Xerox Phaser 6200 color laser Printer Review

The Xerox Phaser 6200DN is a pricey but high quality color laser printer offering high resolution and 16 pages per minute in black & white and color for around $2000.

The printer uses a single pass imaging unit and can print 5 full color graphics pages per minute. Its not the quietest color printer in its class and it does produce some heat so be sure to keep your printer well ventilated.

The Xerox 6200B vs the 6200N : Read the 1200 DPI Fine Print!

Color laser printer pricing can be pretty strange sometimes and the Xerox 6200 family is no exception. Normally we'd steer clear of color laser printers with expensive onboard network cards and look to supplement the cheaper no network model with a third party ethernet or wireless print server but the Xerox 6200 family is an exception.

Xerox price the 6200B at $2000, and the 6200N at $2000 after a $300 rebate. The 6200DP is a bit pricier at $2200 but offers a duplexing / double sided page printing option.

Lets examine the differences between the identically priced Xerox Phaser 6200B and the 6200N...

Xerox 6200B Basic Color Laserjet - Specifications

• Cost : $2000
• Memory : 64MB Print Buffer
• Resolution : 600*600 DPI
• Network Card : None

Xerox 6200N Network Color Laserjet : Specifications

• Cost : $2000
• Memory : 128MB Print Buffer
• Resolution : 2400*600 DPI
• Network Card : 10/100MB Ethernet Network Card

Give the 6200B a break Xerox and knock at least $300 off the price it might have a chance of competing against the Minolta and Lexmark color lasers. And when you drop the price please don't use...

Color Laser Printer Rebates

The Xerox 6200N is yet another printer subject to a rebate offer. Color-Laser-Printer-Reviews.com are sick and tired of all this 'rebate' nonsense you put up with and the months that we have to wait to receive them.

Some manufacturers should add interest to the rebate payment they take so long!

Drop the printer rebates and just drop the price instead. Transparent pricing with one payment is easer for everyone. With that rant out of the way lets get back to the printer review and look at the Xerox 6200N's specifications :

Xerox Phaser 6200N Specifications

• Cost : $2000 including $300 printer rebate
• Black & White : 16 PPM / 2400*600 DPI
• Color : 16PPM / 2400*600 DPI - 5PPM A4 Color Photo Printing
• First Page Out Time : 15 seconds
• Media Capacity : 500 + 100 MP Tray. Optional 1000 Sheet High Capacity paper sheet feeder
• Monthly Volume : 60,000 pages
• Size : 17.5" x 17.3" x 23.2"
• Ports : 1 x Parallel Printer Port, 1 x USB Printer Port, 1 x RJ-45 network Port
• Operating Systems : Windows 95/98/Me/NT 4/2000/XP, MacOS 8/9/X 10.1, NetWare 3-6.x UNIX (Linux 5.2+, Sun OS 4.x Sun Solaris 2.4+, DEC, HP/UX 11.x, IBM AIX 4.2+, SGI, SCO)

Good Macintosh and Linux Support

Xerox have always produced laser printers for a broad market using a variety of different operating systems. Apple Macintosh, Linux and Unix users aren't let down by the Xerox 6200 Color Laser Printing Family with solid support and service.

Expensive Laser Toner Cartridge Replacements and RAM

The Xerox 6200 range has a lot of upgrades - The full configuration is : 1600 Sheets of input, Automatic Two-Sided Printing, a 10+ GB Hard Drive, & 512 MB of RAM offering you lots of flexibility in the future. The flexible printer upgrades come at a hefty price however. At $2000 the 6200N is a good buy if you're not interested in the cheaper minolta or lexmark color laser printer. If you want to spend $2500-$3000 on a color laser look elsewhere rather than buying a 6200 with a few optional extras. If you want to print double sided you'll need to get the Xerox Phaser 6200DP Color Laser jet Printer. For an extra $200 you get the duplexing unit and a 1200 x 1200 dpi Photo Mode the 6200N sorely misses.

Replacement Imaging Units, Rollers and Fusers are also pricier than other Color Laser Printer Manufacturers :

• Xerox Phaser 6200 Imaging Unit : 30,000 Pages $270
• Xerox Phaser 6200 Transfer Roller : 15,000 Pages $40
• Xerox Phaser 6200 110V Fuser : 60,000 Pages $200

The Cost Of Xerox Color Laser Printer Memory is worthy of a mention but brace yourself. If you're thinking that the 128MB the 6200N ships with is a little light and you want to double it think again. 128 MB Phaser Memory (1 X 128MB) costs $919.00 from the Xerox website!

Easy Printer Install

The installation is as automatic as Xerox claim - almost rivalling Hewlett Packard for simplicity and ease of use. The installation instructions are precise and the online support is excellent. CentreWare Web, Xerox's network print management tool is on par with HP's WebJetadmin. Xerox have a reputation for responsiveness and frequent driver updates so be sure to check some of the printer support and resource links at the end of this review.

Good Quality Color Laser Printing

The text quality of the 6200N is fantastic and the color reproduction is superb. Color gradients are reproduced beautifully and there are no jagged lines, bands or breaks in color. The 2400*600 DPI is better than most 1200 DPI printers.

Xerox 6200N Color Laser Printer Review Conclusion

The Xerox lags behind its competition in two areas, price and speed. You have to forgive the speed as the quality of the printed output is so high but the price is hard to ignore. The outstanding quality of the text, graphics and color photo printing might persuade you otherwise if you're not on a tight budget.

Home Users are advised to look at the comparable Minolta, Lexmark, Brother and Panasonic printers first. This is a workgroup volume color laser and you pay accordingly with higher cartridge and laser supply costs on top of the hefty price tag.

A small business with some money to spend looking for a workgroup level color laser should look no further. If you need a workhorse color laser printer with excellent quality, unquestionable reliability backed by great support and ease of installation then the Xerox 6200N is the right printer for you.

Xerox Phaser 6200 Color Laser Printer Links

• Xerox Main Site : Xerox have been making reliable printers for years.
• Xerox Phaser Printer Rebates : Cash and Consumable Rebates on offer for Xerox Color Laser and Solid Ink Printers
• Xerox Phaser 6200 Color Laser Printer product homepage : Xerox 6200 Phaser Product Informatin, Full manufacturers specifications, Xerox fuser, toner and printer cartridges.
• Xerox Infosmart Laser Printer Knowledge Base : Xerox Laser Printer information, manuals, supplies, troubleshooting and error information.