Samsung SF-560R MFP

By Databazaar Blog

The Samsung SF-560R monochrome MFP is a high-speed laser copier and fax machine that is built for office spaces that are not very large but require the same amount of productivity as large organizations. It is one of those MFPs that are low-volume, high on output but come at a very affordable rate.

The MFP’s 33.6 Kbps fax modem has a transmission speed of 3 seconds. It copies at speeds of up to 17 cpm and with a resolution of 300 x 300 dpi. The MFP supports several document sizes and its paper handling capacity is made easy with a 20-page automatic document feeder (ADF) and a single sheet multipurpose tray. For ease of use, the MFP has a 16-character, two-line LCD display and 80 speed dial locations.

Extremely dependable, it provides many years of service but is not high on maintenance.

Summary

The Samsung SF-560R MFP has good copying and faxing speeds, and an 80-location speed dial.

Price: $277.32

Manufacturer

Samsung

Supplies

Cartridge (Black); up to 3000.0 pages

Specs that matter

Notable Features: Copies at speeds up to 17 cpm with 300 x 300 dpi resolution; Three-second transmission speed and 33.6 kbps fax modem; 20-page automatic document feeder; Works fast with 80 speed dial locations; 16-character, 2-line LCD display
Printer Resolution: 300 x 300 dpi
Paper Handling Capacity: 20-sheet ADF; Standard media capacity – 250.0 sheets; Max media size: A4 (8.25 in x 11.7 in); Input tray – 150.0 sheets; Output tray – 20.0 sheets
Paper Compatibility: Plain paper
Width: 14.3 inches
Depth: 15.7 inches
Height: 12.1 inches
Weight: 21.4 lbs
original article

Samsung SCX 3405FW MFP

By Edward J. Correia

The Samsung SCX 3405FW is a bare-bones monochrome laser multifunction printer that’s intended for a small office or department. This sturdy unit combines a high-resolution one-sided color scanner and copier, plus faxing capabilities (hence the “F” in the model number) accessible over a LAN or Wi-Fi (hence the “W”). With the exception of cable connections, all functions are performed from the front, including paper replenishment and toner service. A 700-sheet starter cartridge is included; its normal toner is rated to deliver about 1,500 pages in standard mode. There’s also an Eco mode.

For paper handling, Samsung substitutes a paper cassette for a 150-sheet front-loading paper tray, which no doubt helped rein in its relatively large 15-by-11-inch footprint. The main feeder can hold paper or as many as 10 envelopes. The output tray holds 100 sheets; there is no two-sided option. The 3405 is rated to deliver up to 10,000 pages per month. It draws 310 watts when operational, 30 watts in standby mode and 1.2 watts when sleeping. It weighs just shy of 15 pounds.

The 3405 requires about 20 inches of height clearance to access its flatbed scanner, a TWAIN-compatible color device with a native resolution of 600 x 600 dpi, and maximum resolution of 4,800 x 4,800 dpi with interpolation. Features include a 40-page auto-feeder and scan-to-PC function. Standard interfaces are USB, Ethernet and Wi-Fi; there are no ports for printing from or storing to USB drives or data cards, but Wi-Fi Direct connection support permits mobile devices to print using Apple (NSDQ:AAPL) AirPrint, Google(NSDQ:GOOG) Cloud Print or Samsung’s own Mobile Print forAndroid and iOS devices.

The Samsung SCX 3405FW lived up to its rated output speed of 21 pages per minute, but getting there was not without a few bumps. First, the performance numbers. The unit printed black-only text pages and those with integrated graphics at virtually the same pace. After a period of 31 seconds until the first page came out, the 3405 finished printing 21 pages in a total of 1:29.

Setting up the printer was a bit more difficult than most. The wireless setup utility requires a USB cable; it can’t send settings to the printer wirelessly, nor could it see the printer after it had an IP address. Configuring the printer for Wi-Fi using its control panel wasn’t a much better option. It obtained an IP address on its own, but entering the passcode using the numerical keypad was clumsy. Absent a software disc, testers went to the 3405’s download page, where manuals, software and drivers for Linux, Mac OS X and Windows can be found as separate downloads. For testing, separate downloads were required for the scanner, fax, “wireless” setup (through USB), printer management and the printer’s own driver.

Uncharacteristic of Samsung, which usually produces excellent software, the management component for the 3405 was practically unusable, as was the interface for its two-line LCD control panel. When installing the driver, the installer package quit all running apps without so much as a prompt, an absolute UI no-no in our book

In all, the Samsung SCX 3405FW performed well enough, but took longer and was more involved to set up than service resellers would probably like. But for $199, this entry-level laser MFP performed up to spec and turned out good quality printouts.

original article

HP LaserJet Pro 400 MFP

By Edward J. Correia

Well-built software and the intuitive interface of its touch-sensitive control panel is icing on the cake for Hewlet-Packard’s LaserJet Pro 400 MFP M425dn, a monochromatic multifunction printer for the small-to-medium sized office or department. For $499 list, the unit delivers a capable, two-sided PCL/PostScript laser printer with high-resolution black-and-white copier, color scanner and fax that’s easy to install, set up and use locally or over a network.

An imposing figure, HP’s 400-series MFP stands 17 inches tall, but needs almost 10 inches more than that for accessing its scanner and copier bed. Its squarish footprint occupies about 14 by 16 inches, and all everyday functions are accessible from the front. These include access to its 250-sheet paper cassette (with low-paper indicator gauge) and toner service, which takes place through a large tilt-down door that also helps facilitate the clearing of paper jams.

Also in front is a USB 2.0 port for walk-up printing of JPG and PDF formats and for saving scanned images to JPG, PDF, RTF, TXT, BMP, PNG and TIFF formats. Scanned images also can be shipped off to a server, email recipient or the cloud. The scanner’s hardware maxes out at 1,200-x-1,200 dpi when using the flatbed, and can handle up to 8.5-by-11.7-inch originals. Maximum resolution when using the auto-document feeder is 300-x-300 dpi, and it’s rated at 20 pages per minute for letter-sized, black-and-white and 9 ppm for color.

HP LaserJet 400 Pro MFP M425dn

Though the M425dn has a rated duty cycle of 50,000 pages a month, HP recommends a page volume between 750 and 3,000 pages, placing it squarely in the small-office category. The black-and-white-only copier supports 600-x-600 dpi and is rated to crank out copies as quickly as the printer can print — that’s at 35 ppm. Like most copiers, originals are placed in the top-loading (50-sheet) feeder, which wakes the M425dn from power-save mode. Two button presses and 10 seconds later, a perfect duplicate (rotated 90 degrees) is dumped into the 150-sheet output bin. A multipurpose tray can hold 50 sheets or 10 envelopes, bringing the unit’s standard capacity to 300 sheets; a 500-sheet third tray is a $125 option.

When you’ve been at the printer game for as long as HP (NYSE:HPQ), good software usually goes with the territory. And that’s clearly the case here; the M425dn was among the fastest and easiest we’ve seen to set up and configure. Much of the credit goes to well-developed and bullet-proof software tools, including its driver and utility installer for Mac OS X and Windows, and its remote management software.

Along with the printer, power cable and telephone cord came a multilingual, illustrated quick installation guide (which we didn’t need) and installation disks for Mac OS X and Windows. On the Mac side, we were impressed with the level of integration between the install utility and the operating system. For example, once drivers were installed, the installer optionally launches the Print & Fax preferences tool, displays step-by-step instructions on how to add and configure the new printer for use by the host Mac and offers to place a copy of the utility in the Dock. During setup, the printer acquired an IP address over its gigabit Ethernet automatically and was identified by the software right away. Total setup time (not including file copying) was about five minutes. The experience on Windows was similar, if perhaps less polished. There’s no Linux driver.

Going well beyond consumables monitoring, HP delivers an excellent utility for Mac OS X and Windows that gives IT or service resellers control from anywhere on the network over nearly every settable feature and function of the M425dn, including networking, power-save settings, scanning and faxing, tray configuration, duplex mode, font and file upload, diagnostic and, of course, supplies management. On the Mac (shown), the tool is modeled after Apple’s System Preferences control panel and even pops up printer messages on a designated Mac.

As for print speed, the HP LaserJet Pro 400 MFP M425dn printed exactly according to HP claims. For testing, we sent a 35-page black-text document to the printer. The first page appeared in 12 seconds, and all 35 pages were in the tray after 1:10 minutes. We repeated the test with a document containing color graphics with the same result. Next we ordered the copier to run 35 copies of one of the test pages, again with the same result.

To vary that old phrase, no one gets fired for buying Hewlett-Packard printers. And with its solid construction, versatile functionality and utilities, and mobile printing through HP’s ePrint for Android and iOS, or Apple (NSDQ:AAPL)’s AirPrint, the HP LaserJet Pro 400 MFP M425dn would be among the safest $500 investments by any small business.

original article

Brother HL-3170CDW

‘Tis the season of the single-function laser-class printer. Over the past several months, several entry-level, “personal” LED-based color printers have passed through our labs. The two most recent of these low-cost, low-volume devices we’ve tested, the C1660w Color Printer$179.99 at Dell and theC1760nw Color Printer$204.99 at Dell, were from Dell. Hot on the heels of these, Brother sent us its newest entries in this niche class of small- and home-based-office machines: the $249.99-list HL-3140CW and the $279.99-list HL-3170CDW.

Brother HL-3170CDW

Here, we’re looking at the slightly faster, more versatile (and, of course, more expensive) of the two, the HL-3170CDW. (Watch for our review the HL-3140CW in the next week or two.) These two printers are much the same, except that for its $30 price premium, the model we’re reviewing here gains you an auto-duplexer (for printing two-sided pages without requiring you to flip them over manually), as well as an Ethernet connector and twice the memory (128MB versus 64MB). As we see it, these additional features are well worth the minimal difference in price, making this slightly more expensive version a better fit for small offices and workgroups.

Before we go on, though, let’s talk about what makes LED-based printers like this one “laser-class” devices, as opposed to being simply laser printers. Although an LED printer is technically not a laser printer, it looks and acts very much like one. The difference between them centers on the basic print technology. Instead of using a laser, LED-based machines use an LED array (an array of light-emitting diodes) to charge the page image onto the print drum. Printer makers substitute LEDs for lasers because they have fewer moving parts, are smaller and lighter, and cost less to manufacture. Otherwise, LED models operate much the same as laser printers do, including in their use of toner.

Historically, small and home offices have chosen laser and laser-class printers over inkjet models because they print faster and cost less to use over the long haul, despite their somewhat heftier upfront purchase price. Nowadays, though—due to the onslaught of high-volume, low-cost-per-page inkjets—you typically have to buy a relatively high-volume (and high-priced) color laser printer to see much speed or per-page cost benefit. Many lower-volume, lower-cost color lasers no longer have the speed and operational-cost advantages over their inkjet counterparts.

Brother HL-3170CDW Front View

Why? Some inkjet models claiming “laser-quality” output, such as the $399.99-list Epson WorkForce 520$199.88 at Amazon and the $199.99-list HP OfficeJet Pro 8600 Plus$199.99 at OfficeMax, really do print business documents on par with high-volume laser models, in terms of both quality and speed. In addition, these relatively new high-volume inkjets perform their magic at a very reasonable cost per page (CPP), which, as you’ll see in the Setup & Paper Handling section of this review, the HL-3170CDW does not. Furthermore, these inkjets are multifunction machines, which means that you get the ability to scan, copy, and fax, as well as print for about the same price, or sometimes even less.

Compared to some other personal LED printers we’ve reviewed lately, such as the two Dell models mentioned above, the HL-3170CDW comes with a respectable feature set. For about the same price, this Brother offers, as mentioned, automatic two-sided printing, as well as a wide range of options for printing from cloud sites and wireless devices. It’s also considerably faster than Dell’s most recent single-function models.

However, this Brother unit’s print quality, as we discuss in the Print Quality section later on, isn’t quite up to what we saw from the Dell LED models. In addition, the HL-3170CDW has a relatively low recommended monthly print volume, and the cost of its toner cartridges make for, compared to some inkjet counterparts, a high CPP for both monochrome and color prints. We wouldn’t recommend this machine as a serious high-volume workhorse printer. It’s best for occasional, light-duty color printing.

Design & Features

As we said about Dell’s entry-level LED printers, Brother’s design of its low-cost single-function machines isn’t even a half-hearted attempt at a stylish or high-tech appearance. Devoid of appealing sloping edges or attractive trim, the HL-3170CDW is a squat, nondescript black-and-white box. Measuring 9.4 inches high, 16.1 inches across, and 18.3 inches front to back, and weighing 39 pounds, it’s significantly larger and heavier than Dell’s comparably priced C1760nw, which rings in at 8.9×15.5×11.8 inches (HWD) and 23.4 pounds.

Some of this additional size and girth is attributable to this Brother model’s duplexing hardware, as well as its 250-sheet input drawer (versus the C1760nw’s meager 150-sheet cassette), but neither of these features can explain away the whopping 15.6-pound weight difference. Despite the HL-3170CDW’s relatively low Brother-recommended monthly duty cycle of 300 to 1,500 pages, as well as the space-saving LED apparatus inside, it’s too big to fit comfortably on the average desk. Unlike some compact LED models we’ve seen of late, this one is bulky enough to require its own sturdy stand or chunk of countertop.

The good news is that the HL-3170CDW comes with support for Wi-Fi network connectivity out of the box (not always a given on laser-class printers), which should make finding a place to put it less of an issue. If your office doesn’t have a wireless network, you can connect it to your wired network via Ethernet, or to an individual PC with a standard USB printer cable. However, the USB cable does not come in the box, which could add $20 or so to the cost of the printer.

Brother HL-3170CDW Interfaces

You can connect the HL-3170CDW to a wireless network, a wired Ethernet network, or to a single PC via USB.

Where this Brother shines, compared to Dell’s similarly priced LED models, is in its wide range of support for printing from cloud sites and mobile devices. You can, for example, print directly to the printer via Wi-Fi Direct, a protocol that lets you print from most smartphones, tablets, and notebooks without either the printer or the mobile device being connected to an intermediary network. The HL-3170CDW also supports printing via Apple’s AirPrint, Google Cloud Print, and Cortado Workplace, or you can use Brother’s own iPrint&Scan app to print directly from most smartphones and tablets. (Cortado Workplace is a free “cloud desktop” service that provides storage space accessible from any Internet connection.)

You set up some of these mobile-device channels, as well as make configuration changes to the printer itself, from the control panel, which, as you can see in the image below, consists of a one-line LED, five navigation keys, a Cancel button, and a Go (Print) button. It’s not unusual to find simple control panels on single-function machines like this one, especially on models that don’t come with memory-card slots or USB-key ports for PC-free printing. Still, some configuration options, such as entering network passwords, which entails scrolling through alphanumeric character lists one character at a time, can be tedious when forced through a little screen like this one. Compared to some other recent low-end models, such as HP’s LaserJet Pro 200 Color Printer M251nw$179.99 at OfficeMax and its color graphics display, the HL-3170CDW’s user interface looks antiquated.

Brother HL-3170CDW Control Panel

The control panel consists of seven buttons and a one-line LED strip.

Setup & Paper Handling

Setting up the HL-3170CDW and installing the drivers was straightforward and easy, but this was primarily because our wireless router supports Wi-Fi Setup (WPS). WPS is a wireless protocol for connecting devices to the network by pressing a couple of buttons, one on the printer itself and one on the router. When we tried to connect using the standard, non-WPS method, in which you enter the network password from the control panel, we once again found ourselves longing for a more sophisticated user interface.

The setup guide explained the process clearly enough, but getting to the proper section in the printer’s menu tree, and then scrolling through the alphanumeric character list one keystroke at a time (10 separate times for each character in our 10-character password) was tedious. Luckily, you only have to do this once, but, compared to what we’re used to, we found it a little frustrating. The snazzy-looking graphical displays that come on so many printers these days have spoiled us.

Like most laser-class printers nowadays, the HL-3170CDW arrives with the toner cartridges already loaded inside the printer. Notice, though, that we didn’t say “installed.” Part of this model’s setup process entails taking each cartridge out of the machine, removing a plastic seal, shaking each to spread around the toner inside, and then reloading it into the printer.

Brother HL-3170CDW Toner

The 1,000-page “starter” toner cartridges ship inside the printer, but you have to remove and prep them before you can use the unit.

Granted, we’ve done this before, and we remember—not that long ago—when toner cartridges typically shipped in separate containers outside the printer. But, frankly, it’s been a while since we’ve seen a laser-class machine that didn’t come with the toner cartridges inside ready to go. Between that and the somewhat poky process of connecting to non-WPS routers on the HL-3170CDW’s last-generation control panel, we found this LED machine a bit less pleasant to set up than several other competing models we’ve tested recently.

The HL-3170CDW ships with four 1,000-page “starter” toner cartridges in the typical cyan/magenta/yellow/black arrangement. When it comes time to replace them, the black cartridge, rated by Brother at 2,500 pages, will run you about $85, and the three 1,400-page color ones about $70 each. At these prices, we calculated the monochrome cost per page at about 3.4 cents, and color pages at about 18.4 cents. While we consider these numbers high, they are about average for a LED-based printer in this price range.

You can lower the color CPP to about 14 cents by purchasing the so-called high-yield (2,200-page) color cartridges for $76.88 (the price, when we wrote this, at Brother Mall). Brother doesn’t offer a high-yield black cartridge for this printer, so 3.4 cents for black-and-white pages is as good as gets unless you find the black cartridge on sale. In addition, after the first 15,000 pages (and every subsequent 15,000 pages), you’ll have to change the printer’s $150 print drum, which adds another cent to each print if you amortize the drum cost over the life of each new drum.

Compared to several business-centric inkjet printers, as well as most higher-volume (and therefore higher-priced) lasers and laser-class printers, 15 cents for color and 4.4 cents for monochrome pages is costly. If you print more than a few hundred pages per month—monochrome or color—you’d be better off looking for a printer with lower CPPs. Otherwise, you could wind up spending hundreds, even thousands, of dollars more than necessary over time with this one.

Brother HL-3170CDW Input Tray

A roomy 250-sheet paper tray pulls out from the bottom of the chassis. A single-sheet override slot is located on the back.

The paper handling on this model matches up well enough with the expected volume of prints this printer is built for. The HL-3170CDW comes with a 250-sheet drawer on the front, and a single-sheet override slot (for printing one-off envelopes and other specialty media) on the back. Printed sheets emerge from and land on the top of the printer, which doubles as a 100-sheet output bed. During our tests, this simple paper path worked flawlessly, without a single jam or any other mishap.

Brother HL-3170CDW Output Tray

The top of the printer doubles as a 100-sheet output bed, which does a great job of supporting your printed pages and keeping them flat.

Performance

One thing the HL-3170CDW has going for it is that it (as well as the slightly lower-priced HL-3140CW) is one of the fastest entry-level laser-class machines we’ve tested lately. It significantly outperformed two of Dell’s recent low-cost single-function LED printers on our business-document speed tests. Interestingly, though, it ran roughly neck-and-neck with the HL-3140CW, even thoughthis Brother has twice as much memory. Typically, increasing the memory in laser-class devices helps them “image,” or process, pages with graphics and photos faster, but for some reason the extra RAM here in the HL-3170CDW didn’t enhance the overall performance much.

For comparison’s sake, we pitted the HL-3170CDW against four other similarly priced single-function laser-class machines. Three of them, the $249.99-list Brother HL-3140CW, the $199.99-list Dell C1660w Color Printer$179.99 at Dell, and the $279.99-list Dell C1760nw Color Printer$204.99 at Dell, are LED-based machines. The fourth, the $329.99-list HP LaserJet Pro 200 Color Printer M251nw$179.99 at OfficeMax, is a full laser printer. As our charts below illustrate, Brother’s LED printers are faster than these other entry-level models—even the actual laser-based machine in this group.

Business Printing: Adobe Acrobat

In this first test, which measures printing speed, we time the AIO as it prints a four-page landscape-orientation Adobe Acrobat document containing text and photos.

Brother HL-3170CDW Acrobat Test

Here, the two Brother LED printers churned out our documents more than twice as fast as the others in group.

Business Printing: Microsoft Office Suite

This test measures how quickly the AIO churns out Microsoft Office suite documents. The result is an aggregate time derived by adding together the results from five discrete test documents totalling 11 pages: a one-page Excel table with a grid in it; a one-page Excel graph; a three-page Excel document containing charts and graphs; a four-page PowerPoint document (containing full-page slides); and a two-page Word text document.

Brother HL-3170CDW MS Office Test

Our Brother test unit beat HP’s laser printer, if not by much. The real story here is that it bested both of Dell’s LED models, the C1660w and the C1760nw, by about 40 and 50 seconds, respectively.

Business Printing: Effective Pages Per Minute

This test measures business-document output in pages per minute (ppm). We calculate it by combining the print times for our Acrobat, Excel, PowerPoint, and Word tests, above. The Effective Pages Per Minute chart you see below is an aggregate rate of printing we derive from these 15 pages’ worth of business documents. We print them multiple times, averaging the results…

Brother HL-3170CDW Effective PPM Test

As you can see, the HL-3170CDW printed our test documents faster than every other model in this group, though the tenth-of-a-point difference between it and its Brother brother is negligible. Notice, though, that it was 2ppm faster than the Dell C1760nw, and nearly 2.5ppm quicker than the Dell C1660w. These are significant differences. If you print a lot of long documents, you’d wait much longer for them using either of those Dell models in this matchup.

Photo Printing (4×6) Test

In this test, we time how long the AIO takes to print a sample 4×6-inch snapshot. These results are an average based on several runs of the print job.

Brother HL-3170CDW Photo Printing Test

Here, the HL-3170CDW printed out our test photo at about the same speed as the others. However, as we discuss on the next page, this model’s photographic output, compared to the non-Brother models here, was subpar. That said, laser-class machines are not the printers of choice if you need quality photos. For that, you really should choose an inkjet model.

Print Quality & Conclusion

Overall, the HL-3170CDW’s print quality on our test business documents was good. However, compared to several other models we’ve tested, it fell short when printing photos and small text (from about 8-point type on down). Text quality was good enough for most applications, but not quite good enough for printing high-end marketing material, such as brochures and flyers.

Brother HL-3170CDW View From Right Side

As for our test photos, granted, laser-class devices never print images as well as even middling inkjets do. But this model’s photo-output quality was not only below that of every inkjet printer we’ve tested recently, also that of most other laser-class models. If you’re as picky as we are, you wouldn’t want to distribute documents containing embedded photos printed on this model to clients or would-be clients. To our eyes, the photo-reproduction limitations of this machine render that kind of output good only for internal use or drafts, not critical marketing material.

Conclusion

The HL-3170CDW is faster than most entry-level laser-class devices in this price range, and compared to some other low-cost LED printers we’ve tested lately, it comes with a robust set of features, such as auto-duplexing and support for a wide range of options for printing from mobile devices. However, this model’s inability to reproduce photos in acceptable quality—even images embedded in business documents—concerned us. This shortcoming limits how and where you can use this printer’s output.

Brother HL-3170CDW Angle View

Again, this is one of the faster entry-level laser-class models we’ve seen recently, but, as we see it, fast document printing is important only in environments with high-volume print requirements. This model’s high cost per page precludes it from being a high-volume workhorse, but then, this is a limitation of the entire genre of low-cost laser-class printers, not just this one. We couldn’t recommend any of the printers mentioned in this review for use in small- or home-based-offices that print thousands upon thousands of pages each month. A couple hundred would be the limit.

If you do print a lot, you really should look at higher-end laser-class models, such as the Dell C3760dn Color Laser Printer$569.99 at Dell, or perhaps a high-volume inkjet, such as HP’s OfficeJet Pro 8600 Plus. Both of these printers print monochrome pages at less than half the per-page cost of this Brother machine, and color prints on either model cost several cents per page less. If you print a lot (again, more than a couple hundred pages per month), either model will save you hundreds, even thousands, of dollars over the long haul depending on how much you print. The C3760dn may cost more than twice as much as the HL-3170CDW, but you’ll recoup that cost, and then some, in time if you print enough.

As we’ve said about several entry-level laser-class printers recently, this is overall a fine, serviceable printer. Our main concern is not necessarily about the quality of the HL-3170CDW itself, but instead about low-cost, personal color laser-class printers in general. As a class of printers, they make sense only for small offices and workgroups that don’t print a whole lot, and that’s our take on the HL-3170CDW.

original article

Xerox Phaser 6600/DN

BY M. DAVID STONE

Aimed at small offices or workgroups with heavy-duty print needs, the Xerox Phaser 6600/DN$570.00 at DocumentIO offers capable paper handling as one of its best features. Add in the on par or better output quality across the board, including for photos, and it’s a particularly good fit if you need a color laser to print a lot of pages, and also need the output to look good.

Color lasers in this price range have stiff competition in the form of the Editors’ Choice HP Officejet Pro X551dw Printer$580.07 at GoComputerSupplies.com, a laser-class inkjet. But lasers in general, and the 6600/DN in particular, still have an edge on color quality compared with the X551dw. They also have the advantage of there being no way that the output can smudge or smear if it gets wet. Depending on your needs and tastes, these two differences alone may make a laser the better pick.

The 6600/DN also offers somewhat better paper handling than the X551dw, with a 550-sheet drawer, 150-sheet multipurpose tray, and duplexer (for two-sided printing) standard. The 550-sheet drawer is a particularly nice touch, since it lets you refill the drawer with an entire ream of paper even before it’s fully empty. And if you need still more capacity, you can add a second 550-sheet drawer ($299 direct) for a total 1,250 sheets. Not so incidentally, if you don’t need duplexing, Xerox also sells the Phaser 6600/N ($549 direct), which Xerox says is the identical printer minus the duplexer.

Setup and Speed
As you might expect simply from the paper capacity, the 6600/DN is too big to comfortably share a desk with, at 15.1 by 16.9 by 19.2 inches (HWD). It’s also heavy enough, at 56 pounds, so most people would consider moving it into place a two-person job. Once you find a spot for it, however, setup is simple and absolutely typical for a color laser. For my tests, I connected it to a wired network and installed the driver on a system running Windows Vista.

Xerox rates the printer at 36 pages per minute (ppm) for both color and monochrome in simplex (one sided) mode. You should see that speed or close to it when printing text files with little or no formatting. However, the printer installs to print in duplex mode by default, which drops the rating to 24 ppm. And because we run our business applications suite with the default settings as shipped, our official test is for the duplex setting and slower speed. Beyond that, as with virtually all printers, the 6600/DN is much slower than its top speed on our tests, because we include photos and graphics that take time to process.

Xerox Phaser 6600/DN

On our business applications suite (timed with QualityLogic’s hardware and software), I clocked the printer at an effective 4.6 ppm. I also ran an unofficial test in simplex mode and got essentially the same speed. In either case, the speed falls in a tolerable range, but is a little slow for the price. The HP Officejet Pro X551dw, for example, came in at 9.2 ppm, and the Brother HL-4570CDW$379.99 at OfficeMax managed 6.8 ppm. In addition, the 6600/DN was unusually slow for a laser for photos, averaging 48 seconds for a 4 by 6.

Output Quality
Largely making up for any points the printer loses for speed is its overall output quality. Text and graphics are both dead on par for a color laser. That makes the text easily good enough for any business need, and arguably good enough for moderately serious desktop publishing applications, depending on how critical an eye you have. The graphics, similarly, are easily good enough for any business use up to and including good-quality PowerPoint handouts. Most people would also consider them good enough for marketing materials like one-page handouts or mailers.

Photos in my tests were above par, and just short of consistently true photo quality. More than half of the photos in our test suite were high enough quality so if you mounted them in a frame behind glass, they’d pass for the level of quality you’d expect from typical drugstore prints. Outside of a frame, only the fact that they’re printed on plain paper gives them away. However other photos could only pass for photo quality at a quick glance from a distance. Overall, most people would consider the photos, along with the graphics, as good enough for printing your own marketing materials.

The Xerox Phaser 6600/DN’s strongest points are clearly its paper handling and output quality. The one other sweetener that demands mention is that Xerox includes one year of onsite service in the base warranty. If you want a speed demon, you’ll need to look elsewhere, but if you don’t mind the slower speed, the Xerox Phaser 6600/DN can be an excellent fit for a small office or workgroup that needs a heavy-duty workhorse with high-quality output.

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Kodak to Sell Document Imaging Unit to Brother

By David Ward, San Diego Tuesday, 16 April 2013

Kodak announced this week it has agreed to sell assets from its Document Imaging business to office equipment maker Brother Industries in a cash deal worth $210m.

Under the terms of the deal Brother has also agreed to assumed liability for deferred service revenue from the Document Imaging business, adding another $67m to the final price.

The deal means that Kodak’s once-vibrant business for scanners, image-capture software and technical services will now be combined with Brother’s office equipment business that includes fax machines and small all-in-one printers.

Kodak entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January 2012 and so this proposed sale will need the approval of US Bankruptcy Court, which is expected at a hearing later this month.

Once that approval is given, an auction with Brother as the “stalking horse”, or initial bidder, will be run. But others bidders could come forward at that time and conceivably offer more for the Document Imaging assets and business.

“This proposed sale is another key step in Kodak’s path to emergence – it moves us closer to realizing our strategic vision for Kodak’s future,” Kodak Chairman/CEO Antonio Perez said in a statement. “A sale to Brother, should they prevail, would represent an excellent outcome for Document Imaging’s customers, partners and employees.”

In addition to selling the Document Imaging business, Kodak had also previously indicated plans to sell its Personalised Imaging division, which includes its consumer film, photo paper, finishing and photo kiosk businesses. However, there is currently no timetable for when that sale might occur. In December, Kodak also sold a large portion of its digital-imaging patents for about $525m.

Last month Kodak finalised a previously-announced $848m finance facility with members of the Steering Committee of the Second Lien Noteholders and other holders of Kodak’s Senior Secured Notes. Under the terms of the deal Kodak has borrowed an aggregate principal amount of approximately $473m and converted $375m in Senior Secured Notes into loans.

The agreement also lowered the amount of money the company needed to get from the sale of its noncommercial-imaging business to $600m.

In an interview with PrintWeek, Kodak Corporate Communications Manager Christopher Veronda said Kodak’s Document Imaging employees, including a number based in Rochester that focus on R&D, will be joining Brother as part of the deal.

Veronda suggested the sale price for the Document Imaging assets was enough to ensure the company can continue on with its plans to exit bankruptcy this year. “The next step will be to file a plan of reorganisation (with the US Bankruptcy Court) and we plan to do that by the end of the month,” he added.

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Kill Your Energy Phantoms with Printer Analyzer

By John Breeden II

The federal government has been concerned with the costs of phantom power in IT devices for years. Back in 2001, President George Bush ordered agencies to slay what he called energy vampires, eliminating devices that used up too much standby power.

But like any good villain from a monster movie, government’s energy vampires were not so easily dispatched. In fact, it’s possible that they have grown over the years.

Verdiem is attempting to become the garlic necklace or holy water against these pests with its newest software product, Verdiem Print & Power Analyzer, which builds on Verdiem’s IT energy management and efficiency platform to improve efficiency and reduce operational costs. It lets organizations measure end-user print activity, identify both local and networked printers, characterize costs and analyze the data to uncover opportunities to optimize the print environment. According to the company,  this often results in reduced enterprise print costs of up to 30 percent, or $20 to $60 per user per year.

“IT organizations are experiencing increased pressure to improve service delivery and reduce costs, but they typically have little to no visibility into the costs and utilization of their print environment,” said John Scumniotales, the company’s CEO. “Industry benchmarks show that most organizations easily spend $300 dollars or more per employee per year on printing.”

Verdiem cites an August 2012 Gartner report that said that organizations with managed print services saw savings ranging from 10 to 40 percent.

The Verdiem Print & Power Analyzer works to identify areas where too many printers are being deployed by tracking individual print usage for both local and networked printers. Printers often standby mode or with functions that are mirrored elsewhere can then be eliminated from an office.

Verdiem measures key print metrics by monitoring end-user print activity. Dashboards and reports give IT staffs actionable data on print volumes and costs by department, printer, location and user. IT will finally be able to answer who prints, where they print, what they print and when they print. By understanding these behaviors, IT professionals can drive change and demonstrable cost reductions into the print environment.

Verdiem power monitoring also establishes a baseline of electricity usage and costs for PC and printer fleets. To control PC energy consumption and save $20 to $50 per PC per year, IT can upgrade to Verdiem’s industry-leading PC power management solution.

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Canon U.S.A. Announces Mobile Printing App for Home and Office Users

Canon U.S.A. Announces Mobile Printing App for Home and Office Users

New App for iPhone® and iPad® Enables Efficient, Intuitive Mobile Printing to a Wide Range of Canon Devices Including select imageCLASS Printers, imageRUNNER ADVANCE and imageRUNNER Office Systems and imageRUNNER LBP Printers

LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, today announced its Canon Mobile Printing App for iPhone® and iPad®, extending Canon’s already comprehensive support for mobile office users and consumers. Canon Mobile Printing enables users in homes and offices of all sizes to send print jobs directly from their iPhone and iPad to a compatible Canon output device.

The Canon Mobile Printing App is compatible with select Canon imageCLASS desktop laser printers and multifunction printers including the recently launched MF4000 models. The app is also compatible with Canon’s recently released next generation imageRUNNER ADVANCE C5200, 6200, and 8200 enterprise multifunction office systems. Additionally, the app supports most imageRUNNER and imageRUNNER ADVANCE enterprise multifunction office systems, as well as imageRUNNER LBP printers. Users can print Microsoft ® Office files (doc, docx, xls, xlsx, ppt, pptx), iWork® files (Pages, Numbers, Keynote), JPEG, GIF, BMP, PNG, TIFF and PDF files, photographs (stored in Photo Albums and taken with the device camera), and web pages directly through the app’s user-friendly interface.

“With today’s mobile workforce, being able to print on-the-go is becoming an increasingly valuable asset,” said Sam Yoshida, vice president and general manager, Marketing, Business Imaging Solutions Group, Canon U.S.A. “The new Canon Mobile Printing App provides ease of use and places traditional print functionality at the fingertips of today’s mobile worker.”

The Canon Mobile Printing App features the following innovative tools:

OpenIn Compatibility Improves Efficiency

The Canon Mobile Printing user experience becomes seamless with the integration of OpenIn, a feature that allows users to capitalize on the functionality of the mobile app while navigating through files located elsewhere. The OpenIn feature allows users to easily navigate to Canon Mobile Printing directly from the application they are in, giving the customer more ways to access printing.

Variety of Supported Document Types Enhances Usability

Designed with the end-user in mind, the app supports a variety of file formats. Users can print Microsoft Office files (doc, docx, xls, xlsx, ppt, pptx), iWork files, PDF, JPEG, GIF, BMP, PNG, TIFF files, photographs, and web pages can be printed directly through the app.

Wide Range of Compatibility Provides a Satisfying End-User Experience

The app supports devices running iOS 5.1 – 6.0 and is available for the iPhone 5, iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, the new iPad, iPad 2, and the original iPad. The app also supports most imageRUNNER and imageRUNNER ADVANCE enterprise multifunction office systems and includes support for the next generation imageRUNNER ADVANCE multifunction devices. In addition, the app supports compatible imageCLASS printers and imageRUNNER LBP printers.

Intuitive Printer Communication

The app can search for and identify Canon printers within a wireless (Wi-Fi) broadcast range – and automatically save these devices for future use. If the Canon printer cannot be found within a wireless broadcast range, users can manually enter the IP address of the Canon device to list it as one of their available print devices.

Opportunity to Choose Print Settings Optimizes Workflow

The app offers a variety of built-in printing options to enhance control and performance. Users can tailor print range, paper size, color output, and number of copies directly from the app. Depending on the finishing features on the printer, documents can also be stapled directly from the menu. Additionally, users can instruct the app to feed paper automatically or via the device manual bypass.

Preview Modes Support Enhances Ease of Use

Users will be able to preview documents, photos and web pages prior to printing to determine the ideal settings for a specific print job. Items with multiple pages can also be previewed by swiping the screen to move through the document.

The Canon Mobile Printing App is available for free from the App Store℠ or atwww.itunes.com/appstore. Search for “Canon Mobile Printing”.

For product specifications and device information, please visit the Canon USA website athttp://usa.canon.com/cusa/office/standard_display/DeviceListing

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How Printers Are Vulnerable To Hacking

It used to be that antivirus and malware protection for a computer was enough. Now even printers have become subject to malware attacks, creating another possible vulnerability on a user’s system. How can a device like a printer be a security threat, and how can you protect yourself against a “hacked” printer?

How Do Printers Get Hacked?

The more sophisticated a system, the more vulnerable it is to security breaches. Modern office printers are much more complex than their low-tech ancestors. Older desktop printers often connected only via a USB cable, while newer, business-end model printers often have their own hard drive, Internet connection, Web interface, and email capabilities. Once a device is connected to the Internet, it becomes much more vulnerable to possible attacks from without.

The threat of hacked printers first surfaced when researchers at Columbia University discovered security flaws in several HP model printers. The firmware in the printers contained vulnerabilities that could allow an outside party to infiltrate the device and give it instructions remotely.

What Are the Risks?

A hacker could change the settings on the printer, or transmit phony fax and print jobs. While that might not seem too serious, it’s only the beginning. The biggest threat to the user’s security is that a hacker could gain access to any documents that are sent to it from the printer, possibly exposing sensitive or private information. The printer could also be used to eavesdrop on the network traffic of the computer. Malware could even be installed on the computer, granting ongoing access to the device without the owner knowing anything’s wrong.

An enterprising hacker could even use a Denial of Service (DoS) attack to make the printer inaccessible or non-functional, possibly even damaging the hardware.

How Do I Protect Myself?

The easiest way to secure your printer from such attacks, of course, is to make sure it isn’t connected to the Internet or network at all. That might be fine for the average home user, but it’s not a feasible option for businesses that rely on network printing.

First, it pays to inform yourself about the device and what vulnerabilities your printer might have. The Columbia University researchers themselves admitted that while they only tested HP machines, machines of any brand could be infected in a similar fashion. Check reviews and the manufacturer’s website for your printer and see if there are any vulnerabilities or firmware updates listed.

Second, protect the printer itself as much as possible. If there is an administrative password on the machine, set it and change it every once in a while. Lock down access privileges to the printer, both physically and on the computer network, to minimize its exposure to possible attacks. Make sure your printer is protected by the network firewall.

Some printers also feature network encryption and other security measures. If your printer has such features, enable them. Keep your printer’s firmware as up-to-date as possible. A common way of protecting a printer is setting up an Access Control List, or ACL, to ensure only certain parties can access the printer at any time. The shorter that list, the fewer vulnerabilities.

No system connected to the Internet is ever 100% safe from attack, and even a machine left unplugged from the network could be infected via USB key or other physical access. The key is to be aware of this new threat, and protect yourself as much as possible.

Ron Dagus is a writer, blogger and IT expert at PrinterInks.com. Whether it’s Epson, Brother, Dell, HP, or any other leading printer brand, you can find a wide range of ink cartridges from PrinterInks.
http://cmvlive.com (http://s.tt/1tpnl)

The Mystery Of The Blank HP Printer Display Screen

We get frequent calls about the mysterious blank display on either an HP LaserJet or Color LaserJet printer. There are a couple of different ways that this event can occur:

• A blank backlit display with the ready, data, and attention lights are on
• A blank backlit display with the ready, data, and attention lights are off
• A blank unlit display with the ready, data, and attention lights are on
• A completely blacked out display with no lights on

In all cases you would want to first send a test print job to the printer. If the job prints, chances are you have a defective display. If the job doesn’t print, then it could be a defective formatter board or bad firmware – if it is a model of printer that has removable/replaceable firmware.

However, another thing to keep in mind is; even though it doesn’t print, you may still have a defective display AND an error code happening at the same time (13 paper jam, 50 service, etc.). This doesn’t happen very often, but is a possibility.

To investigate further, try to print an engine test. The engine test will bypass the formatter board and print a page with either black or color lines going down or across the page (depending on machine). If the printer is able to print an engine test, it is mechanically functional, and it’s again possible that you may have a formatter or firmware issue.

You will also want to listen to the printer when you cycle the power to see if the motors and drive assemblies are turning. If you can’t hear those, it is possible you have a “dead” printer and your problem could be with the low voltage /ac power supply. To better determine this, try printing an engine test as mentioned above, which should give a better indication of what is going on with the printer. If after checking and testing the possibilities and you are still having issues, give us a call we’re happy to help!

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