The Xerox Phaser 6280 series was released in as a replacement for the popular Phaser 6180 with several new improvements.
We have the Phaser 6280DN configuration in house so read our full review today and find out if it could be the perfect printer for your office!
PHASER 6280DN SPECIFICATIONS
- Print speeds: up to 31 ppm in black, 26 ppm in color
- First page out: in 10 seconds
- Print resolution: up to 600 x 600 dpi
- Paper capacity: 400 sheets
- Monthly duty cycle: up to 70,000 pages
- Built-in duplexing
- Memory: 256 MB standard
- Pantone color, Xerox EA-HG toner
- Network ready (Ethernet standard, wireless optional)
- Support for Mac OS X, Windows, Linux
BUILD AND DESIGN
The single function Phaser 6280DN is a standard Xerox laser machine when it comes to build and design. It is fairly compact at 15.7 x 19.3 x 18.6 inches and has a cream colored complexion. I personally like the color much better than just a standard gray; it seems cleaner, less depressing.
The 6280 series has front door access to its toner cartridges for easy replacement. There is also a smaller door that opens the 150-sheet multipurpose tray.
Below both doors, you’ll find the expandable paper tray. The 6280 series comes standard with a 250-sheet paper drawer but for an additional cost customers can add a 550-sheet drawer.
Between both trays, the 6280 series can support several different types of media including copy paper, recycled paper, transparencies, labels, envelopes, card stock, etc. It can print on a wide range of sizes and weights; anywhere from 3×5 inches to 8.5×14 inches in size and up to 40 lb. bond.
All the connection ports are found on the back of the 6280DN. The series is network ready with a 10/100Base-TX Ethernet port as well as a USB 2.0 port for direct connection. There is an optional Wireless network adapter for customers looking to upgrade.
There is a 400 MHz processor with 256 MB memory standard. The memory can be upgraded to 1.2 G, maximum.
For a closer look at the Phaser 6280DN, watch our hands-on video below!
PHASER 6280 PERFORMANCE
Setting up the 6280DN
The Phaser 6280DN pretty much sets itself up, which is nice for smaller offices/businesses that be without a designated IT guy/gal. There is a brief installation guide that comes with the Phaser along with an installation video on the driver CD for users who are clueless about setting up printers.
Most users will probably be able to set up the 6280DN without watching the video; simply, prepare the toner cartridges (they are already in the printer but you will need to take some packaging off of them), load the paper tray, connect printer to network router or directly to a computer and then turn the machine on. The 6280 will automatically be given an IP address, join the network and will print a configuration page.
After the printer is up and running, any potential user will need to download the drivers for the 6280DN on their respective computer. Drivers are included on the CD or users can access and download drivers through the CentreWare IS page or the Xerox website.
Users will need to decide between the Adobe PostScript 3 or PCL 6/5e emulations drivers. The PostScript 3 driver is recommended but the PCL driver will give users access to features such as: banner printing, covers/separators, poster printing, and watermarks.
Ease of use
The Phaser 6280DN is as easy to use as it is to set up thanks to the intuitive CentreWare IS and the Xerox Printing Scout.
Through the CentreWare IS, users can view printer status and the job queue, check toner and paper levels, manage settings, and access support.
Printing Scout is a separate pop-up feature that works with all three OS drivers. This feature gives users real time information about their print job including when it’s finished.
The screen on the printer is relatively small so it can be hard to read the menu options but the Phaser 6280DN can print out a color menu map for easier navigation of the printer menu.
The Phaser 6280DN also has standard duplexing – users can click on properties before printing and choose to print on the short edge or long edge.
Print quality
The Phaser 6280DN has excellent print quality when it comes to black text as most laser printers do. The text is crisp and dark, making the documents easy to read in almost any font/size. The color quality was also excellent thanks to the PANTONE color table that comes standard with the 6280 series. I printed several PowerPoint slideshows done in various templates and I was impressed with the color contrast even with black backgrounds and just the array of different colors.
Like most laser printers, you’ll find that the Phaser 6280DN can’t give users the photo quality images that an inkjet can but it came so close, I was impressed. With the great color prints, this machine would be really useful for printing brochures and other color handouts.
Print tests
I found the 6280DN to be extremely quick when it came to the first page out; on average the first page was out in 9 seconds, one second faster than Xerox’s advertised speed of 10 seconds.
When printing in color, the Phaser 6280DN slows down a bit overall, but the first page was still out in about 9 seconds when printing documents that are a mix of text and color. When printing in full color pages, the first page out time slows down quite a bit.
For a document with a mixture of black text and color charts, the 6280DN printed about 24 ppm. As with the first page out times, the speed slows down considerably when printing full color 8.5 x 11 inch pages such as PowerPoint slideshows, banner or poster printing.
When I timed the duplexing feature, I found that flipping on the short edge vs. the long edge was a tad bit faster (I’m talking about seconds here). Overall, I found that the 6280DN could print 9 pages a minute – 18 images, back and front – when in duplex mode.
The Phaser 6280DN pulsated between watts when warming up and printing. It would use anywhere from 850W to 550W during the less than 30 seconds warm up. It spiked around 720W when printing but would jump down to 76W towards the end of the job. When in ready mode, the 6280DN uses about 16W. In sleep mode, it uses about 3W.
PROS
- Fast, quality prints
- Relatively small footprint
- Compatible with three Operating Systems
CONS
- Small display on printer
CONCLUSION
In today’s world, where multifunction printers seem to be all the rage, I really liked the Phaser 6280DN single function printer because it did everything Xerox advertised it would. To me, that’s important because often I find that print speeds are inflated or print quality leaves something to be desired.
For any small business that needs to print in color and quickly, the 6280DN is definitely an excellent option. It can help an office take their printing to the next level with an array of business centric printing options and upgradable paper trays, memory and hard drive.
PRICING AND AVAILABILITY
The Xerox Phaser 6280DN is available now for the suggested retail price of $599 through Xerox’s websiteor licensed retailer.
Not interested in built-in duplexing? Get the base model – the Phaser 6280N– for $499.
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