Xerox Phaser 6180/N Review

The Xerox Phaser 6180/N bears striking resemblance to Dell laser printer (3110cn). Their designs are almost similar and so are their paper paths. Basically they are almost the same, but the Xerox printer is superior when it comes to documentation and support. And this is why you just might prefer Xerox's 6180/N over the 3110cn.The printer has a manual tray which can hold up to 150 sheets of paper. For reaching this tray, you need to fold down the huge panel in front of the printer. The base has a drawer, which can accommodate around 250 papers. The manual tray draws papers from the main paper drawer in front. You can put up to 15 mm high envelopes in the tray.There is also an option for increasing the printer's paper holding capacity. You can add an extra 550 sheet drawer for just $399. The Dell prices are on the lower side for the same ($299). You can also get double printing on your printer by getting a duplexer for $199. The duplexer for Dell's also cost the same.The Xerox 6180/N is compatible for PostScript as well as PCL printing. The PostScript driver was used to test the speed of the printer. Text was printed at a speed of 23.7 pages/ minute (Dell has a rate of 25.3 pages per/minute). For color images, the rate was 1.9 pages/ minute on plain paper. For pictures on shiny presentation paper, the printing rate was 0.6 pages/ minute. On the whole, the printing speed was quite good.The printing quality is good, but not as good or clear as Dell's. The text has sharp outline and is pretty neat in appearance. It's slate gray in appearance and has a shiny sheen around it. Some people like this glossy sheen of the ink but for others it's quite a put off. The grayscale samples do not come out very clear. The contrast is poor and shadows are not defined properly. The edges of the color images are sometimes over sharpened. The pictures printed on the glossy paper do not look great. They have a washed out appearance. The finer details are not seen clearly. If heavy grayscale work will be needed, this printer will not be able to do that job as it will do it well and free of problems.The control panel has a LCD display where you can preview the pictures. The printer has toner cartridges which are stacked one above another. They are visible when you fold down the front of the printer. When you buy the 6180/N, you get toner cartridges sufficient for printing 2000 color pages and 3000 black pages. You can get replacement cartridges easily. For an 8000 page, black cartridge you need to pay $190 and you can get three color cartridges for $196 each. These replacement Xerox cartridges are priced more than Dell's cartridges. You get one year warranty with the 6180/N and thus if you encounter and problem with the transfer unit, feed roller or fuser within this period, you can get it replaced. However, the price is still reasonable as some of these extra's can cost up to the thousands, depending on the printing company.During the warranty period, each black and white page costs you 2.4 cents and each color page 12.2 cents. These numbers are actually higher than the Dell's 3110cn.The side of the printer has a plastic pouch, which contains the quick use guide. You can refer to this guide whenever you face any problem with your printer. As with other Xerox machine, this one too has excellent documentation. The 6180/N is quite an effective printer for small offices where usually texts are produced. However Dell's 3110cn is a better option because its maintenance cost is low. The extra sheet drawer for Dell is also cheaply priced as compared to Xerox. Dell's 3110cn definitely has an edge over the 6180/N.
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