year, but I often was unable to do more when needed - due to the ink problems it and all Inkjets suffer. Granted, these were important papers - but really, $120 for just 60 pages? Even a 30 page document was capable of emptying all of a full black inkjet cartridge and, now and then, I needed documents faxed home or printed by network. Every time I needed to print something, it seemed I had to go buy more ink - usually due to how quickly the cartridges had dried out. Inconvenient? Decidedly so! No, I never ran low on ink - the (expletive, expletive) stuff just dried up quicker than spit on a hot sidewalk in the summer. A few too many times I ended up saving my work to have it printed in the office the next morning - while my computer showed ink levels at half to full on the Inkjet. Does laser printer toner dry out? It will eventually (considered to last indefinitely), but it takes a much longer time than that of Inkjets - and it goes a long sight farther than printing with those Inkjet cartridges.
Remember when laser printers took a while to warm up? Mine is ready for use in about 10 seconds it seems. Tickled me not to have to wait excessively after power up - like the old laser printers I used years ago required.
OS Compatibility:
I have to admit the Compaq All-in-One A-1000 Inkjet had been a good machine - so long as I didn't need the printer, but I needed that printer capability to go along with the fax for incoming faxes as well as a few outgoing. That was why I purchased it, but over time I grew accustomed to only sending a few faxes using the A-1000. The old Inkjet had almost everything my new
Xerox Phaser 6110MFP/S has that I needed - except for longer ink life sans a few others. I even eventually had good driver support for it in Windows XP - but what a hassle it was getting them when I switched to Windows XP in 2001. Now I use
XP x64, and Vista Ultimate x64 with Ultimate x64 soon to replace more of the older OS. Will the old Inkjet still work? I don't care and I seriously doubt it - the new Xerox Phaser already has drivers that work in x64 and new ones for Vista are soon to be released in June. It also works with
IBM, UNIX, Linux, Mac, and Solaris for those so inclined - it has a huge list of driver support to say the least, with those mentioned here only a few names among them. You won't find this kind of support with any names like
Compaq, Canon, Dell, or HP.
Where's that modem and what connections?
What my new Xerox doesn't have - I didn't notice at purchase. The more expensive
($679) Phaser 6110MFP/X has the fax modem built-in - mine doesn't. But, that's no problem as my computers have modems and can easily send and receive faxes using software. Networked to the Phaser, my software will also initiate printing as completed data is received at my computers. Other options for connection are 2.0 USB and 10/100 Ethernet.
Installation to a computer is simple. Just remove the packing and use the supplied "quick install card" to load the toner cartridges. Connect the printer using USB (1.0-2.0) or 10/100 connections (cables not included), connect the power, and turn on the power switch. Install the supplied printer drivers and utilities from the supplied disk and you're ready for action. You can also configure this unit easily for network use using the supplied disk.
Size vs my desk:
All-In-One Inkjets are fairly compact, but my new Xerox Phaser machine weights in only about 15 lbs. heavier than my old Inkjet at about 40 lbs. Its dimensions are also slightly larger at 18" wide x 17" deep x 19" high. That's still not a large footprint on my desk at home, but it is over twice as tall as the old Inkjet at 19" high. Where I jump instantly over the Inkjet with the Xerox Phaser, besides much extended ink life, is with networking (10/100), USB (Picture Bridge and USB storage device compatibility), and print quality.
Page quality:
Pages print cleanly, sharply, and squarely using the Xerox Phaser. The Inkjet only did this occasionally - even when new. Page output is slightly better at
17 black and white pages per minute, although color printing is faster by far at
4 ppm. DPI copy resolution is about the same at a max of 1200 x 1200, but my Phaser does a consistent beautiful print that can be set at an image quality of 2400 - and it does both page sides with little attention (doing both sides using the old Inkjet was a huge pain - and quality was always lacking with smearing always likely). Something else I like here is the ability to print watermarks to page backgrounds. The
50 page feed is replaceable with a larger one, but this one is more than adequate for my needs.
The page collection tray will hold 150 pages (also can be added to) - and using less desk space than than any awkward Inkjet's flimsy plastic tray extensions.
Colors are printed using four cartridges - cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. According to Xerox the OEM black cartridge is good for about 1,700 pages. The colors are good for about 700 color prints. Replacement cartridges are rated:
Black - 2,000 pages at $59 per toner cartridge
Cyan, Magenta, and yellow - 1000 pages at $49 each per toner
Figure it out, the price per page is far below that of any "cheap" landfill polluting inkjet printer.
Scanning:
Now the Phaser has a scanner I can really appreciate - it offers you the two options of flat panel and automated stack scanning. A flat panel, it lacks none of the features standard Inkjets can't provide with their automated "stack only" page scanners. The glass surface is covered by the easily lifted and well balanced top. Cleaning of the glass scan surface is simple using only a dampened soft cloth. The quality of the automatic stack scanner was easily and quickly noticed to be EXTREMELY better than that of the predecessor A-1000 Inkjet. It is far more user friendly and doesn't offer problems loading most materials - no more jammed documents while scanning. The automatic stack feeder has an adjustable sheet feed for 5 1/4" to standard letter stock and appears to be a 50 sheet feeder. With a substantial memory, the Phaser can also store quite a lot of data for printing all by itself - it comes with 128 Mb. of memory installed with the 300 Mhz. processor
Options, controls and software:
The well over one hundred page manual supplied on disk with the Phaser is detailed but easily read. Options using this machine only come to light after reading it fully. Controls are extensive, the Xerox software is extensive, and your options show why the higher price of the Phaser was worth your while. Simply put, controls, software, and operation, of this printer is straight forward and easy. Hey, let it print watermarks on your papers or envelops for mailings with watermarks like - TOP SECRET, CONFIDENTIAL, or one you can write yourself. (chuckle) That will get attention in and outside the office.
*Note* Update 5/22/07
Nuance PaperPort SE 10.3 and Image Retriever 6 are supplied with the printer as added programs. The Image Retriever 6 software installed easily to my XP Pro 32-bit computer, but the PaperPort software was a problem on the one network computer I originally loaded it to. I later loaded it to another XP Pro 32-bit computer without problem. After a re-load to the original computer, it took a repair from Start\Control Panel\Add or Remove Programs. This required replacing the disk to an optical drive and pointing the path to the file PP10SE. After this and a restart, the PaperPort software performed properly. Actual supported OS for this version of PaperPort are Windows 95, 98, ME, and 2000.
The only larger service item to be "soon" is after 20,000 - 50,000 pages have been printed ($159 imaging unit - the machine will tell you when it's needed). The few others before and after (toner cartridges and $12 waste toner container), and the little service required means mine will never worry me for much other than new toner ink as necessary - and that will be a while as powdered laser toner just doesn't dry out like the ink in inkjet cartridges.
One thing that immediately stands out is you can end a print run immediately - many printers will continue stubbornly until the power plug is pulled, and will start right back when power is restored. That can really be irritating and a huge waste. Another is, my new 6110MFP/S is actually ready and prints much faster on my network than the $250 multifunction Compaq inkjet could. Its energy saver feature means you just plug it up and forget it. It intuitively starts up from low power standby when activated by computer program or movement at its physical components. Standby can be user programed to 15 and 30 minutes idle time before returning to the low power state. I provided mine with filtered uninterrupted power from the same UPS, by APC, my computer uses. The Xerox Phaser just laughs at Inkjets while truthfully stating; "Anything you can do, I can a do whole (expletive) of a lot better.".
Check out
Provantage, Staples or anywhere this model can be found, unless a so called "cheap" Inkjet is glued to your mind. The higher initial dollars spent on this one is more money saved in the long run. One year Xerox warranty - but standard Xerox name quality. Xerox lists this model for personal or light office use. With its monthly duty usage cycle of over 24,000 prints, it will last - and it may be just what you need for your desk. Recommended computer - PC or Mac with a 1 GHz. processor or better. Did I mention I like this printer? Of course I do! It even looks much better than the one it replaced - besides outclassing any All-In-One on the desk of anyone else.:)
Don't need an All-In-One color printer? Check out the Xerox 6110 laser printer. There are four of these lower priced solutions in the Phaser 6110 line.
www.xerox.com
http://www.office.xerox.com/multifunction-printer/color-multifunction/phaser-6110mfp/enus.html
