Xerox WorkCentre 5665 Review

Xerox's WorkCentre 5665 starts at a hefty price tag of $17,599. As only a black and white copier, I'm not entirely sure if it's worth the price tag considering the 7655 is only $100 more and has color capabilities, but let's compare and see if the 5665 is worth it's weight, or if you should keep looking.

First off, I want to comment on the basic capabilities. The 5665 is only a copier at that standard price. Now, you can upgrade it to include printer and scanning functions, along with fax, but you will need to determine if you really need these add ons. I suggest them, since it limits your time at copy shops, which can easily print your documents but for high prices, and it's always good to be prepared. You don't want to rush over to the copy shop, hear they can't print out your document in time, and you run around wasting time, trying to find someone who can print your document when you need it. It's for situations like these that I suggest you upgrade to at least a copier/printer.

With that aside, let's look at speed. The 5665 has an impressive PPM (pages per minute) rating of 65. Now, that's nothing small, 65 PPM is sure to keep up with your more hectic days without batting an eye. However, let's look at the very similar 7655. The Black and white PPM is a little lower, at 55. If you are used to printing large jobs, you will notice the difference. But, if you're used to printing a 100 sheets here, 250 there, then you'll only notice about a minute difference in the printing. Not to mention that for $100 more with the 7655, you get color printing at a great 40 PPM.

What about paper size? The 5665 can hold up to 11x17 paper, which is good and could prove to be useful. The 7655 though can hold up to 13x19. You may not need this size, as it is considered odd and used more by the art world, but again being prepared is nothing bad.

Can the 5665 win in paper capacity? Holding a standard 4,700 sheets, and a maximum 8,700, this is by no means small and can definitely keep productivity going. The 7655 is lower in fact, with a standard 3,260 capacity, and a maximum 5,260. But can paper capacity alone win this battle? Let's keep looking.

Finishing options are exactly the same. They can both staple, hole-punch, fold, saddle stitch and do booklet printing, and both have post-process insertion (you can add a preprinted cover to a booklet).

They both also include the Print Around feature, so you'll never get bottlenecked during printing, as it will automatically print around jobs that need additional resources. And they both have a 250 top feeder for copying. Not to mention that both are double sided printers.

If you're really needy of high black and white speeds and higher paper capacity, go for the 5665. However, I think the extra $100 is well worth high speed color printing. In my opinion, this machine is really good, but splurge a little and get the 7655. It means even less trips to the copy shop, and more impressive presentations.