Xerox Phaser 3600 Review

Though limited in the realm of printing color, the Phaser 3600 delivers quite a package for a black and white printer. Starting at $449, you will find this printer offers a lot for such a low price (compared to other Xerox printers), and will be able to handle all your black and white printing needs.

First, let's talk about the speed of this printer. Most printers which are dedicated solely to black and white print faster, and this little demon is no exception. According to Xerox, the PPM (prints per minute) is a whopping 40! Speeds like this are only beat on their large commercial printers, so you're getting a great deal speed wise. And how long does it take for it to start printing? First page printing can be as fast as nine seconds, and even Xerox's commercial printers aren't much faster in this respect.

What about paper capacity? Your standard Phaser 3600 is equipped to hold 600 sheets at once, but can be upgraded to 1,100 sheets. In either case, unless you print in extremely high quantities, this threshold will satisfy your every job.

Also the printer is capable of hooking up to your Windows, Mac, and Unix systems. Even if you have Windows Vista, this beast will quickly install into your computer and will be ready to print in just a few minutes.

It also includes a feature known as RAM collation, meaning that it speeds up printing by processing multiple sets of multi-page documents, and makes your job run smoother.

Now, all these are great, but I do have one problem with the Phaser 3600. Consider it's speeds, I would think that they would expect their customers to occasionally print document that take up considerable memory. However, their standard memory can handle a 64 MB document, or it can be upgraded to 128 MB. Now, since this is a black and white printer, most documents require much lower memory, but if you find yourself frequently printing out black and white documents that are graphic intensive (such as pie-charts or graphs), I heavily suggest you take the upgrade. It will make your printer run smoother, and you will never have to worry about overloading the memory. However, if you are printing just text based documents, then the 64MB should be find for your needs.

With these features and speeds you will find the Phaser 3600 is an incredibly versatile printer. For those at home looking for a better than average printer, a small business, or a beginning commercial printer, the Phaser 3600 can satisfy all your needs. Beyond the RAM problem, and the fact that it is only a black and white printer, you will love this printer and will find that it will be a great asset for you and/or your company.