[Back up 15 and punt]

I am considering buying a color laser. I've looked at the following: HP4600, HP3700, Xerox 6250, Brother HL-2700CN. Does anybody have any experience with these printers and which one would you choose based on driver quality and reliability. I've had HP lasers in the past and they have been basically bullet proof. I'm looking for a low maintenance color laser that is reasonably priced.

The reason I have given such a broad spectrum of printers is because I realize that sometimes you get what you pay for. For this reason I might go with a more expensive model.

[aaanorton]

MacNN home page has news on the release of Xerox's Phaser 6100. I don't know much about color lasers, but thought I'd mention that.

EDIT: Hey admins, links don't seem to be formatting correctly.

aaanorton: you got the URL syntax messed up. It's {url=http://www.theurlyouwant.com/deeper/and/deeper}Link Text{/url}. You had the link text and the URL swapped.

[Back up 15 and punt]

Originally posted by aaanorton:
MacNN home page has news on the release of Xerox's http://www.office.xerox.com/perl-bin/product.pl?product=6100. I don't know much about color lasers, but thought I'd mention that.

EDIT: Hey admins, links don't seem to be formatting correctly.

Yes, I've already read about this particular newcomer. It looks a lot like the new Samsung of which I wasn't very impressed. Thanks for the feedback.

[Stradlater]

Lasers are great for black and white text, but you can get a much better color image with an inkjet (which is much cheaper, as well). Unless you really need to print a ton of something (like color newsletters) and you don't need exceptionally-great quality, then maybe the color laser is worth it; otherwise I wouldn't recommend them. If you've tried them out beforehand and are satisfied, however, go for it.

[krove]

Inkjets are also slower than color lasers (those that use a one-pass for all colors) for outputting high-quality color.

There are tradeoffs, for sure, but my opinion is that color laser is always preferrable to inkjet for presentation and speed.

[Stradlater]

Originally posted by krove:
There are tradeoffs, for sure, but my opinion is that color laser is always preferrable to inkjet for presentation and speed.

Speed? Sure. Presentation? Hardly. If you have to print a large volume of color documents (hundreds of pages at a time), you're good with a color laser; otherwise I would stick with the cheaper, better-looking inkjets.

[tooki]

HP's black and white lasers are great; historically speaking, the same cannot be said for their color lasers, which are (compared to the competition) slow and with inferior print quality. Xerox/Tektronix has a long history of producing superior color laser printers, and if their low-end Phasers are anything remotely like the high-end ones, you can't go wrong. I recently set up a Phaser 7750GX for a client; it's to die for. At my school, the art department has a Phaser 7700GX. It, too, is a fantastic machine.

That said, I'll repeat what I recently said in another thread here (it might do you well to search for "color laser" and look at it all): a $150 inkjet will give you superior photographic output, period. Not even a $9000 color laser can compete in terms of photographic output. Of course, that printer will be faster than the inkjet, but it won't necessarily even have lower page costs (!), and it won't be able to print on as wide a range of media as the inkjet.

Color lasers are extremely picky about the paper you use in them. They demand absolutely smooth paper. Regular copy paper will produce splotchy, unsatisfactory results. The paper dust from cheaper papers also cause problems. Don't even think about weird things like canvas or watercolor paper. Color lasers can print on special transparencies, but since the toners are pigment-based, which means they're opaque, they look great until you actually project them. The projected image is nearly black-and-white! Any non-paper-based print media you print on (e.g. transparencies and some glossy "paper", which are plastic) must be designed for your printer, or they could melt in the fuser assembly.

Color lasers have a couple of advantages: speed, high volume, and waterproof output that has the glossy look of a magazine. But if you buy a color laser with the expectation of it being as simple to maintain and use as a black and white laser, you will be sorely disappointed. Color lasers have come a long way over the years (for example, they no longer need messy fuser oil, nor do they need as-involved preparation to be moved), but they are still vastly more finickey than black and white lasers or any inkjet.

tooki

[Back up 15 and punt]

Originally posted by tooki:
HP's black and white lasers are great; historically speaking, the same cannot be said for their color lasers, which are (compared to the competition) slow and with inferior print quality. Xerox/Tektronix has a long history of producing superior color laser printers, and if their low-end Phasers are anything remotely like the high-end ones, you can't go wrong. I recently set up a Phaser 7750GX for a client; it's to die for. At my school, the art department has a Phaser 7700GX. It, too, is a fantastic machine.

That said, I'll repeat what I recently said in another thread here (it might do you well to search for "color laser" and look at it all): a $150 inkjet will give you superior photographic output, period. Not even a $9000 color laser can compete in terms of photographic output. Of course, that printer will be faster than the inkjet, but it won't necessarily even have lower page costs (!), and it won't be able to print on as wide a range of media as the inkjet.

Color lasers are extremely picky about the paper you use in them. They demand absolutely smooth paper. Regular copy paper will produce splotchy, unsatisfactory results. The paper dust from cheaper papers also cause problems. Don't even think about weird things like canvas or watercolor paper. Color lasers can print on special transparencies, but since the toners are pigment-based, which means they're opaque, they look great until you actually project them. The projected image is nearly black-and-white! Any non-paper-based print media you print on (e.g. transparencies and some glossy "paper", which are plastic) must be designed for your printer, or they could melt in the fuser assembly.

Color lasers have a couple of advantages: speed, high volume, and waterproof output that has the glossy look of a magazine. But if you buy a color laser with the expectation of it being as simple to maintain and use as a black and white laser, you will be sorely disappointed. Color lasers have come a long way over the years (for example, they no longer need messy fuser oil, nor do they need as-involved preparation to be moved), but they are still vastly more finickey than black and white lasers or any inkjet.

tooki

Do you have any experiences with the Xerox Phaser 6250?

[veryniceguy2002]

Originally posted by Back up 15 and punt:
I am considering buying a color laser. I've looked at the following: HP4600, HP3700, Xerox 6250, Brother HL-2700CN. Does anybody have any experience with these printers and which one would you choose based on driver quality and reliability. I've had HP lasers in the past and they have been basically bullet proof. I'm looking for a low maintenance color laser that is reasonably priced.

The reason I have given such a broad spectrum of printers is because I realize that sometimes you get what you pay for. For this reason I might go with a more expensive model.

I can looking at Brother HL-2700CN (main points being cheap, ethernet built-in and PS3 emulation; what else will match that for that price??)

I haven't check out any of the abovementioned printer yet. However, based on my experience with HP Colour LaserJet 4xxx series at my workplace, it is not easily being classified as "fuss free".

Whenever I change the colour toner on that Colour LaserJet (don't know why I am always the unlikely one in my work to change the colour toner ), it would be a 10 minute drama in the printing room...

You have to read the 16-page multilingal instruction manual that comes with the toner in order to get the toner change (and somehow I found the Chinese language version is more easily understandable than the English one ). I always joked to my colleague that the cloth that comes with every colour toner is for you to wipe your sweat on your face at the end of your 10 minute drama, not for cleaning the excess toner etc...

Now, don't ask me how to change the fuser unit in the Colour LaserJet

[mbryda]

Originally posted by veryniceguy2002:
I can looking at Brother HL-2700CN (main points being cheap, ethernet built-in and PS3 emulation; what else will match that for that price??

The Samsung CLP-500 looks close. It's a little slower, but has built-in duplex, and at OfficeDepot, you get a rebate for a free NIC for it (and, possibly a $100 rebate). The only downfall is it doesn't do PS3, but I'm not sure the Brother does either. Most of their other printers ar BR-Script, which, IIRC istheir version of PS.

[Back up 15 and punt]

Originally posted by mbryda:
The Samsung CLP-500 looks close. It's a little slower, but has built-in duplex, and at OfficeDepot, you get a rebate for a free NIC for it (and, possibly a $100 rebate). The only downfall is it doesn't do PS3, but I'm not sure the Brother does either. Most of their other printers ar BR-Script, which, IIRC istheir version of PS.

Actually, the CLP-550, the big brother to the CLP-500, does employ PS3. Xerox also markets these same printers under their own name.

[danbrew]

Originally posted by Back up 15 and punt:
Do you have any experiences with the Xerox Phaser 6250?

I'm Mr. Color Laser Printer and have owned the HP Color LaserJet 4500 and currently own the Xerox 6250 DP. The 4500 was a "multipass" printer where each color rotated in a drum to print an image - and registration was an issue with occassional images not having the colors properly aligned. The new generation HP color lasers are single pass.

I upgraded to the Xerox 8200DP for about $2000 and was not at all pleased with the results - the 8200DP being a wax based printer. As a photographer I thought the wax would be better for images - forget it. And the ink consumption just sucked - nowhere near the claimed coverage model. Granted, I was printing photos, but a lot of business documents as well, and the ink consumption was unbelievable. I can dig up the numbers if anybody really wants to see them, but the cost per page was 8 to 10 times the cost of the laser printers. Ouch. I was able to return the printer to the reseller after a few weeks - thankfully.

I ended up with the Xerox 6250 DP and it is a fantastic printer. The ink consumption is exactly on par with what they claim. The printer is very fast, 26 pages per minutes, has built in duplexing, and ethernet connectivity. (note that there is a 6200DP that is something like 17 pages per minute - don't get the old one by mistake!). 80% of my documents are business documents that I would prefer to print with color. 20% of them are contact sheets of my photos. I would never equate the capabilities of the 6250DP with any type of serious photo printer - even those super slow inkjets. If you're not looking for photo-realistic prints, the 6250 is great. Go find a retailer with a 6250 on the floor and print some of the test pages that are stored in ROM. They're very very nice and are indicative of what you'll expect in real life.

I'm sure the new HPs are very nice - but I had a so-so experience with their last color laser (their black & whites are great - I've got a 9000N and it is freaken' awesome - 50ppm!! - ah, yes, I am Mr Printer). The built in webserver for the Xerox printers beats the HP printers hands-down - period. I can run a report on the Xerox that will provide a great detail about the ink consumption, print jobs, etc. It tells you how much ink and what color you used on what job, can be configured to send email alerts when low on supplies, and can even be setup as a remote printer on the internet. I can actually send a job to this printer (which is in my home office behind a firewall) from anywhere on the net and come home to a completed job.

You cannot go wrong with the 6250DP for price/performance, but do know what you're getting - this is a business color laser - not a photo printer. Send me a PM if you want to send me some files - I'd be happy to print and them drop them in the mail to you.

Oh yes, on another note - you can use plain paper on any color laser - I use plain paper in the 6250DP with no problems. The "brilliant white" paper makes the print out a bit more dramatic, tho. As tooki says, never, ever use coated papers in a laser printer - color or otherwise. The fuser will eventually melt all that crap over the inside of your printer.

Anyway, enjoy.

danbrew

[Back up 15 and punt]

Originally posted by danbrew:
I'm Mr. Color Laser Printer and have owned the HP Color LaserJet 4500 and currently own the Xerox 6250 DP. The 4500 was a "multipass" printer where each color rotated in a drum to print an image - and registration was an issue with occassional images not having the colors properly aligned. The new generation HP color lasers are single pass.

I upgraded to the Xerox 8200DP for about $2000 and was not at all pleased with the results - the 8200DP being a wax based printer. As a photographer I thought the wax would be better for images - forget it. And the ink consumption just sucked - nowhere near the claimed coverage model. Granted, I was printing photos, but a lot of business documents as well, and the ink consumption was unbelievable. I can dig up the numbers if anybody really wants to see them, but the cost per page was 8 to 10 times the cost of the laser printers. Ouch. I was able to return the printer to the reseller after a few weeks - thankfully.

I ended up with the Xerox 6250 DP and it is a fantastic printer. The ink consumption is exactly on par with what they claim. The printer is very fast, 26 pages per minutes, has built in duplexing, and ethernet connectivity. (note that there is a 6200DP that is something like 17 pages per minute - don't get the old one by mistake!). 80% of my documents are business documents that I would prefer to print with color. 20% of them are contact sheets of my photos. I would never equate the capabilities of the 6250DP with any type of serious photo printer - even those super slow inkjets. If you're not looking for photo-realistic prints, the 6250 is great. Go find a retailer with a 6250 on the floor and print some of the test pages that are stored in ROM. They're very very nice and are indicative of what you'll expect in real life.

I'm sure the new HPs are very nice - but I had a so-so experience with their last color laser (their black & whites are great - I've got a 9000N and it is freaken' awesome - 50ppm!! - ah, yes, I am Mr Printer). The built in webserver for the Xerox printers beats the HP printers hands-down - period. I can run a report on the Xerox that will provide a great detail about the ink consumption, print jobs, etc. It tells you how much ink and what color you used on what job, can be configured to send email alerts when low on supplies, and can even be setup as a remote printer on the internet. I can actually send a job to this printer (which is in my home office behind a firewall) from anywhere on the net and come home to a completed job.

You cannot go wrong with the 6250DP for price/performance, but do know what you're getting - this is a business color laser - not a photo printer. Send me a PM if you want to send me some files - I'd be happy to print and them drop them in the mail to you.

Oh yes, on another note - you can use plain paper on any color laser - I use plain paper in the 6250DP with no problems. The "brilliant white" paper makes the print out a bit more dramatic, tho. As tooki says, never, ever use coated papers in a laser printer - color or otherwise. The fuser will eventually melt all that crap over the inside of your printer.

Anyway, enjoy.

danbrew

Thanks for the reply. There was a time that I use to swear by HP printers. The BW printers are still among the best. But color is a different animal. I seriously considered the HP 4600 but I soon learned that there were issues with this printer that I didn't want to deal with. HP quality has also seemed to drop off in recent years. I have read mixed reviews about the Xerox 6250 but for the most part this printer seemed more inline with what I was looking for.

Another color laser that I have been looking at is the Kyocera. I have also heard good things about this printer as well. I am also aware of the fact that lasers are not meant to print pictures. I'll use my Canon 960 for that.

Thanks again.

[danbrew]

Originally posted by Back up 15 and punt:
Thanks for the reply. There was a time that I use to swear by HP printers. The BW printers are still among the best. But color is a different animal. I seriously considered the HP 4600 but I soon learned that there were issues with this printer that I didn't want to deal with. HP quality has also seemed to drop off in recent years.

Amen - I'm in the same boat. I have a handful of HP printers and have generally been happy with them - good drivers, availability of toner anywhere, etc., etc. But their color models just haven't lived up to the legacy of the b&w models.

My big thing is speed and duplexing - the 6250DP does a really good job in this department.

And, of course, the built-in webserver that provides job specific detail is very helpful:

[The Placid Casual]

I went for a HP 1500L, bottom of the line colour laser.

Seems fine so far. Reliable, decent enough printing and relatively nippy...

[tooki]

Originally posted by danbrew:
As tooki says, never, ever use coated papers in a laser printer - color or otherwise. The fuser will eventually melt all that crap over the inside of your printer.

Well I didn't quite say that! All the paper that runs through it should be coated -- coated for color laser, or smooth china-clay coated papers intended for high-end offset printing. (My best client uses some expensive coated offset paper in her 7750GX, with gorgeous results.) Regular copy/laser paper (which isn't coated) looks like crap in a color laser. Vellum looks amazing when printed on color lasers. But no, you don't want to use inkjet media in it, either. Especially not the ones that aren't paper, but plastic films with inkjet coatings.

tooki

[veryniceguy2002]

tooki,

Since you know so much what paper to use on Colour Laser printer, perhaps you should also setup a web site to talk about this (in addition to your Inkjet compatability web site you are considering...)

[tooki]

Eh, unlike with inkjets, I doubt it's worth the trouble. All the paper mills make color laser paper, and basically, if it's real paper and very smooth, it'll work fine. With inkjets, compatibility between the ink and the coating is not a given.

tooki

[Lizard7]

I recently grappled with a decision between the hp 4600 and xerox 6250. Even though the xerox had fantastic speed, a compact design and a great webserver, the quality on a mixed text/color figure document I tested wasn't even close in quality to the hp. The text had a fuzzy appearance to it and smaller fonts were less legible. Photo output was nice for a laser though.

Too bad since the hp has a stupid design that uses up the life of all cartridges at once... even if you are just printing black.

Originally posted by danbrew:
Amen - I'm in the same boat. I have a handful of HP printers and have generally been happy with them - good drivers, availability of toner anywhere, etc., etc. But their color models just haven't lived up to the legacy of the b&w models.

My big thing is speed and duplexing - the 6250DP does a really good job in this department.

And, of course, the built-in webserver that provides job specific detail is very helpful:

[veryniceguy2002]

Originally posted by Lizard7:
Too bad since the hp has a stupid design that uses up the life of all cartridges at once... even if you are just printing black.

Huh? What do you mean by that??
You just have to replace the colour cartridge which ran out of toner. You don't have to replace all four cartridges.

[Back up 15 and punt]

Does anybody have experience using the Kyocera FS-C5016N? This printer, supposedly, is the least expensive printer to use among all of the lasers.

[mbryda]

If Samsung would get off their butts about their drivers for the CLP-500 fully working with OSX (duplexer, resolution options, etc), it would be a great printer.

I actually bought one this weekend and it printed great, but spending $550 on a printer that only prints and is not fully supported by the OS was not worth it to me. Sadly it went back. Picked up a Canon i560 to hold me over - it's fast (22ppm B&W, 15ppm Color, averages less than that, but still fast) and cheap to operate (cheaper than the Samsung) with great Mac support. Just wished it duplexed!

[Walker]

I purchased the Minolota Magicolor 2350. Network ready, mac drivers, and prints very nice color photos. Yes, the color printing is slow. But I'm happy with my purchase.

lw

[escher]

Originally posted by mbryda:
If Samsung would get off their butts about their drivers for the CLP-500 fully working with OSX (duplexer, resolution options, etc), it would be a great printer.

That is exactly my opininion. The Samsung (and its Xerox-branded counterpart, the Phaser 6100) is a fantastic, inexpensive color laser with duplexing and Ethernet. Unfortunately, the OS X drivers are severly lacking. According to Xerox's website, the OS X driver doesn't even support printing over a network. It's USB only! What's the point of buying a networked printer if you can't print over a network with it?

However, if Samsung/Xerox were to fix their OS X drivers for this printer, I would snap one up in a second. Unless danbrew can suggest a similarly priced duplexing color network laser.

Escher

[tooki]

FYI, Samsung just announced the official discontinuation of Mac drivers for its printers.

tooki

[escher]

Originally posted by tooki:
FYI, Samsung just announced the official discontinuation of Mac drivers for its printers.

What a shame!

tooki: Thanks for conveying the depressing news before I bought a Samsung on the naive hope that better drivers would surface eventually. I never got fully functional drivers for my cheapo Epson EPL-5700i laser, so I should have learned my lesson.

I am deliberating between two options: (1) get a black/white Multifunction device, (2) wait for an entry-level color laser with good drivers. A color laser would be really nice. But the sheetfeed scanner and standalone fax capability of e.g. the Brother MFC-8840DN (with duplex, Ethernet, and OS X drivers for all functions!) might be more useful for me than color. I don't know...

Escher

[SirRuka]

Check out the Oki 5300n. Single pass, network built in, and great colour for only ~$1480 Cdn.

[Lizard7]

The printer has a built-in sensor that forces you to changes the cartridges when it says to (not when they really run out of toner). Apparently this is because they are inline and experience wear when anything is printed. The printer has a "mostly black" mode that moves the color cartridges out of the way. However, this mode must be set directly on the printer panel and it slows down the printing speed.

See the link below for one such discussion on the subject:

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=hp...cern.ch&rnum=1

Originally posted by veryniceguy2002:
Huh? What do you mean by that??
You just have to replace the colour cartridge which ran out of toner. You don't have to replace all four cartridges.

[veryniceguy2002]

Originally posted by Lizard7:
The printer has a built-in sensor that forces you to changes the cartridges when it says to (not when they really run out of toner). Apparently this is because they are inline and experience wear when anything is printed. The printer has a "mostly black" mode that moves the color cartridges out of the way. However, this mode must be set directly on the printer panel and it slows down the printing speed.

See the link below for one such discussion on the subject:

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=hp...cern.ch&rnum=1

Ummm... I think the situation they (HP) are talking about is if you use the Colour LaserJet for a lot of B*W printing, and when printing colour, there's little being used (e.g. printing colour email etc).

If you print full colour pages, graphs and photos, you should not run into situations where you need to replace all four cartridges at once. (I thought that HP was mentioning about the drum being wore more quickly than neccessary, which is seperate from the cartridge itself).

[climber]

I have the newest HP Color laser printer. The CLW 3500. It most certainly does NOT require you to change the toner cartridges on low supply warning. If you change the setting you can run the toner until it is empty. You can also replace toner one at a time.

I don't know if you can change the setting on their USB host based printers. I have a color 1500, but it is not hooked up. Any newer network based HP printer can print till the toner is bone dry it that is selected in the setup.

[mbryda]

Interersing about the Samsung drivers. I could find no mention of that on their site.

However, I did find this:
http://www.samsungusa.com/cgi-bin/na...t_results.jsp#

It's a CUPS driver for the CLP-500 that supports the Mac, and by reading the readme, it looks like it does support networked printing.

I checked out the MacIntouch article and was a little surprised. There is no official word from Samsung on their website.

Also, the CLP-500 I bought on the 23rd had no notice in it like the poster stated.

Ah well, I sent Samsung a note to clarify. I'm curious, as I'd buy the CLP-500 again if the driver is mature.

[mbryda]

Originally posted by escher:

I am deliberating between two options: (1) get a black/white Multifunction device, (2) wait for an entry-level color laser with good drivers. A color laser would be really nice. But the sheetfeed scanner and standalone fax capability of e.g. the Brother MFC-8840DN (with duplex, Ethernet, and OS X drivers for all functions!) might be more useful for me than color. I don't know...

What I did was plan to replace my aging (and dying) Epson ActionLaser 1500, and dead Epson 880 with the Samsung CLP-500. Unfortunately, the drivers sucked, so back to Best Buy it went.

I ended up picking up the Canon i560 for less money ($99, you can get @ Costco for $79) to hold me over until a cheap color laser comes to the Mac. Prints beautifuly on laser paper or inkjet paper, and has full Mac support. Also, the cost per page is cheaper than many color lasers (black ink lasts about 500 pages @ $11). And it's fast, too. The only thing it won't do is duplex automatically - must print even, flip stack, print odd. Works out to be a great little printer and a great replacement for the 2 printers.

I can print out manuals and such (already blew through 1 black cartirdge in the week - got ~600 pages) without denting the wallet and it's quite speedy as well.

[Back up 15 and punt]

Originally posted by mbryda:
What I did was plan to replace my aging (and dying) Epson ActionLaser 1500, and dead Epson 880 with the Samsung CLP-500. Unfortunately, the drivers sucked, so back to Best Buy it went.

I ended up picking up the Canon i560 for less money ($99, you can get @ Costco for $79) to hold me over until a cheap color laser comes to the Mac. Prints beautifuly on laser paper or inkjet paper, and has full Mac support. Also, the cost per page is cheaper than many color lasers (black ink lasts about 500 pages @ $11). And it's fast, too. The only thing it won't do is duplex automatically - must print even, flip stack, print odd. Works out to be a great little printer and a great replacement for the 2 printers.

I can print out manuals and such (already blew through 1 black cartirdge in the week - got ~600 pages) without denting the wallet and it's quite speedy as well.

If you would have purchased the i860 you could have bought the duplexer for an additional $80.

[veryniceguy2002]

Originally posted by tooki:
FYI, Samsung just announced the official discontinuation of Mac drivers for its printers.

tooki

tooki, would you mind to post the link where the Samsung driver announcement? Is that applied to CLP-500 or CLP-550 or all Samsung laser printers? Since CLP-550 is PS3, isn't that mean you don't really need a driver (all you need is the PPD file)?

I went to Sydney a few weeks ago, and saw a CLP-500 in action in a computer superstore (yes, I was excited , as I am living in a small city with hardly any computer superstore). I was surprised how easy to change a toner cartridge on a Samsung colour laser printer!

How good is the postscript quality from CLP-550?

[BkueKanoodle]

I have an hp 4600 and it does not require you to change all the toner even when the black is out. You can also disable to toner level sensor and continue to print until pages come out looking weird from lack of the proper toner.

Having said that, printing color quality on my laser is definitely lower then compared to my $200 inkjet, but it more then makes up for it in the volume printed. As an example. I had a full coverage 8 page 4 color print job that I sent to my inkjet after putting in a new toner cartridge. It used HALF the cartridge on that one job. The color laser can print 8000 pages before the toner has to be replaced.

[MikeD]

I think I'm going with the Phaser 6100... Check this out Click Me.

Drivers were posted and here is the description:
English Macintosh OS X driver files for the Xerox Phaser 6100 color printer. This version adds support for Ethernet IP printing, duplex printing, tray selection, color / grayscale, 600dpi / 1200dpi, and other features. This driver is a CUPS based Macintosh driver that supports Mac OS X 10.2.4 and higher.

Oh yeah, because it's probably the exact same printer as the samsung (looks exactly like it), can you say that they are the same? OR does Xerox/tektronix do some stuff to it (ie optimize the software or firmware) on the printer to make it better? I'd like to see that xerox improved on samsungs product.

Anyway, hope this helps,
Mike

Originally posted by escher:
That is exactly my opininion. The Samsung (and its Xerox-branded counterpart, the Phaser 6100) is a fantastic, inexpensive color laser with duplexing and Ethernet. Unfortunately, the OS X drivers are severly lacking. According to Xerox's website, the OS X driver doesn't even support printing over a network. It's USB only! What's the point of buying a networked printer if you can't print over a network with it?

However, if Samsung/Xerox were to fix their OS X drivers for this printer, I would snap one up in a second. Unless danbrew can suggest a similarly priced duplexing color network laser.

Escher

[MikeD]

Here's a Phaser 6100 Review that talks about how the internals are xerox (electronics) so it is different in some aspects than the samsung model. Plus the phaser software is supposedly really good too.

[escher]

Originally posted by MikeD:
I think I'm going with the Phaser 6100... Check this out Click Me.

MikeD: Thank you for resurrecting this forgotten thread and pointing out the new drivers for the Xerox Phaser 6100.

Is there anybody here who owns a Xerox Phaser 6100 and has tested the new driver in real life? If yes, I'm sure we all would love to hear how well the new driver handles duplex, IP printing, etc.

I downloaded the new driver and installed it on my Rev.C 12-inch PowerBook. I will try to take the PB to the Best Buy down the block to test out the OS X drivers in real life at some point in the next week or two.

I also understand there is a $100 rebate on this printer until August 31. Might this indicate a new model is waiting in the wings? If the new drivers work as advertised, this would still be an excellent bargain.

Escher

[escher]

I understand that MikeD just bought a Xerox Phaser 6100 directly from Xerox. I'm sure we are all curious to read his evaluation of the new v1.2 OS X driver for this color laser printer.

MikeD: Have you printed over an Ethernet network via TCP/IP? Do the duplex controls in the driver work well? Are you able to access the built-in web server for administering the printer from your Mac? Finally, does the printer support PostScript? I couldn't find any indication of PS support in the Xerox documentation, so I assume it does not.

Thanks in advance for any feedback on the Xerox driver's performance.

Escher

[MikeD]

Printed over ethernet: Yes and it worked! Via IP Printing. Works over USB but didn't work over USB connected to Airport Express (Rendezvous)

Duplex printing: Works wonderfully!

Web Server - Haven't tried it yet... Do I just try to connect on the web to it's ip?

Postscript: Not sure - how do I find out?

So far, it's definitely meeting my needs! I'm really hyped up about and can print wirelessly from my powerbook to the printer. I'm not at all concerned about the print speeds as it's not that crucial to me.

Mike

[escher]

Thanks for the feedback, MikeD.

Originally posted by MikeD:
Web Server - Haven't tried it yet... Do I just try to connect on the web to it's ip?
Postscript: Not sure - how do I find out?

I'm not sure on either. Does the printer come with some sort of manual (paper or PDF) that might explain these features (or lack thereof)?

One more question: How is the black and white/grayscale printing? In other words, I really just need a B/W laser, because I print mostly text documents. So even if I get a Xerox Phaser 6100, it will print mostly B/W in my household. Also, is it possible/easy to switch back and forth between color and B/W printing in the driver?

Thanks for your answers.

Escher

[power142]

Surely if PostScript wasn't supported natively by the printer, you could just load the PostScript file into Preview and print from there? On the command line, as Panther uses CUPS anyhow, it shouldn't be too difficult to bolt on the appropriate filter.

Just a thought....

[fetopher]

I'm in the market for a color laser are well. According to PC World, the Oki Data Oki C7300n is the best color laser out there. Cheap to maintain, fast, good quality and low cost per page. Does anyone have any experience with this printer specifiaclly, or with this brand?

Link to the PC World review here.

Thanks.

[Back up 15 and punt]

The least expensive color printer to use is the Kyocera FS-C5016N. This is despite the $1800 cost. The cost of toner for this printer is dirt cheap which allow the printer to print a color page at less than 6 cents per page.

[MikeD]

Originally posted by escher:
Thanks for the feedback, MikeD.

I'm not sure on either. Does the printer come with some sort of manual (paper or PDF) that might explain these features (or lack thereof)?

One more question: How is the black and white/grayscale printing? In other words, I really just need a B/W laser, because I print mostly text documents. So even if I get a Xerox Phaser 6100, it will print mostly B/W in my household. Also, is it possible/easy to switch back and forth between color and B/W printing in the driver?

Thanks for your answers.

Escher

Web server works great and switching between b/w and color or duplex and single page is as easy as creating 'profiles' for them!
I really like this printer!
Mike