The Xerox Phaser 6100 office printer comes down to a question of quality versus quantity. And, in this review quality wins out.
In our testing the print quality of the Phaser 6100 was outstanding. The printer was exceptional with documents that contain several different kinds of images, graphics
and text. The Phaser 6100 also outdid itself with full colour photos and basic text. The machine has a maximum resolution of 1,200 dpi in enhanced mode and this was a plus.
However, the print output was a little slow at 18 seconds for a document with graphics, images and text. For a full colour photo the output was a little faster at 17 seconds, while the basic text document printed in eight seconds. The company claims the output is at five pages per minute in colour and 21 pages per minute in black-and-white.
A simple word text document looked brilliant and better than another other printer tested by CDN this year.
Incudes paper
The Phaser 6100 is best suited for small office or workgroups of 15.
The printer ships with a pack of 500 8 by 11 paper. For most offices this is unnecessary, but it will be appreciated by IT departments that test printers before installation: They won’t have to searching for paper.
Xerox also made the printer’s instructions very convenient. They are located inside the printer, in case you toss the paper-based installation guide while trying to become a paperless office. Inside colour co-ordinated instructions are useful when replacing imaging and transfer units. The toner cartridge also has colour co-ordinated slots and roll in with ease. These rollers make toner cartridge replacement a lot easier than other models. Installation took approximately 40 minutes and prints came out seconds later.
You would think loading paper in the tray would be a snap. But we found the tray on this printer to be anything but. The tray was flimsy and there is a latch you must A) find and B) move into place before you can put in paper.
Footprint
The printer’s footprint is very good. We had a tight space in a cubical with monitor, PC, phone and filing system, but the Phaser 6100 fit in nicely and left ample work space.
At just under $500, the Phaser 6100 has outstanding quality and you can live with the output time because the results are superb.
Resellers can place this machine in graphics houses or design firms or even in offices that need to print in colour. It will definitely give your customer considerable cost saving over outsourcing their printing to third-party print shops.