printers comparable to Xerox Phaser 8560 series

Hi all,

We are looking to replace a Xerox Phaser 8560DN that seems to have
broken down. Do you know what printers if any that are out there are
in the same league? Specifically what we value is its quick time to
first page (listed 5s, in reality more like 10s but still pretty good,
2400x2400 dpi resolution and Postscript support). The printer has to
work well with Linux. Price range: under $1000.

Besides the Phaser series I don't even seem to find anything that fits
all of those characteristics.

Thanks.

Boris.

On 5/19/2010 12:36 PM, Boris Epstein wrote:
Hi all,

We are looking to replace a Xerox Phaser 8560DN that seems to have
broken down. Do you know what printers if any that are out there are
in the same league? Specifically what we value is its quick time to
first page (listed 5s, in reality more like 10s but still pretty good,
2400x2400 dpi resolution and Postscript support). The printer has to
work well with Linux. Price range: under $1000.

Besides the Phaser series I don't even seem to find anything that fits
all of those characteristics.

Thanks.

Boris.

Wanting Postscript limits your choice quite a bit but Lexmark has some
reasonably-priced lasers which do PS3. The listed retail prices start at
something like $450 and go up from there depending on what features you
want (duplexing, etc) Startup time is listed on some "as fast as 10 seconds
(black)" or words to that effect. I have a Dell color laser which has an
even longer first page time if it has been allowed to go to sleep but it
doesn't seem too burdensome since, when the network sends a job, the
printer wakes and the in-computer print queue feeds the job as soon as it
can. I'd guess that mine is more like 20 seconds once the printer has gone
to sleep mode.

On Thu, 27 May 2010 12:36:01 -0400, John McGaw
wrote:

On 5/19/2010 12:36 PM, Boris Epstein wrote:
Hi all,

We are looking to replace a Xerox Phaser 8560DN that seems to have
broken down. Do you know what printers if any that are out there are
in the same league? Specifically what we value is its quick time to
first page (listed 5s, in reality more like 10s but still pretty good,
2400x2400 dpi resolution and Postscript support). The printer has to
work well with Linux. Price range: under $1000.

Besides the Phaser series I don't even seem to find anything that fits
all of those characteristics.

Thanks.

Boris.

Wanting Postscript limits your choice quite a bit but Lexmark has some
reasonably-priced lasers which do PS3. The listed retail prices start at
something like $450 and go up from there depending on what features you
want (duplexing, etc) Startup time is listed on some "as fast as 10 seconds
(black)" or words to that effect. I have a Dell color laser which has an
even longer first page time if it has been allowed to go to sleep but it
doesn't seem too burdensome since, when the network sends a job, the
printer wakes and the in-computer print queue feeds the job as soon as it
can. I'd guess that mine is more like 20 seconds once the printer has gone
to sleep mode.


I would advise against Lexmark color laser printers. I have
heard stories about several models with mirror the
experience we've had with a C770n. Main issues:

1) If you let it go to sleep or have just turned it on,
their "time to first page" is a blatant lie... it takes over
a minute and a half. Some would say but you have to have it
already turned on or awake and to that I say "that's not the
first page then".

2) It gobbles up toner. We went through 6K page color
cartridges before having printed 600 pages with color on
them and by color on them I mean we had under 1% coverage of
blue for web links among mostly black plain text... no
pictures or graphs to speak of beside something rare and it
keeps track of % coverage so we know it, and the waste toner
chamber that should have lasted 10X as long is already
2/3rds full of color toner.

3) The front LCD display failed on ours. I thought "simple
repair, buy a new pull *used* display and swap it in". I
swap it in and the printer refuses to finish booting.
Lexmark had put a prom chip on the DISPLAY board that had no
other purpose than to try to force everyone to throw away
perfectly working parts and buy direct through them at a
premium price.

I ended up desoldering the prom off the old dead board and
putting it on the new board and it works again but out of
principle alone I can't condone them raising the price to
incorporate such technology out of greed for resale profits.

4) Microchipped cartridges cannot be refilled. "Some"
models of their printers eventually get an aftermarket chip
and bulk toner produced by a 3rd party but they have been
known to sue over such things so it is sketchy how long you
have to wait to first get affordable cartridge refills and
how long anyone who starts to offer them will continue to do
so once Lexmark finds out.

Next time we'll go with a Samsung or Brother, though I'm
sure either of these brands have some of their own quirks
too... it just happens that the quirks with the Lexmarks
seem to be pretty major fundamental flaws in their
disrespect for their customers.