Xerox offers up new office laser, color printers

Xerox Corp. on Tuesday took off the wraps on three new laser and color printers aimed at Mac and PC users in office environments: The Phaser 4500 Laser Printer, the Phaser 8400 Color Printer and the Phaser 7750 Color Laser Printer.

All three printers are certified to work with Rendezvous, Apple’s term for zero-configuration networking technology, and work with Mac OS X v10.2 and 10.3. None of the machines support wireless connectivity straight from the factory, but Xerox noted that they’ll work with third-party Ethernet to wireless network adapters.

The Phaser 4500 is the only monochrome printer of the bunch. Xerox Director of Product Marketing Jack Fanning told MacCentral that the new 4500 model is the fastest machine in its class, both in terms of output and page out time. At $979 for the base model, it can output up to 36 pages per minute at true 1200 dots per inch (DPI) resolution. It also outputs its first page in 8 seconds when warming up, and can handle edge-to-edge printing. The 4500 also features Adobe PostScript 3 support.

The Phaser 4500 features 64MB of RAM in its base configuration, along with a 400MHz processor. It can handle up to 700 sheets of paper through two built-in slide-out paper trays — 150 in one, 550 in the other — and comes with a one-year on site warranty. If you’re familiar with the 4400 model the 4500 replaces, one handy new feature is the “fuel gauge” through its control panel that allows you to view remaining cartridge life — each toner cartridge is good for about 18,000 pages, according to Fanning.

For $979, you get a desktop machine with parallel and USB interfaces. Although the 4500/B model can be upgraded with a network interface, Xerox also offers other 4500 models with integrated 10/100baseTX starting at $1,199.

Xerox also introduced the Phaser 8400 Color Printer, a new solid ink printer that provides 2400 dpi-equivalent output starting at $999.

The printer is actually capable of 600×600 dpi physical output, but it features Xerox’s 2400 FinePoint technology. The net result, said Fanning, is output that’s almost as good without the serious performance penalty true 2400 dpi output would impose.

The Phaser 8400 is also equipped with Adobe PostScript 3 support and is capable of printing out on various media like card stock, envelopes and transparencies. It can print on custom pages sizes ranging from 3.5 x 5 inches to 8.5 x 14 inches.

Like the 4500, the Phaser 8400 is available in a variety of configurations ranging from a desktop model equipped with USB 2.0 and parallel interfaces to networked versions starting at $1,299.

Although the Phaser 8400 is primarily designed for office environments where people have a need to output presentations, marketing and general business output, Fanning said that about 20 to 25 percent of Xerox’s total customer base for this type of product are also graphic designers. He attributes this high percentage to Xerox’s historical strength in the design and publishing space, plus the printer’s speed and ease of use.

“There simply is no other device out there in this class that’s easier to use than the 8400,” said Fanning.

The Phaser 7750 Color Laser Printer rounds out Xerox’s new offerings. “It’s a true graphic arts powerhouse,” said Fanning.

The Phaser 7750 features 35 page per minute output — 46 percent faster than the HP 9500, according to Xerox, which claims the Phaser 7750 is the world’s fastest desktop color laser printer. Powered by a 715MHz PowerPC G4 processor, the Phaser 7750 can output 1200 x 1200 dpi resolution.

The printer includes color-matching and color-calibration software to help guarantee that what you see on the screen and what you’ll see on your offset press is what the Phaser 7750 gives you. It can also manage two-sided printing, separation pages, job offset, multiple job pipelining and other capabilities.

Phaser 7750 Color Laser Printer models start at $5,599; Fanning expects the 7750/GX model, which adds twice the RAM (512MB), a 20GB hard drive, 1,500 sheet lower tray deck and other capabilities, to be particularly appealing to Mac shops looking for high-quality color output. It runs $7,899.