Targeted at small- and medium-sized offices, Xerox’s hefty Phaser 6115MFP/N offers a variety of features conducive to an efficient work environment. It’s a fast, Bonjour-capable, all-in-one color laser printer that can also scan, fax, and copy. This model would be a solid all-around performer if it weren’t for its quirky built-in scanner, which produced erratic results during our testing.
Weighing 73 pounds, the 6115MFP/N requires at least two people to unpack it safely. After placing the MFP in your chosen location, you shouldn’t be confused when setting up the printer: illustrative stickers, instruction manuals, and a setup video included on the software CD ensure a smooth setup process. Installing the MFP’s software is a quick, straightforward process as Xerox’s software CD includes the MFP’s drivers and a user guide.
To take full advantage of the 6115MFP/N’s capabilities, Xerox recommends using the USB and Ethernet connections concurrently. That way, in addition to printing, faxing, and copying, you won’t need to keep yanking out and switching between cords to use the scan-to-application (USB) or scan-to-e-mail (Ethernet) functions.
The 6115MFP/N’s scanning function has minimal customization options. When loading the scanning utility, you can customize the scan type (black-and-white, black-and-white photo, gray scale, color), the resolution (up to 600-by-600 dpi), and the height and width measurements of the document you’re scanning. There is also a slide adjustment for controlling the brightness of the scans. However, in our testing, color-photo scans came out very dark—a flaw that Xerox confirmed to be a bug in its provided software. Using Xerox’s scan utility to adjust brightness slightly addresses this problem, but doing so compromises the image’s quality. To rectify this problem, we recommend using an image-editing application such as Adobe Photoshop to adjust brightness levels after you scan the image. Scanning a gray-scale text document or a non-photographic color document, on the other hand, worked just fine.
The 6115MFP/N offers an interesting scan-to-e-mail function. If you load a document in the automatic feeder or place something on the scanner glass and press the Scan button, you can use the MFP’s keypad to punch in an e-mail address, select customization settings, and choose Select. The MFP automatically formats the document into an image file and sends it to your recipient through your e-mail server. Some may enjoy this feature, but I prefer the scan-to-e-mail method found on most MFPs, which involves scanning a document and importing it to your computer’s e-mail client. This way, you can type recipient addresses as well as messages.
The 6115MFP/N’s quick performance spells less downtime in a busy office. The machine works fastest via its USB 2.0 connection. In our testing, it took only 14 seconds to print a single-page Word document and 43 seconds to print a ten-page document. The MFP didn’t lag when printing our 22MB Photoshop test image with best-quality settings—it took only 53 seconds. Scanning an 8-by-10-inch photo at 600 dpi took 1 minute and 40 seconds.
The 6115MFP/N’s color-print quality is decent: the colors are accurate. However, when carefully examining a color document or photo, we found the overall composition to be slightly grainy. Our Macworld jury gave the 6115MFP/N’s color printing a Good rating. But its strength lies in printing text, in which it earned a Very Good rating from our panel: characters come out crisp and clear, without looking too sharp. This MFP’s copier is fast and convenient, but its slightly grainy color-document output earned this feature only a Good rating. And because of its dark scanning output, this MFP’s scanner received only a Fair rating from our jury.
Timed Trials: Print
| 10-page Word test | 0:43 |
|---|---|
| 1-page Word test | 0:14 |
| 22MB Photoshop image | 0:53 |
| 4-page PDF | 1:28 |
Scale = Minutes: Seconds
timed trials: scan
| 8-by-10-inch photo, 600 dpi scan | 1:40 |
|---|---|
| 4-by-6-inch photo, 1,200dpi scan | 1:07 |
Scale = Minutes: Seconds
jury tests: print
| Graphics: fine lines and gradients | Fair |
|---|---|
| 22MB Photoshop image quality | Good |
| Text quality | Very Good |
Scale = Superior, Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor
jury tests: scan/copy
| Color | Fair |
|---|---|
| Clarity | Good |
| Copy | Good |
Scale = Superior, Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor
How We Tested: We ran all tests with the multifunction printer connected via USB 2.0 and Ethernet to a 2.66GHz Mac Pro with Mac OS X 10.4.8 installed and 1GB of RAM. We recorded the time it took the MFP to print a one-page Word document and a 10-page Word document, as well as the time it took to print a 22MB Photoshop image and a four-page PDF. We then recorded the time it took to scan an 8-by-10-inch photo at 600 dpi, as well as the time it took to scan a 4-by-6-inch photo at 600 dpi. A panel of experts examined sample output of the MFP to evaluate its print, scan, and copy quality as either Superior, Very Good, Good, Fair or Poor in comparison to the output of past MFPs we’ve tested.—Macworld Lab Testing by Brian Chen
Specifications
| Print resolution | 2,400 x 600 dpi |
|---|---|
| Scan resolution: optical | 600 x 600 dpi |
| Connection | 10/100Base-TX Ethernet, USB 2.0 |
| Paper sizes (in inches) | 5.5 x 5.8 to 8.5 x 14 |
| Cost to replace ink/toner cartridges | $580 per 4,500 pages ($100 for high-capacity black, $160 each for high-capacity cyan, magenta, and yellow); $210 per 1,500 pages ($70 each for cyan, magenta, and yellow) |
| Weight (in pounds) | 73 |
| Dimensions (height x depth x width, in inches) | 20.9 x 22.7 x 20.8 |
| Paper capacity | 100 sheets; optional 500-sheet tray |
| Special features | Automatic document feeder, watermarks, poster printing, 2-in-1 copying, Pantone color-approved solid-color simulations |
Macworld’s buying advice
The decent quality of the Phaser 6115MFP/N’s color-print, copy, and text-document output makes this machine a welcome addition to the multifunction market. However, this MFP’s weak scanning capability may drive you toward the Epson AcuLaser CX11NF ( ), which has all the bases covered at the same $800 price tag.
[ Brian Chen is Macworld ’s assistant editor. ]
Xerox Phaser 6115MFP/N