Xerox Printers PHASER 6250N 26PPM 2400DPI ( 6250/N )

Rating:
Summary: Man, this rocks in my Panther 10.3.3 Mac office
Review: A few months ago, I got tired of USB color inkjet printers. I was starting to need 100-200 color flyers at a time, maybe 1000 sheets a month, and the USBs were sinking under those kinds of demands. So, I started looking around for my first color laser printer.

Not so easy, given that they world of color laser jets is rapidly changing. Unlike inkjets, where "they're all the same", companies like Xerox, HP, and Canon are wanting to capture the growing market of home-owned CLJs, and are each experimenting with new technologies, ranging from solid wax ink, to new internal engines, etc. It's not an easy choice to navigate.

I basically searched the Net for customer reviews, using Amazon and the other places where end users post their likes and rants. In the end, it was a flip of the coin that made me choose the Xerox Phaser 6250N. I was able to get an open box from some company in Colorado, and paid just under two thousand.

I've now had the 6250N for a full month of usage. I've printed over 1500 copies. Some thoughts:

** The thing rocks. You know those pieces of technology you own that make you want to clap each time you use them? This is how it is with this guy.

** 26 pages per minute. I've timed it. I've actually had friends come over to just watch it churn out that many pages in a minute. This is with ANY page I throw at it, be it strictly text, or a full color flyer that doesn't have a speck of white paper left on it. No more waiting.

** I was afraid of two things: the noise and the smell. Smell: none. Can't smell a thing, and I have a dog's nose regarding anything chemical (I can smell from 4 feet away if a women is using chemical-laden perfumes, vs essential oil). Noise: during printing, it's not bad, it's actually kind of a pleasant noise, churning out each sheet. For awhile after each job, though, it makes an unpleasant ennnngggghhhh noise. Eventually, it turns itself off (10 to 30 minutes), but I haven't figured out how to get it to sleep quicker. I almost think there's some kind of internal heat sensor, just like a Mac: if it's hot, it turns on the ennngggh fan. If it's cool, it goes quiet. My only fix is to walk over and turn it off.

** It's big, not as small or lightweight as the old USB inkjets. It's 25" long, by 17x17". It's also heavy, probably 75 pounds. Not a big deal, but it's a shock the first time you pull it out of the box. No more tucking the thing under a desk.

** It holds 650 sheets. This means you can put an entire ream of paper in it. Holy moly, why didn't someone else think of this before? No more guessing how much it'll hold. Just grab a ream and stuff it in there.

** The ink system is a sight to behold. Located right there on top, under an opaque plastic cover, four round cylinders sit locked in with a 1/4 twist. Once they're empty, you twist in the opposite direction, lift it out, pop in a new cylinder, give it the 1/4 twist, and THAT's IT. No opening a door, no guessing whether you did it right, etc. It's one of the features that get an audible wow from friends. (side note: I have two friends who are really close to dumping their USBs and getting this thing, just by watching it work).

** Ethernet cable connection!!! Ahh, man. I think I would buy this for no other reason than to dump one more USB connection. For a mouse, fine, but my experience with USB is that it's really not that great, at least for the amt of data that a printer needs. When I click a "PRINT" button, I hear the 6250 wind up well under 1 second. That's amazing to me. Even on pretty large posters and flyers (with heavy graphics), the first flyer starts printing within 5-10 seconds. If it's straight text, it'll start printing within 3 seconds. 26 pages per minute.

** Speaking of Ethernet cable: wireless printing, from anywhere in the house. This has been a godsend to my wife, who used to always bug me about printing files from her iBook. Last night, she printed 20 flyers from the kitchen, wirelessly to the 6250 about 60 feet away. Is this a great time to be alive or what.

** About once every 3 days or 20 print jobs, the 6250N doesn't see my print job. I have yet to figure out what the deal is, but I use the idiot's version of tech knowledge: I power down and power up the printer. So far, that always fixes the problem. This may not be a printer thing, but an End User Thing. I may be doing something wrong.

** I haven't figure out how to get it to stop printing its internal Welcome/Startup page every time I turn the printer back on. Not a big deal, but who needs to waste paper and ink. Perhaps its a setting I can turn off.

** Ink prices: the first time you buy a set of 4 high capacity ink cylinders and fork out $650, you have to remind yourself of the "price-per-page" thing. Otherwise, it's a shock. In the Xerox Phaser's case, high capacity says 8,000 pages. Given that that is probably not an accurate number, I'm guessing more like 4,000 pages. That turns out to be about 16¢ a page. That's a number that I can live with.

** Software works seamlessly with Panther 10.3.3.

To wrap this up: I love this thing. I can't say enough good about it. After dealing with inkjets for 8 years, I am glad I bit the Visa bullet and spent the dough.

Rating:
Summary: Man, this rocks in my Panther 10.3.3 Mac office
Review: A few months ago, I got tired of USB color inkjet printers. I was starting to need 100-200 color flyers at a time, maybe 1000 sheets a month, and the USBs were sinking under those kinds of demands. So, I started looking around for my first color laser printer.

Not so easy, given that they world of color laser jets is rapidly changing. Unlike inkjets, where "they're all the same", companies like Xerox, HP, and Canon are wanting to capture the growing market of home-owned CLJs, and are each experimenting with new technologies, ranging from solid wax ink, to new internal engines, etc. It's not an easy choice to navigate.

I basically searched the Net for customer reviews, using Amazon and the other places where end users post their likes and rants. In the end, it was a flip of the coin that made me choose the Xerox Phaser 6250N. I was able to get an open box from some company in Colorado, and paid just under two thousand.

I've now had the 6250N for a full month of usage. I've printed over 1500 copies. Some thoughts:

** The thing rocks. You know those pieces of technology you own that make you want to clap each time you use them? This is how it is with this guy.

** 26 pages per minute. I've timed it. I've actually had friends come over to just watch it churn out that many pages in a minute. This is with ANY page I throw at it, be it strictly text, or a full color flyer that doesn't have a speck of white paper left on it. No more waiting.

** I was afraid of two things: the noise and the smell. Smell: none. Can't smell a thing, and I have a dog's nose regarding anything chemical (I can smell from 4 feet away if a women is using chemical-laden perfumes, vs essential oil). Noise: during printing, it's not bad, it's actually kind of a pleasant noise, churning out each sheet. For awhile after each job, though, it makes an unpleasant ennnngggghhhh noise. Eventually, it turns itself off (10 to 30 minutes), but I haven't figured out how to get it to sleep quicker. I almost think there's some kind of internal heat sensor, just like a Mac: if it's hot, it turns on the ennngggh fan. If it's cool, it goes quiet. My only fix is to walk over and turn it off.

** It's big, not as small or lightweight as the old USB inkjets. It's 25" long, by 17x17". It's also heavy, probably 75 pounds. Not a big deal, but it's a shock the first time you pull it out of the box. No more tucking the thing under a desk.

** It holds 650 sheets. This means you can put an entire ream of paper in it. Holy moly, why didn't someone else think of this before? No more guessing how much it'll hold. Just grab a ream and stuff it in there.

** The ink system is a sight to behold. Located right there on top, under an opaque plastic cover, four round cylinders sit locked in with a 1/4 twist. Once they're empty, you twist in the opposite direction, lift it out, pop in a new cylinder, give it the 1/4 twist, and THAT's IT. No opening a door, no guessing whether you did it right, etc. It's one of the features that get an audible wow from friends. (side note: I have two friends who are really close to dumping their USBs and getting this thing, just by watching it work).

** Ethernet cable connection!!! Ahh, man. I think I would buy this for no other reason than to dump one more USB connection. For a mouse, fine, but my experience with USB is that it's really not that great, at least for the amt of data that a printer needs. When I click a "PRINT" button, I hear the 6250 wind up well under 1 second. That's amazing to me. Even on pretty large posters and flyers (with heavy graphics), the first flyer starts printing within 5-10 seconds. If it's straight text, it'll start printing within 3 seconds. 26 pages per minute.

** Speaking of Ethernet cable: wireless printing, from anywhere in the house. This has been a godsend to my wife, who used to always bug me about printing files from her iBook. Last night, she printed 20 flyers from the kitchen, wirelessly to the 6250 about 60 feet away. Is this a great time to be alive or what.

** About once every 3 days or 20 print jobs, the 6250N doesn't see my print job. I have yet to figure out what the deal is, but I use the idiot's version of tech knowledge: I power down and power up the printer. So far, that always fixes the problem. This may not be a printer thing, but an End User Thing. I may be doing something wrong.

** I haven't figure out how to get it to stop printing its internal Welcome/Startup page every time I turn the printer back on. Not a big deal, but who needs to waste paper and ink. Perhaps its a setting I can turn off.

** Ink prices: the first time you buy a set of 4 high capacity ink cylinders and fork out $650, you have to remind yourself of the "price-per-page" thing. Otherwise, it's a shock. In the Xerox Phaser's case, high capacity says 8,000 pages. Given that that is probably not an accurate number, I'm guessing more like 4,000 pages. That turns out to be about 16¢ a page. That's a number that I can live with.

** Software works seamlessly with Panther 10.3.3.

To wrap this up: I love this thing. I can't say enough good about it. After dealing with inkjets for 8 years, I am glad I bit the Visa bullet and spent the dough.

Rating:
Summary: Significant paper handling flaw
Review: After much research, product samples, reading many reviews and correspondence with Xerox support staff, I decided to purchase the Xerox Phaser 6250 to use for printing greeting cards, postcards, business cards and similar items requiring a heavy card stock of 160 gsm or greater (approximately 65 lb. cover stock or greater). Xerox rates the capacity of the Phaser 6250 at 216 gsm (approximately 80 lb. cover stock). Unfortunately, after using this product, I learned from actual use, and had this confirmed by Xerox technical staff, that using "any paper that is 160 gsm or heavier may cause severe curling of the paper. We recommend changing the paper to a lighter paper-weight". I cannot over-emphasize the severity of the paper curling. This renders the product useless for printing items such as business cards, greeting cards, postcards and some of the other in-house printing jobs for which one would purchase this product.

This is a significant flaw which Xerox confirms. Do not purchase this product if it is to be used to print on heavy-weight card stock.

Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT
Review: I bought this printer 1 week ago and the printout is beautiful.
Before I bought the Xerox 6250N, I checked Lemark, HP, Okidata and many other brands, but I found Xerox gave you the best bang for your money. I paid $2069 and got free shipping, Xerox have a $300 rebate, so basically the 6250N only cost $1769. What a great deal.