Xerox Phaser 6500N review

Xerox’s Phaser 6280N has been one of our favourite colour lasers since we reviewed it in issue 250, so we were keen to see if the latest model was as good. The Phaser 6500N is a big, upright printer, but it’s slightly smaller and has a lower speed rating than the 6280N. The version we reviewed has an Ethernet port, but if you want duplex, the Phaser 6500DN costs roughly £100 more.

While upgrades to some printers either aren’t available or cost a fortune, expanding the 6500N is reasonably practical. A wireless interface costs around £160, and the RAM can be upgraded from 256MB to a 768MB maximum for £113. Unusually, duplex is available as an after-sales upgrade, costing £100, while adding a second, 250-sheet paper tray will set you back just over £150.

Despite a compact footprint, the 6500N’s standard paper tray extends slightly from the back when loaded with A4 paper. Fortunately there’s a dust cover, but this is easily dislodged. When printing, the paper picking mechanism makes soft sliding and clicking noises that reminded us of Ivor the Engine, but the reverie is spoiled by a grating whine over the top. At 20.3ppm, the 6500N was very quick to print black text, but its 10.4ppm performance on our mixed-colour document was unhurried.

Although not especially quick, the 6500N produces some of the best prints we’ve seen from a colour laser. The colour balance of photos and graphics was perfect. The brightness and contrast of prints was beautifully judged, helping to preserve fine detail that isn’t often visible in competitors’ results.

Business graphics looked absolutely excellent, with crisp outlines and barely visible dithering. We could fault only some jagged colour boundaries in our PowerPoint slides.

At the time of writing, the 6500N was so new that we could find the price of some consumables only in the US, and as such could only estimate its running costs. Our calculations suggest it’s relatively economical in colour but much less so when printing black only. If these costs fall as consumables become widespread in the UK, the 6500N will be a better choice. However, the Konica Minolta Magicolor 3730DN has similar speeds and print quality, but lower running costs and a duplexer for only £11 more.