Upon purchase, the WorkCentre 4250 will cost only about half the price of the 6400, but that is due to the fact that you can only buy the 4250 used—it has been discontinued and replaced with the 6400.

So what makes these two different from each other? There are a few things. The first is in its frame. The 4250 weighs 97 pounds and has a size of 24.5x19x25.5 inches. The 4600, on the other hand, weighs a hefty 130.1 pounds and has a size of 20.9×23.1×24.7 inches. Those changes aren’t very big, but the memory difference between these two is significant. The 4250 comes with a standard memory of 256 MB that can be upgraded to 512 MB if needed. The 4600 comes standard with 1 GB of memory. You would probably assume that the newer machine has faster speeds too, but that is not the case. The 4600 has speeds of only 37 pages per minute.

Another surprising difference between these two has to be with its monthly duty cycle. While the older 4250 can create 200,000 pages every month, the newer 4600 can only create 120,000 pages. Overall though, the upgrades of the 4600, like a photo printing feature, make it well worth the upgrade—especially if you trade it in!

Operating with a 64 MB RAM memory upon purchase, buyers are given the option of upgrading if needed to RAMs as high as 256 MB. Connection is offered via USB or parallel port; however, some compatible models like the Phaser 860DP and Phaser 860DX do offer ethernet support too.  These models also offer duplex printing, while the standard 860 must have an upgrade to add this feature. Able to pump out documents with resolutions as high as 1000 dpi, text and light graphics documents will look professional and sharp.

The unit has a 200-sheet main paper tray upon purchase; however there are multiple trays that can be added later as optional media trays. Photo paper, labels, transparencies, plain paper and heavy paper are all compatible, as well as envelopes, and most standard sizes of each are supported too.

To operate the 860, you will need to keep four color ink sticks on stock—black, cyan, yellow and magenta. These sticks are generally mess free, and they are much better for the enviorment than standard ink tanks. Overall, you will find though it may be a few years old, the Phaser 860 is a solid machine.

Speed is something the 9202 does well. It has standard color and black speeds of 45 pages per minute and 50 pages per minute, respectively. Flexible printing speeds are also offered that are as fast as 35-70 pages per minute for color prints and 38-85 pages per minute for black-and-white. Duplex printing comes standard, as well as a 2 GB device memory. The machine’s processor is 1 GHz, and the hard drive comes standard with 80 GB. Able to print up to 225,000 pages per month, it should keep up with most offices large workloads quite well. Connection offered is ethernet hookup.

The printer has a first page out time of 7.2 seconds for monochrome documents and 7.2 seconds for color. These speeds are fast and won’t keep you waiting by the device for pages to process. It can also produce documents with a resolution of as high as 2400 dpi. Features such as delay print, N-up, booklet printing and banner sheet printing are all offered.

First page out times of 8.1 seconds are standard for copying in black-and-white or color. The copier also comes with an array of features to make the day a little easier, including automatic reduction and enlargement, bates stamping, book copying, collation, booklet creating, one-touch printing, scan once-print many and auto tray switching. All of these features make this unit a little more productive than a lot of the competition.

The hard drive on this hefty machine is 80 GB, and it has a memory of 2 GB. Competing products won’t touch its memory. Ethernet connection is offered, as well as an automatic document feeder that can hold a whopping 250 pages. The 7755 comes standard with a ton of finishing features that will not only make the work day easier, but will make it more efficient too.  You can hole punch, staple, bi-fold, or saddle stitch documents inside of the unit, and up to 50 sheets can be stabled at one time.

The copier and printer have the ability to produce documents quite quickly. Black-and-white documents can print in as fast as 55 pages per minute, and color documents are still pretty fast at 40 pages per minute. The first page out times are pretty impressive too at 5.5 seconds and 8.9 seconds for monochrome and color prints, respectively. Resolutions as high as 2400×2400 dpi can be reached, which will leave documents looking very professional and high quality. Because it is a color unit, you will need to keep up with and maintain four toner cartridges—cyan, yellow, magenta and black.

Three configurations of this model are possible—the standard 5230 that only copies, a version that copies and prints and the A model, which can copy, scan and print. The A model also has the ability to email. It prints and copies at speeds of up to 30 pages per minute, and connection is offered via ethernet hookup only. The machine has a memory of 512 MB standard that can be expanded to up to 768 MB if needed. A convenient 40 GB hard drive space is also included.

Inside the machine, you can hold 1,100 sheets of media. If optional paper trays are used, up to 5,100 pages can be fit inside. Most standard sizes and types of media are supported, and it even has a few print features that most competitors’ products do not include. Some of these features are booklet printing, duplex printing, delayed print, banner sheets and mirror image printing. There are also scan to features like scan to email, desktop, home and mailbox. There is also a network scanning feature.

The unit has the ability to create resolutions as high as 600×600 dpi, which should be perfect for a business environment. It will leave documents looking sharp, professional and precise!

Solid ink is not dependant on the surface of paper, because images mechanically transfer to the paper. It doesn’t get spread onto paper, but it gets applied to the paper. Intensive testing performed by the SpencerLab Digital Color Laboratory has also proved that the print quality of solid ink printers is just as high as many toner printers.

Though it may be true that a solid ink printer’s dots per inch are fewer, resolution isn’t the only way to measure print quality.  A resolution, for instance, with toner printers may change based on the type of media being used, but that is usually not the case with a solid ink printers. Solid ink sits on the paper, while toner fuses into the paper. However, printing on glossy or super glossy types of paper is not recommended with ink sticks, because it will essentially peel right off.

 The pixels created by solid ink printers are also larger than toner particles, but can still be placed within half of a pixel. A solid ink machine also has color-to-color registration built into the printhead, making it more consistent than a laser printer’s output.  

Though these myths can seem alarming don’t let that fool you, because solid ink printers are just as reliable as laser printers, and consumers praise solid ink printers time and time again for the high quality output of documents produced.

Because the printing and copying features are the base of this model, they are the most advanced. The printer has the ability to create resolutions as high as 600×600 dpi, and the copier can even hit those same resolutions. You can print on banner sized paper, as well as posters—this is an excellent feature not offered by every printer out there on the market. There is also a direct printing option, where you can print directly from a USB. The copier has a first page out time for black-and-white prints of only 6 seconds, but it is a little slower when printing in color at 15 seconds per page. One convenient feature is its ability to make anywhere from 1 to 99 multiple copies from an original document.

If you decide to add either the scan or fax features, you will probably be happy with the result. The fax offers up to 3 fax lines to work from the one locations and includes fax-to-email features. Fit-to-page and two-sided printing options are also offered, and resolutions as high as 400×400 dpi. It also comes standard with up to 200 one-touch speed dials. The scanner reaches resolutions of up to 600×600 dpi. Overall, no matter which configuration of the WorkCenter 7232 you have, you will most likely be happy.

The Xerox Phaser 850 is a little slower than many units on the market, which tends to be its major downfall. When printing in black-and-white, only 14 pages per minute can be printed. If printing in color, the speeds are even slower at 8 pages per minute. It does, however, offer an LCD screen that will make printing a little easier than some machines out there.

Four ink sticks are needed for operation, and they are cyan, magenta, black and yellow. All in all, the cost per page is relatively affordable, and the high resolutions these sticks make ensure that they are worth every penny. Whether printing in black-and-white or color, you will be able to reach resolutions as high as 1200×1200 dpi. Graphics documents and text documents alike will print with high quality and precision, as well as sharp, detailed colors. The solid ink is virtually mess-free, and the sticks are very simple to replace too.

Glossy paper, bond paper, labels, transparencies, envelopes, coated paper and plain paper are all supported by the Phaser 850. Its total media capacity is 700 sheets, and its monthly duty cycle is 65,000. Recently the 850 has been discontinued and replaced with a newer model, the Xerox ColorQube 8570. Either of these machines should make buyers very happy.

Ink Low—This message displays when your ink stick gets to the halfway mark.

Ink Sticks Jammed—If you see this message, open your top cover to make sure the ink sticks are in the right spots. If a stick has broken, clean the bottom of your printer and any remaining ink sticks to ensure that broken pieces are gone.

Out of ink—If this message appears, you need to install at least one ink stick.

Waste Liner Full—Your waste liner need to be replaced or changed.

Install Tray—A maintenance tray needs to be installed inside the printer.

Jam: Open Exit Cover—Open the output tray, and remove the paper jam.

Jam: Open Front Cover—Open the input tray, and remove the paper jam.

Jam: Retry Manual Feed—If this message appears, take out any paper in the automatic document feeder. After you have cleared the paper jam or taken any loose paper out, add the paper back to the printer.

Replace Media Tray—When you see this message, one or more of your media trays must be reinserted.

Fault Service Required—Write down the error message, and turn your printer off. Wait about 15 seconds, and then turn your printer back on. If the message still displays, call your manufacturer.

Though there are a few more error messages that occur with Xerox Phaser printers, these are the most popular. For a comprehensive list, consult your manufacturer.

Its printing capabilities are endless. It can print on a plethora of media types, and it can even print on banners. It connects via ethernet, USB or wireless connection, and it comes with 1.17 GB of print memory. The hard drive is 40 GB, and resolutions of 600x600x4 dpi are even possible.

When copying, resolutions of 600×600 dpi can be reached, and up to 999 copies can be made per each original document. The first page out can copy out in as fast as 6 seconds for black-and-white and 15 seconds for color. Features like automatic reduction and enlargement, edge erase, invert image and stored job settings are all included.

If you chose to add the scanning and fax features to your WorkCentre 7242 you will most likely be happy with that decision. The scanner comes with scan-to-email, s can-to-desktop, scan-to-email and scan-to-home capabilities, and once again, resolutions of 600×600 dpi can be reached.  Internet fax, PC fax and walkup fax are just a few of the fax options, and up to 3 fax lines can be added to the machine. There can also be up to 200 one-touch dials. Automatic reduction, junk fax barrier and memory fax are just a few more of the awesome features.