Xerox WorkCentre 6505DN Colour Multifunction Laser Printer Review

We’ve become a bit accustom to having our own laser printer here at Mr Exclusive HQ. We’ve been running a Samsung CLP-315 for a few years now, not really given us much trouble apart from the time we ran off a 1000 copies of a blue leaflet which invariably messed things up on such a cheap colour laser printer.

Our sister company is an I.T Support/Consultancy firm looking after the needs and wants of Small businesses across the southwest of England. So when we heard they had found a bit of a bargain for a customer, we jumped in to get the facts and give our readers something to read.

The instructions and what you’d believe on the web info for this printer is that you’ll need two people to carry this beast. Albeit true because of the size of the box, the printer is actually very light considering its’ dimensions.

This is classed as a WorkCentre 6505 and is a Multi-Function Duplex Printer. It can Print on both sides of the paper automatically, Scan, Copy and Fax.

It’s very easy to get out of the box just unclip 4 plastic holders and the box lifts off its base no problem, as said before, it’s quite light but due to its size, 2 people are probably needed.

Once at its new desk the setup couldn’t be much simpler. After pulling off all the plastic and removing the stopper plastic from the toner, we were ready to go…or rather we were until we noticed a second box that came with the delivery. The duplex unit, this for some reason doesn’t come already in the printer, however a quick clip into place and we’re ready to go.

When switching on for the first time there are a couple of configuration items to be done on the built in screen, such as letting it print out a double sided config page and also setting up Faxing. This can easily be used as a standalone photocopier and fax machine.

We installed this as a Network printer as it will be serving 14 PCs. Pop the Disc into the DVD drive on any PC you want to install the printer and it really is very simple, install printer drive and install scanner. Finished. It sorted its own IP address out which is nice for any novice out there.

Once installed the test came, how quickly does it print and what’s the quality like from the 600x600dpi. Which admittedly isn’t the best but at this price range for an automatic duplexer, it’s brilliant.
The aim of this printer was to provide A4 Copies, print out parts books back to back and do the occasional leaflets run. Which so far, looks like it’s going to do them all well.

Scanning over the network works flawlessly and images come out a tiny bit grainy but absolutely perfect for office/business use.

Printing a range of documents and images we came to the conclusion that for the price (Circa £500) for all the functions this printer offers is amazing. No banding, no discolouration, no patches just solid, deep colour. Brilliant!

Other reviews have mentioned that the Toner is quite pricey, after scouring the internet we’d say they aren’t different from Average really. Being a new model printer at the time of the older reviews, as time goes on the toner gets cheaper.

Originally the idea was to have a Dell 2155cdn, the cost of Toner seems to be a tiny bit on the cheaper side but we got the impression scanning to any computer over a network, is a pain, after all we’re the I.T guys so need to make our customers lives as simple as possible. Also this printer will save a scan as a jpeg, the Dell won’t.

The only complaint we have is setting up the printer to scan from its control panel and dump the file into a folder on a computer. So instead of requesting a scan from inside a program, this printer can scan a document then save it into a shared folder from a list of computers that you set up. A very nice feature once you get it to work but Windows 7 seems to just play havoc with it. After you uninstall windows live essentials and allow port 139 to stay clear, it’s happy days.

Ok so we have another complaint, the way it looks. Ergonomically it’s actually very nice to use but to look at, the shape is fine, the colour however we don’t like. I thought this industry had moved away from the beige/cream colour and more into black and silver. Just seems a little old fashioned to us.

Having said that, we don’t think there could be a better printer at this price.