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Color printer advice. Xerox Phaser or HP Laserjet?

J

jdelgado

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 25, 2009
163
10
Chile
I need a color printer and I am looking for your input.

Given my local availability, I narrowed down the choices to Xerox Phaser 6280, HP 3525, and HP 2520. There are a couple more of Xerox alternatives, but I have not found much information about them (phaser 6500 and 6300). I ruled out inkjet printers because of cartridge cost and ink smearing. I am currently leaning towards the 6280.

My workload is light (average of 1000 pages/month) and will serve 4 users (all use Macs). Printing is going to be mostly B&W, but will need to print brochures, reports that will have significant amount of color, mainly in the form of charts, tables, backgrounds and graphics (no photos). Black and white printing quality is very important, specially for small print.

I would like to know how the above printers have worked for you regarding

Mac compatibility and driver support
Reliability
Double side printing
Need to upgrade memory
Other maintenance issues

Thanks!
 
Last edited:
jdelgado said:
I need a color printer and I am looking for your input.

Given my local availability, I narrowed down the choices to Xerox Phaser 6280, HP 3525, and HP 2520. There are a couple more of Xerox alternatives, but I have not found much information about them (phaser 6500 and 6300). I ruled out inkjet printers because of cartridge cost and ink smearing. I am currently leaning towards the 6280.

...
Click to expand...
This is not a close call. Xerox. The Xerox Phaser 6280/DN duplex networked printer will hit you up for $500 suggested retail. Your $500 printer will get you a wicked-fast printer that is built like an anvil. Every computer on your LAN can connect to it via its favorite network protocol. HPs have never been fast. However, they used to be solid. Xerox printers are fast and solid.
 
I will never buy a HP printer again. I have a HP color laserjet 1500 printer back in 2006, works still great after 5 years. But HP doesn't release a drive for either Windows 7 or Mac OS X 10.6. I have to transfer files to a PC runs Windows XP to print. HP has updated drive for many old models to work with Windows 7 and Mac OS X 10.6, but never for this particular model.
 
Based on your usage description, the Xerox Phaser 6280/DN would be a very good choice. The Phaser 6360 is designed for higher volume workgroups. You can request a print sample and read customer reviews on our website.

MisterMe, thanks so much for the comments on the Phaser 6280. I'm glad you like the color printer
 
Drivers

Thanks a lot for your responses!

LisaW Xerox said:
Based on your usage description, the Xerox Phaser 6280/DN would be a very good choice. The Phaser 6360 is designed for higher volume workgroups. You can request a print sample and read customer reviews on our website.

MisterMe, thanks so much for the comments on the Phaser 6280. I'm glad you like the color printer
Click to expand...

LisaW Xerox: Thanks for the links. I already contacted my local suppliers for samples and read the reviews.

One issue that concerns me is support for 10.7. I read that it is scheduled for this year. Can you confirm this? I currently run 10.6, but will upgrade to Lion in the near future.
Thanks!
 
jdelgado said:
...

One issue that concerns me is support for 10.7. I read that it is scheduled for this year. Can you confirm this? I currently run 10.6, but will upgrade to Lion in the near future.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
I have no idea where you read that. If your Xerox PostScript printer [like the Phaser 6280/DN] works with MacOS X 10.6, then it will also work perfectly with MacOS X 10.7.
 
MisterMe said:
I have no idea where you read that. If your Xerox PostScript printer [like the Phaser 6280/DN] works with MacOS X 10.6, then it will also work perfectly with MacOS X 10.7.
Click to expand...

In the Xerox site, drivers options for the 6280 show support only for 10.6 (http://www.support.xerox.com/support/phaser-6280/downloads/enus.html?operatingSystem=macosx)

Also, this link (http://download.support.xerox.com/p..._Matrix/other/macosx/en/MacOSX10-7_Matrix.pdf) states that "Delivery of updated drivers for Mac OS X 10.7 is planned for this product. Please continue to visit Xerox.com/drivers for updates regarding our Mac OS X 10.7 driver delivery plans."

There are also some customer reviews that state that their printers show problems with Lion (http://www.office.xerox.com/printers/color-printers/phaser-6280/enus.html)

I am not an expert on this and the information above gives me some concern.

Thanks!
 
Look at the Xerox solid ink printers. It is unique technology geared towards volume printing.
 
I just got a new solid ink Xerox. I'm impressed with the prints, but have had issues.

There is a door that removes to reveal all of the ports. The included power cord needs to bend backward and the door is reinstalled once the connectivity is in place. The power cord Xerox included is so bulky at the equipment end that the door cannot be reinstalled, so it's a bit ugly. I called Xerox, who promised to ship out the proper cord. It's been weeks and nothing, so I guess I need to get them back on the phone.

I printed about 100 pages before the software began complaining that the ink waste tray was full. Also, every time I print, there is a monitoring utility that complains that it's lost connectivity to the printer. This happens from each machine we have.

I'm sure all of these things are easily fixed with a service call, or a couple calls to Xerox. It's just an inconvenience if you're busy.

Summary, outstanding performance, works well with Macs. Out of the box issues are a pain in the ass.
 
I would never buy anything HP again. Their support for OSX is very poor; some machines are better then others but in general they support it for a little but as soon as the model is a bit old, they stop updating the drives.

HP pioneered the expiring toner; IE putting a chip in the toner to make it expire after X amount of time.

Finally, HP is also well known for making their drivers use your computer as the graphics processing engine instead of embedding a CPU in the printer itself.
 
jdelgado said:
In the Xerox site, drivers options for the 6280 show support only for 10.6 (http://www.support.xerox.com/support/phaser-6280/downloads/enus.html?operatingSystem=macosx)
Click to expand...
The fact that Xerox says that its drivers work with Snow Leopard does not mean that its drivers are Snow Leopard-exclusive.

jdelgado said:
Also, this link (http://download.support.xerox.com/p..._Matrix/other/macosx/en/MacOSX10-7_Matrix.pdf) states that "Delivery of updated drivers for Mac OS X 10.7 is planned for this product. Please continue to visit Xerox.com/drivers for updates regarding our Mac OS X 10.7 driver delivery plans."
Click to expand...
The fact that Xerox will update its drivers does not mean that its current drivers don't work with MacOS X 10.7. My experience with them is that they work perfectly with MacOS X 10.7.

jdelgado said:
There are also some customer reviews that state that their printers show problems with Lion (http://www.office.xerox.com/printers/color-printers/phaser-6280/enus.html)

I am not an expert on this and the information above gives me some concern.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
This is no accounting for complaints like this. As I said, all I want from my printer is to print. Perhaps the complainers need printers to sing show tunes or cook dinner. Those are features that I have never tested or needed. All my Xeroxes do under Lion is print perfectly.
 
Thanks to everybody for your input!
I will check the 6280 and will report back on how it goes.
 
jdelgado said:
Thanks to everybody for your input!
I will check the 6280 and will report back on how it goes.
Click to expand...
I do not have any direct experience with the Xerox 6280... but I do have a Xerox 6180 MFP DN and it is a solid printer. It is significant overkill for a home application... but I do love having this workhorse. The full duplex printing is very useful. It also serves as our home copier and fax machine.

I just printed hundreds of 80 lb card stock wedding material for my daughter's wedding... and it came out as professional as anything I have seen. I never had a single jam through the whole project!

I have been really satisfied with Xerox so far.

/Jim
 
Hello jdelgado,

I checked in with our technical team and they are still on track to have the updated drivers available on our website by the end of the year.
 
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