Kyocera 2160 - page 52

The Color Laser Printer Guide: Vendor & Product Profiles

models are rated at 30ppm. Numbers don’t tell the com-

plete story here — 24ppm or 30ppm are achieved in the

“fast color” mode, which is 225 x 400dpi. The default

mode is “enhanced” mode, which is 1,200dpi interpolat-

ed. On the 8500 printers, that runs at 12ppm, half the

speed of fast mode. On the 8550 models, enhanced mode

runs at 16ppm.

In addition, the Phaser 8550 models have two other

modes. The “standard” mode prints at 300 x 450dpi at a

speed of 24ppm. The “photo mode” has an interpolated

resolution of 2,400dpi and prints at 10ppm.

You select a printing mode (other than the default) as an

option in the print dialog box. Because solid ink technol-

ogy is so different from toner, it is hard to make exact

comparisons between these resolutions and those of

other color printers in this guide. To our eyes, the

enhanced mode is also quite acceptable for all office work

and the faster speeds are totally acceptable for drafts,

memos, and most other internal documents.

The standard resolution sounds low compared with the

1,200dpi claimed by some rivals,but we find that the res-

olution is totally acceptable, even in standard mode.This

high quality at seemingly low resolution may be due to

the difference between laser and solid ink, so that direct

comparisons of resolution aren’t possible.

In any case, while photo-quality printing is not very

fast, it runs circles around the real-life photo printing

speeds on most regular (liquid) ink jet printers.

These models come with powerful 600MHz processors,

ensuring that theywill handle images fast enough to keep

the engine cranking out pages. Indeed, this printer series

is very respectable for everyday black-and-white office

printing as well.

The Phaser 8500/8550 printers are also very easy to

use.For example, when you have to change consumables,

you need only open the top cover of the machine and

slide in blocks of ink that look and feel likedisk-shaped

crayons. A Phaser printer melts those “crayons” and

sprays the melted extract onto the paper.

You can’t even make a mistake, as each of the four col-

ors has a unique shape that only fits in the appropriate

slot. Replacing supplies on color printers can be a daunt-

ing task, but not on these models.

Per-page prices fall in the midrange,though a small dif-

ference in the capacity of the maintenance kit makes for

anotable difference between the 8500 and the 8550 mod-

els. For the 8500, an average page costs 11.3¢ in color,

whichis aboveaverage, and 2.5¢ for black-and-white,

whichis a little high for similar color printers. For the

8550, prices are much more competitive: 10.8¢ for color,

1.95¢ for black-and-white.

Versions: There are two 24ppm Phaser 8500 models

and three 30ppm Phaser 8550 models. All of them come

with both USB and Ethernet ports. They are:

lThe Phaser 8500N (street price $899), which comes

with 128MB of memory, upgradeable to 512MB.

lThe Phaser 8500DN (street price $1,099), which adds

duplexing.

lThe Phaser 8550DP (at $1,299), a faster model that

has 256MB of memory upgradeable to 1GB. It also

offers an optional 20GB hard disk.

lThe Phaser 8550DT (at $1,599), which comes with a

second 525-sheet paper tray standard.

lThe Phaser 8550DX (at $2,399), with 512MB of

memory upgradeable to 1GB, a standard 20GB hard

disk, and a third standard 525-sheet input tray.

Eachmodel starts with at least a 100-sheet bypass and

a525-sheet standard paper tray. A second and a third

525-sheet paper tray are available (optional on the lower-

end models). The maximum input capacity for the mod-

els is 1,675 sheets. The bypass can handle up to 110lb.

card stock, quite unusual in this price range. Output

capacity is based on a simple 300-sheet tray.

PostScript and PCL arestandardfeatures. USB and par-

allel connectivity are standard as well.

When it comes to pricing, the Phaser 8500/8550 series

is very competitivewith its laser and LED counter parts at

the low end of the midrange level of the market. But the

XeroxPhaser 8500

Consumables costs at-a-glance

Price

Yield

Full-color cost per page

Black-and-whitecost per page

Black toner $88.99 6,000 $ 0.015 $ 0.015

Cyan toner $88.99 3,000 $ 0.030 N/A

Magenta toner $88.99 3,000 $ 0.030 N/A

Yellow toner $88.99 3,000 $ 0.030 N/A

Maintenance kit $149.99 30,000 $ 0.005 $ 0.005

TOTAL PER-PAGE COSTS

$0.1088 $ 0.0198

10.88 1.98