The latest in Xerox line of solid ink printers is the Phaser 8560. Now you may ask, “What’s a solid ink printer”? Well the technology has been around for about two decades, but most people haven’t heard of it because it’s unique to Xerox. A solid ink printer starts with a solid block of ink, which it then melts and sprays on to a drum, that it then rolls on the paper to produce the image at a maximum of 2,400dpi. Xerox has designed them to go head to head with color laser printers in speed and output quality. The target consumer for this machine would be medium to large businesses, as keeping the ink melted takes a considerable amount of power, requiring the printer to be left on all the time. Overall print quality is superb, with very dark blacks, and even miniscule 4-point text on a grey background is clearly legible. Image quality matched or exceeded that of a high-end laser, producing glossy, crisp finished product.
There will be a few minutes of waiting first thing in the morning, while the printer heats up and melts the ink. However, once the ink is melted the Phaser 8560 produces the first image in about 3 seconds, compared to laser printers 30 seconds it has to spend heating up its fuser. The Phaser 8560 can finish a small job before the laser printer has spit out the first page. It easily meets its rated print speed of 17 pages per minute (ppm) in enhanced mode, and 33ppm in fast color mode. This efficient speed is largely due to the fact that the Phaser 8560 prints in a single pass compared to the four passes most laser printers require.
One thing the Xerox Phaser 8560 shares with other laser printers is its size. This is a big heavy machine, weighing in at 93 pounds and dimensions of 24.4 by 20.9 by 26.2 inches. Once you find a spot for it however, the convenience of the solid ink technology will take you the rest of the way to operation with its fully automated installation routine, and adding new ink blocks is a dream compared to dealing with tonner. Paper handling is also well suited for office use with a 625-sheet paper capacity and 1,675-sheet maximum with the addition of two 525-sheet drawers added, which run $200 each. Combining easy ink reloads and eliminating constant paper replacement saves a lot of office headaches.
If you looking for a highly attractive, all in one office printing device, with high volume and high quality color printing the Xerox Phaser 8560 offers an impressive alternative to laser printers.