Xerox WorkCentre 5655 Review

I recently examined the printing power of the WorkCentre 5645, and compared it to the WorkCentre 5050. Xerox has an upgraded version of the WorkCentre 5645, aptly numbered the 5655. This model includes similar features, but increases both speed and paper capacity. However, price tag is increased as well, and by quite a bit.

The 5645 started at $9,899, but the 5655 begins at $14,399. To be honest I am not sure if this increase is justified for the extras you are getting, but let's go into detail of the copier and find out.

Once again, the 5655 starts out only as a copier, and to get the printing and scanning functionality you will have to upgrade, which costs quite a bit more, but at the same time it is good to have all these features ready for when you need them.

Speed wise, the 5655 lives up to its number by increasing the PPM (pages per minute) printing from 45 up to 55 black and white pages per minute. Not a significant increase looking at it like that, but that means an extra 600 pages per hour, so if you are a heavy copier/printing user, this increase is well worth it. However, for small printing jobs you won't really notice the increase. For example, a 100 page document is going to take a bit less than 2 minutes, while the 5645 would take just a few seconds more and be slightly over 2 minutes. So I'm still not sure if the extra $4,400 is worth it.

What about paper capacity? The 5645 came standard at a relatively small 1,100 sheets. It could be upgraded to 4,700 sheets, but with the 5655 that upgrade won't be needed. That huge capacity comes standard. This is worth an increase in price, but this much?

The rest of this machine is practically the same. They both can print on tabloid sized medias (11x17), and both come standard with duplex, or double sided, printing. They also share the same features. Stapling, hole-punching, folding, saddle stitch booklet making.

To be honest I actually like the 5645 better. While I would suggest getting the paper capacity increased, it is still cheaper than, and more justifiable, than the 5655. Also, I think that the upgrades on this model still put the 5050 is competition with it. Though the 5050 has less features, it's only 5 PPM less, still has a larger paper capacity (at 4,800 standard), and is about $5,500 less.

So which can fit your needs better? The 5655 is stronger, but are those increases worth such a large increase in price? I don't think so.