Dan Littman

Xerox Phaser 6200N

Like its near-twin, the Brother HL-4000CN, Xerox's Phaser 6200N uses a single-pass design to lay down all colors on a page in a single pass, rather than requiring four passes. It delivers perfect black text at a reasonably fast 10.5 pages per minute, and it prints graphics briskly, at 4.3 ppm--that's substantially faster than the average color laser's speed, though a couple of high-end competitors are even faster. Before turning on the Phaser 6200N, we couldn't see any order or pattern to the control panel's buttons; but when the unit is running, its oversize, backlit LCD provides clear prompts for every situation. The printer also includes a hefty stack of help files in its permanent memory: When you need advice on calibrating colors, fixing print quality problems, or preparing the 6200N for shipping, you can print out guidelines right from the control panel. Xerox charges only $600 (compared with Brother's $1050) for its optional 1000-sheet, two-tray paper feeder.
Though the 6200N prints graphics quickly, they don't look as good as we'd like. Gray-scale images have a patchy texture that obscures detail, and color images appear dark with slightly off colors. Xerox charges $2399 for essentially the same printer that Minolta sells for $400 less (the Magicolor 3100 DN) and Brother for $50 less; and unlike those two, the Xerox lacks an automatic duplexer. For a version that prints on both sides of the page, you'll have to get the Phaser 6200DP-at $2499, it costs little more than the 6200N. (Xerox also offers a decked-out model--the Phaser 6200DX--with a duplexer, 256MB of memory, and an internal hard drive for $3899.)
The company provides software with the Phaser 6200N that lets you set up accounting codes and track how much different departments print, along with a simple network management protocol utility for monitoring all the printers on your network. Xerox's printed documentation is a confusing mass of illustrations and notes repeated in a dozen languages. We were happier with the thorough on-screen documentation, though it consists of many small files that you can't search all in one swoop.
Busy offices that don't need stellar graphics quality might like the quick performance of the Phaser 6200N, but it's light on features, and its toner prices are high.

Buying Information

Xerox Phaser 6200N Rated 16-ppm monochrome/16-ppm color laser, 128MB RAM standard, 1200-by-1200-dpi maximum resolution, 600 sheets input, 250 output. $ 2399 Rated 16-ppm monochrome/16-ppm color laser, 128MB RAM standard, 1200-by-1200-dpi maximum resolution, 600 sheets input, 250 output. http://www.xerox.com 877/362-6567