At the top of the Xerox Phaser, you will find a small tray that automatically feeds in papers to print, which will allow you to work elsewhere in your office. However, depending on the size of your printing jobs, you may have to frequently check back with the auto feeder, as it only holds 50 sheets of paper. Under the auto feeder, you will find a lid that covers the scanner.

If you want to control most of the Xerox Phaser 6110MFP color laser printers options away from your computer, you will find that it has 30 buttons that will allow you to do just that. Some of these dial functions include: fax controls, LCD display screen, control panel, and keys for the scan, copy and a fax number pad that will let you input fax or telephone numbers.

In this multifunction laser printer, you will be able to do direct printing. Connect a USB drive and begin printing specific files, letters and images without the use of your computer. Compatible image formats include JPEG, PDF, BMP, and TIFF. You can also save files from your printer to a USB drive by scanning and saving your documents to print or upload at a later time.

The Xerox Phaser 6110MFP color laser printer has enough power and features that makes it the perfect choice for small to medium office printing jobs. However, this can be difficult due to the small paper tray that will only hold 150 sheets of paper. This small size means that home business owners are more likely to buy this printer than a small business.

You can upgrade the paper tray, but this upgrade can only hold up to 400 sheets. While this may seem like a large capacity, it will not cover the amount of printing jobs that occur on a daily basis in most businesses large or small.

A multifunction printer such this Xerox Phaser usually has so many options that you will want to have a good manual to answer all of your questions. Xerox does not disappoint, and with the driver you will instruction manuals that cover topics such as overlays, watermarks and manual duplex printing.

While the Xerox Phaser 6110MFP color laser printer has a lot to offer, you may be disappointed with its printing speeds. Printing regular text and all black pages is not a problem and you can usually get approximately 8 pages per minute, but the color printing is where this all in one piece of machinery seems to fall apart.

The black printing is slow enough, but when you move on to colored pages, you will find that it is difficult for the Xerox Phaser to hit more than 3 pages per minute in its printing process. Officially, Xerox reports that this printer will allow you to print black pages at 16 pages per minute and colors at 4 pages per minute, and all of these speeds are incredibly slow compared to printers from competing companies.

Another problem with the Xerox Phaser 6110MFP color laser printer is the inability to get crisp clear printouts that you are seeking. Colored pictures, fonts and graphics seem ok at first but on closer inspection, you will notice that it lacks complete clarity. Print outs done in black will reveal a similar problem and all of this trouble points to an overuse of toner. While some printers will output colors so low that black ink looks grey, the Xerox Phaser 6110MFP color laser printer puts too much color onto the pages and this can cause some print jobs to be fuzzy and smudged. Depending on what you print, you may receive varied results. Some printouts may look perfect and others will need to go in the trash.

It has a good print rate of 19.8 pages/ minute. It also prints graphics at quite a good rate of 2.9 pages/ minute. The text appears great. The letters are formed nicely and appear dark black. Good quality text is a major highpoint of this printer. However the biggest disappointment with Samsung CLP-660ND is its graphics. They appear out of pattern and are of poor quality. The graphics aren’t good even when printed on the glossy laser paper.

Designed simply, the printer has an input tray which can hold up to 250 sheets. Accommodating legal size paper in this tray isn’t very easy though. There is also a 100 sheet multipurpose tray. The front panel and the handle for opening the multipurpose tray are located at the same place and hence it’s become difficult to distinguish the handle.
There are problems with opening the front panel; it doesn’t open up in one go.

The printer also has an output tray which can accommodate 200 sheets. However it might be unreachable for few, as its located at the rear end. An additional input tray of 500 sheets can also be added. You can also print labels and envelopes with this printer. It supports Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.

The control panel is done in a simple way. It has a monochrome LCD on which the menu is displayed. The buttons are clearly labeled. The messages displayed on the screen are clear and easy to understand. Samsung CLP-660ND has a smart panel monitor application. This gives information about troubleshooting, on screen status and various other things.

The printer comes with a 2500 page black ink cartridge. There are also three 2000 page colored cartridges- yellow, cyan and magenta. The high yield versions are also available which are a bit expensive. A 5500 page black ink cartridge can be bought down for $110; which approximates to 2 cents/ page. Each 5000 page color cartridge is worth $130; which costs around 2.6 cents/ page. You will need to replace the cartridges once the ink is over.

Installing the printer is easy; though initially it might look a bit confusing. You get a PDF user guide with this printer which contains all the details which you need to know for operating the Samsung CLP-660ND. The driver doesn’t contain too many details. The word is not too positive about the printer’s driver which has posed lots of problems in the past. However Samsung has assured to rectify the problem soon.

In spite of being a decent printer, Samsung CLP-660ND doesn’t score well in reliability ratings. In the reliability and service survey, this printer got a rating of ‘better than average’; which isn’t too good. This is one of its major drawbacks. Of course its biggest drawback is its poor graphics quality. You should buy this printer only if your work doesn’t involve too many graphical print outs.
All in all this is a good printer with decent design and speed. Its black text is easy to read even at small font sizes. However its poor graphics may limit its use in many centers!

This all in one printer comes with 64MB of RAM but you can easily buy more RAM to expand it. The paper tray can hold 250 sheets but like the RAM you can also expand it with an optional 530 sheet tray. Both trays work together to give you up to 780 sheets of paper to print on. Working on both sides of your printing paper is an easy process as the Ricoh Aficio SP C222SF Color Laser Printer has software and drivers that supports manual duplexing.

The Ricoh Aficio SP C222SF is a large printer that should be set in its own personal area. If you place at your desk, it will take up too much space to allow you to work comfortably. At over 65 pounds the Aficio SP is a bit on the heavy side, it will be safer to request help when you are trying to move it to a new surface.

This printer is multifunctional and it allows for printing, faxing and copying. Once it is in place, you will only need to remove a few materials that kept it safe during shipping. Once this is completed, you can connect the Ricoh Aficio SP C222SF and start using it immediately if you have works to fax or copy. A little more work will need to be completed before you can use it as a printer.

In the packaging, you will note a disc that contains drivers for your new printer. This disc contains drivers for a few different operating systems such as Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, Mac OS X 10.2.8 to Mac OS X 10.4. Easy setup instructions make it a simple process to get the printer section up and running.

The Ricoh does a good job of printing and the quality will impress most home and small business users. Documents printed in plain black text that was easy to read and clear without smudges and ink spattering.

If you need to print out colored graphs, the Ricoh Aficio SP C222SF can do that as well, but it is not as clear as the black text. Printing an image is done very easily and you are not likely to notice any errors left by an overuse of toner.

The Ricoh Aficio SP C222SF is an overall great laser printer but it does lack one key feature. If you bought this product to do a lot of faxing, you may be disappointed to note that you cannot fax as easily as you would like to. For instance, if you needed to fax letters that are on your computer, you have to take a few extra steps that are not necessary in other multifunction printers. Before you can fax your documents, you have to print the page and then run it through the fax machine.

If you need a printer that can do a lot of heavy work such as large printing jobs, the Ricoh Aficio SP C222SF Color Laser Printer may the printer that you have been looking for. It’s a great printer but it can be pricey. A quick internet search will show that you may have to pay up to $850 if you want to own this all in one printing machine.

The problems start as soon as you begin the installation process. There is a huge guide which has all the necessary details. The instructions are pretty clear. At first, you are asked to move to the –‘Software Installation guide’ for network connection.

You are supposed to get the next set of instructions here, however these instructions are difficult to understand and inadequate. Some very important steps and key points are missing. Along with the printer, you get a CD which contains details about the USB installation. This make things tough as the USB details are only in the CD and thus not easily available. The remaining documents are adequate and available in both PDF and HTML format.

The design is also not very user friendly. There are few buttons on the control panel through which different functions can be performed; though some the key combinations are vague. The printer does not have any LCD screen; which is one of its major drawbacks.

There is a 250 sheet input tray which doesn’t have a handle and appears to be quite delicate, just like the front panel. To accommodate the legal size paper, one needs to pull the tray. This is done by pulling the handle which is located at the same place as the slot for the manual feed. There is also a 150 sheet output tray.

An additional 150 sheet tray can be added. Duplexer for double printing can also be added. It can also handle envelopes and labels. It supports almost all the operating systems like Microsoft windows, Apple MacOS X and more.
The printer has a good speed. It prints texts at a rate of 17.4 pages/ minute. At its best, SP C222DN produces graphics at a rate of 2.4 pages/ minute. The printed text appears clear, crispy and dark. However the graphics appear to be bit faded. The patters are also not clear. Things improve a bit when graphics are printed on the glossy laser paper, but it’s still far away from being the best.

SP C222DN comes with one black and three colored toner cartridges (yellow, magenta and cyan). All the cartridges last for 1000 pages each. You will to replace the cartridges once the ink is over. The standard ones last for 2000 pages each.

The black costs $55; which comes up to 2.7 cents/ page. The color cartridges cost $100 each; which is around 5 cents/ color/ page. The cartridges can be replaced easily. The toner capacity is not very high and hence the price of the consumables is on the higher side.

The printer does not do too well in the reliability department. The ‘Reliability and Service Survey’ gives it’s a reliability rating of average. SP C222DN works well for small groups and offices. However the inadequate installation documentations limit its popularity. The design elements are also not up to the mark. Users may find a better printer than this one in the same price range!

Ricoh Aficio’s SP C222DN color laser printer is cheaper than many of its contemporaries. The printer has good speed and also comes with a one year warranty period. Twenty four hour customer service is available for this printer; throughout the year. The printer is easy to maintain and its running cost is low.

The Oki C5800Ldn is the latest descendant from the line of laser printers produced by the same company, only edgier. Though there isn’t much distinction from the printers before it in terms of hardware design, the difference is in the performance.

The C5800Ldn is faster. Best of all, it’s cheaper than its predecessors. Priced at $799, it has a built-in duplexer, which allows the simultaneous printing on both sides of a paper. The duplexer feature is made available to older Oki printer models for an additional $320.

A certain questionable aspect to the Oki Printer Solutions C5800Ldn is its way of using your computer’s processor to tap into the Windows graphical device interface (GDI). Many other printers make use of Printer Control Language (PCL) and use its own processor for faster printing.

Surprisingly, the C5800Ldn stands its ground when put to the test. Text documents can come shooting out at 19.5 pages per minute, while color graphics get churned out at 6.1 pages per minute. Text printout quality is sharp and crisp, albeit a bit lighter.

The printout is also lighter with line art, but it cleverly picks up even the thinnest and most precise lines. Despite of the impressive attention to detail, slight vertical banding and graininess can appear in lines close to each other.

Grayscale printing on the C5800Ldn can get a bit more perplexing. The printout on this one came out too dark to illustrate proper shadow detail and had a slight off-color cast. Color graphics come out looking very much like an actual photograph, thanks to the glossy quality of the ink.

However, look out for the dithering patterns that show up in the finished printout. It doesn’t help either to use glossy paper or crank the driver up to a higher-quality printing. Narrow banding can make horizontal and vertical lines come up with dark and off-color tints.

This printer can hold up to 300 sheets of paper, so you don’t have to keep refilling the drawer every time you want to print. The multipurpose feeder tray can be folded down and can hold 100 sheets extra. Nevertheless, it probably isn’t a good idea to load more than ten envelopes of paper at a time.

For those of you who demand more paper-carrying capability from their printers, it is possible to add a 530-sheet drawer for the price of $456, allowing the C5800Ldn to carry up to 930 sheets maximum. The output bin on top of the printer unit can hold up to 250 sheets, while a separate face-up stacker that can fold down from the back of the unit can carry another 100 sheets.

One toner cartridge for this particular printer should be able to handle up to 200 pages. The C5800Ldn comes with four toner cartridges. Because the printer has a horizontal paper path, its large footprint is understandable (16.7 by 22.1 by 13.6 inches-at least it doesn’t loom over the desk like vertical printers). The horizontal path plan makes replacing ink cartridges easier.

Even the inks are cheaper by far with this printer, with the black inks going for $90 and $144 for each of the three colors. Each ink cartridge has a 5000-page capacity. At every 20,000 pages, it may be necessary to replace the ink drums. At least they come at a reasonable price of $68 for black and $74 for each of the three colors. Both the fuser unit and the transfer belt boasts of a 60,000 page capability and are under warranty replacement. The breakdown of finances comes down to 2.1 cents per monochrome printout and 11.9 cents for color.

The Oki Printing Solutions C5800Ldn handles its paper well, prints quickly, and is cost-efficient, making it a good choice for any active office environment.

Reasonably priced at $595 (as of March 7, 2007), the Oki C5500n is not shabby at all with its actual user interface. Having a backlit two-line LCD and ergonomically organized buttons on the control panel makes it all the more user-friendly and easy to operate.

The C5500n is a monster in handling volumes of paper at once. The normal (meaning, if no optional accessories are purchased) paper capacity of the input tray is at 300 sheets.  The manual paper tray folds down from the front and can hold a maximum of 100 sheets, and can also feed up to ten envelopes at a time.

Say goodbye to paper jams caused by paper blocking the output tray; the C5500n boasts that you can collect 250 sheets face down from the output bin. What’s more is that the 100-sheet face-up stacker that folds down from behind the C5500n makes exit and output easier for envelopes and other heavy media.

If you need more efficient paper handling and these features are not enough for you, then you can choose to purchase the optional 530-sheet drawer and the duplexer. The 530-sheet drawer (priced at $184) enables the printer to process a maximum of 930 sheets of paper at a time. The duplexer (priced at $144) offers you the option of double-sided printing, a must for offices involved in small-scale publishing.

This mean printing machine is no slowpoke either. The C5500n can print text-only pages at 23.9 pages per minute, color images on plain paper at 5.0 ppm, and glossy photos at 3.3 ppm. And all this at very economical running costs! The C5500n comes with four toner cartridges, each of which is estimated to print up to 1,500 pages. Although the horizontal paper path makes a long footprint, it helps make cartridge replacement much easier.

Additional cartridges that are estimated to print up to 5,000 pages each can be purchased for $108 (black ones) and $165 (for each of the three colors). The black drum (at $68) and the three color drums ($74 each) need to be replaced after every 20,000 pages printed. Add these all up and the C5500n’s per-page printing cost is estimated to be at just 2.5 cents for black-only printing and 13.5 cents for color, over a period of one year.

Worried that the fuser unit and transfer belt would wear out, even if they’re rated for 60,000 pages? Well, each purchase of the C5500n includes a one-year warranty that covers replacement of these as well.

Don’t expect super high-resolution printing from the C5500n, though. Since it’s technically not a laser printer (the C5500n applies toner to the page using four LED arrays instead of a laser beam), this printer uses your PC’s processor to render its pages from the Windows GDI, just like any other Oki printer.

That being the case, it can be said that the C5500n is at par with any other color printer out there. During our test printing, text-only printing seemed sharp and clearly defined, with a medium weight that left the overall page neither too light nor too dark. Line art looked crisp and precise, apart from some minor horizontal patterns in closely spaced blocks of lines.

As for color printing, color images were too dark to reveal much shadow detail and had inaccurate colors on plain paper. Using glossy paper didn’t help much either; we noted reddish complexions, some unusual red pasteurizations in shadows, and undesirably grainy dithering patterns. Our grayscale sample fared worst: It had a reddish-brown tint and was far too dark.

Actually, I had seen it before. Even if the exterior of the 6130/N is designed differently; it has the same Fuji-Xerox engine that the Dell Color Laser Printer 1320c uses. The former is more expensive than the latter, though. Instead of taking the work into the computer the network connector that was built in and PostScript processes the image and sends it directly to the printer.

the 6130/N is atypically humble in proportion and weight with it being a color laser, 38 lbs, 15.3″ by 15.8″ by 15.5″ (HWD). Its humble size makes placing it easier around a small area yet it is not small enough to for me to want it atop my workplace.

Adjusting a low-end color laser is mostly typical. The packaging is rid of, paper is fed into the machine, cables and cords are plugged, and software is installed. Taking off its packaging is more tedious than most lasers. Quite differently with this laser, the front panel is first removed, making it lie horizontal before  removing a weighty imaging unit, adjusting restraining ribbons and reinsierting the unit.

To do this, you must move the imaging unit over the transfer belt both ways, exiting and entering. It was uncomfortable to move such a weighty thing over the exposed belt but the warranty covered the unlikely yet possible impairment.

I’d like to comment on Xerox’s optimal network installation set to max standards. I located the printer, installed the driver for Windows Xp for my tests in only 3 clicks of the mouse. (It may also include a Vista driver).

The main resemblance of a Dell and Xerox printer is the speed of their engine. Both have ratings are 16 ppm for black and white and 12ppm for colored prints. To be empirical, the rating is 12 ppm for both monochrome and color.

If you adjust your driver to print colored, even if you are printing only in monochrome, the unit will print in 12 ppm mode. When set for monochrome, it prints at 16ppm yet it also prints even color papers in monochrome. It would seem better to remain with the default settings rather than having to check and reset it each time. I ran all my trials assuming that.

The 6130/N took its time printing on our business suite, slowly printing out 15-min, 51-sec overall with Quality Logic’s hardware and software. For comparison, the costlier Editor’s Choice Xerox Phaser 6180N was much quicker at 10:22. The Dell 1320, also, was quicker also at 12:57. For a color laser, its photo speed was low at 1:21 for every 4-by-6 and 3:02 for 8-by-10′s.

The quality of the 6130/N is what sets it apart with distinctively high-caliber text and more class over all compared to many color lasers.

This unit can manage any document you may need it to print. Its text quality is barely under the best laser output, more than half of the text tests producing agreeable results in readability and being well-formed at points, some at 4 and no standard typefaces needing more than 6. Even complex typefaces with heavy lines which other machines have difficulty with at less than 20 points passed as both easily readable and well formed at 12 points.

The details quality of its graphics however was more impressive than most color lasers. There was slight irresolution, it was relatively obviously grainy and there were spots of white around color blocks. It handles slender lines which don’t appear on other printers well. Yet this machine’s product is adequate for business needs like presentation giveouts. Depending on your discretion, the product is considerable for significant clientelle.

At a close distance, the pictures are passable for true photograph quality. The Xerox Phaser is a printer that is useful and practical for newsletters, bulletins, circular mail or personal notifications and memos.

There aren’t many features for the 6130/N. There are no extra trays to complement the 250-sheet standard, and no duplexer. PostScript is one of the main motives to purchase this unit, because it guarantees that all documents are printed in the same format from any PostScript printer while others change formats by altering settings. Having a need for PostScript or not, though, the 6130/N is a good machine that is a practical pick for a humble workspace.

The machine can produce copies at a speed of 21 pages per minute for monochrome. The duty cycle is also huge- 35,000 pages/ month. It has an in-built 250 sheet tray; however you can add an extra 530 sheet paper tray if your print volume per month is huge. The additional tray costs 115 pounds plus VAT. This further raises the price of the machine.

There is no separate manual feeder; which is present in almost all laser printers. One can also load transparencies, cards and envelopes in the paper tray, but this is not very easy to do. The whole process is somehow not convenient. One big surprise with the Lexmark’s x502n is the absence of a duplexer. Such a common and simple thing, which is even there in the cheapest of lasers, is not present here. That definitely is a major disappointment.

The quality of the print is good, even if not the best. It has a resolution of 1,200 X 600 dpi. The device has a driver which supports Apple Mac PCs as well as Windows. Managing the printer is relatively simple. The toner cartridges are situated at the back side of a big door; in the front part of the unit.

The consumables are not very expensive. This is because this device has similar laser has c500 and thus cartridges are available at a cheaper rate. 5,000 black ink cartridge cost 78 pounds (plus VAT). Each color cartridges (of 3,000 pages) cost 68 pounds plus VAT. There is also a photo developer cartridge which works up to 120,000 pages. It costs 122 pounds (plus VAT).

Lexmark’s x502n has a nice control panel. For local operations, there is a LCD. However its interface isn’t that simple to use as claimed by the company. You may need to refer to the manual even for performing some simple tasks. Help is required even when you try to scan an email address or a network PC. This should be been done by the company beforehand.

Faxing, copying and scanning can also be performed with this device. This is simple to do because it has the Presto! PageManager software included in the packaging. The printer also has the OCR tool. The software is relatively easy to understand and follow; though the documentations for these could have been better and more detailed.

The multifunction printer- X502n is a decent performer. It is also good for networking and other related things. However it costs a bit more and also does not have a duplexer. The interface is difficult to understand. Lack of manual feeder just adds to its list of drawbacks. All these factors might force the buyer to look at other options.

It has a 250 sheet paper tray from where the papers feed inside. An optional 530 sheet paper tray is also available. There is no feed for other media like envelopes, labels etc. The control panel has straightforward controls. The buttons are spaced properly and are user-friendly. It has a two line display which gives good results; though the background isn’t very appealing to eyes! Lexmark X500n has some pretty good software in the form of Abbyy FineReader for OCR and Presto PageManager for managing documents.

The printer operates at a decent rate of 31 pages per minute for black and white pages. The printing speed for color pages is around 8 pages per minute. As per the manufacturers, this is what the print speed should be. However in reality, it is actually a bit lower than this. A color copy takes around 31 seconds, from the Automatic Document Feeder (ADF) whereas flatbed takes 40 seconds for the same. A colored photo print is done in 24 seconds, which is quite good!

The print quality is usually good, though it depends upon what is being printed. Black texts are clear, well formed and clean. They are also not smudged up. Color graphics are also good. They appear to be well defined.  However the result isn’t very good, when some text is printed over color. The result for color photocopies is not very encouraging.

The photocopies do not appear to be as colorful as the originals. The areas of dark and solid color look dull and lack contrast. They may have a patchy appearance.
The machine comes with four toner cartridges. They are all stacked one above the other. There is also a developer unit and a waste toner bottle.

The developer unit hangs from the top most part of the printer section. It can be seen once the scanner is hinged. The black ink cartridge needs replacement after 5,000 pages whereas the colored cartridges need to be replaced after 3,000 pages. The consumables vary in their page yields. The toner waste bottle also needs to be replaced after 30,000 pages. The fuser lasts for 60,000 pages and photo developer for 120,000 pages. You might find all this quite frustrating and time consuming especially if you have large volume printing work.

Taking in consideration all the yields and prices, the running cost for color pages comes out to be 11p and 3p for mono. Both these figures aren’t really good! Overall Lexmark’s X500n is an all in one device which is price reasonably. It produced decent quality text at a decent speed. Its biggest drawbacks are its complicated consumables and high page running cost. There is also no multi purpose feed! All this may limit its popularity.

This device is perfect for small offices where too much prints are not required on a regular basis. Buying Lexmark’s X500n isn’t such a good idea when you work mostly involves printing graphics. Due to complicated and too many consumables, this isn’t good for large amount of work too!

The printed text is clear; and appears thick. The graphics produced are of high quality and are printed at a rate of 3.9 pages/ minute. Colors on a plain paper look a bit oversaturated; though the pattern is fine. Better colors and textures can be appreciated when prints are produced on Lexmark’s glossy laser paper.

The printer weighs 105 pound and is especially designed for heavy workloads. It has a 500 hundred sheet capacity input tray. The output tray can hold up to 250 sheets. To save space, the Lexmark’s C780n has a multipurpose tray. This 100 sheet tray on the left side opens at a steep angle.

An additional 500 sheet tray can be added. The printer can also hold labels, transparencies and envelopes. Duplexer for double printing can also be added. However these additional tools may cost quite a bit. It has an integrated memory of 256 MB. The memory can be expanded to up to 768 MB.

The printer is designed in a very simple way. The simple control panel has buttons which are clearly marked and labeled. It also has a monochrome LCD. The messages displayed on the LCD are easy to understand however few things aren’t very clear like how to proceed forwards or how to go back. The front panel is large, but not very user friendly; the reason being the lack of levers or handles on it.

To pull up the panel, there is a small leg. But it’s not easily noticeable because of its small size and also because it has an unclear label. Toner cartridges are in built when you buy the printer. You need to replace them once the ink is finished. For replacing them, you need to lift and pull them out. The procedure for doing this is not very clear; as the visual cues are less.

The cartridges are not very heavily priced; though Lexmark’s products are generally supposed to be quite pricey. The 6000 page black ink cartridge costs $154; which approximates to one penny per page. The color toner cartridges- cyan, yellow and magenta cost $289 each; which is almost 2 cents/ color page. The consumables are overall cheap.

Because of its fast and efficient printing, the printer is ideal for busy offices. One of the drawbacks with this printer is its reliability factor. In spite of having great speed and skills, the printer lacks poorly in reliability ratings. The company has a reliability rating of ‘worse than average’; though its service rating is fair enough. The printer is also quite bulky, and that is another of its drawback.

Lexmark’s C780n is a good general purpose printer, especially at those places where lots of prints are required in a day. Despite its poor reliability, it’s a good choice especially at this price. The printer comes with a one year warranty; any part found to be defective during this time period can be replaced.