8570DN - Color Printer

• Solid ink gives your documents rich, vibrant colors on all media, including recycled paper
• Wide media range, including plain paper, labels, envelopes, card stock, business cards and glossy media
• True Adobe PostScript 3 and PCL 5c emulation print languages ensure your jobs are printed accurately every time
• Consistent, vivid color from the first page to the last - no color degradation over time
• PANTONE approved solid-color simulations and Xerox color correction technology deliver results that always match your expectations

I had an 8570 printer for about a month before upgrading to the 8870. I have now had three different 8870 printers which I''ve used for more than a year. The first two 8870 machines developed different problems after about six months of heavy use that could not be easily repaired. This is a review of both the 8570 and 8870 because they are nearly identical. I am going to add some comments about leasing the 8870 from Xerox and some tips on using these machines.

This is a long review, so let me put some of my most important conclusions right up front: Only buy the 8570 if you do relatively little printing. Otherwise, if you do a lot of printing, the ink costs will probably be disturbingly high. For those who do a lot of printing, or even a moderate amount, the 8870 is going to be your more economical option in the long run. Consider leasing the 8870. Repairs and supplies are normally included in a lease. I have had two machines develop problems that could not be repaired and they were replaced as part of the lease agreement. Don''t consider these machines if noise is a big concern. If you need a very fast printer, these machines are not going to work unless you are willing to print in the draft modes, which sacrifice print quality for speed. Consistent print quality may be the greatest strength of these machines. Paper handling is also excellent. These machines are great for text, line art, or photos. However, photo quality is noticeably reduced in the Black and White mode. These are color printers and they work best in the Color mode, especially when it comes to photos. This means if top-notch quality is important to you, you may have to pay for color ink even if you are only printing black and white photos. The machines are reliable up to a point. They do not withstand very heavy use -like printing hundreds and hundreds or thousands of pages almost every day. Do not believe the maximum print figures quoted in Xerox sales literature. The environmental advantages of these machines are debatable, and probably overstated. Nonetheless, I recommend these printers to anyone who needs consistent print quality, the ability to print in color on a regular basis at a relatively low cost, and who needs only low to moderate print volumes at moderate speeds.

These machines are a mixed bag. Paper jams are rare. Print quality is usually excellent. They can be fast, but they also can be slow. These are the noisiest printers I have ever seen (or heard). They almost never have paper jams. One time the 8570 jammed after I yanked open the paper feed tray to try to stop the print job (use the red button to cancel the job). At the time the printer was printing random characters, also known as gobbledygook. Not sure why. Something weird with my computer maybe. It is environmentally friendly regarding toner cartridges, but it really should be left on all the time or you risk wasting a lot of ink. At least it has a low-power sleep mode (43 watts I believe).

It can be very fast at duplex printing (both sides). My tests show it can spit out black and white duplex sheets at up to 13 per minute in "standard" mode. That makes it almost twice as fast as some of the faster desktop laser printers on the market. In the "enhanced" mode, it seems to be able to print at about eight or nine double-sided sheets per minute.

However, my repeated experiments showed that in the Enhanced mode it will slow down to about four or five sheets per minute when printing large duplex documents (hundreds of pages). The Xerox support site explains that this is to prevent overheating.

The speed is directly related to the print mode. There are four print modes: Fast Color, Standard, Enhanced, and Photo. I have used Enhanced almost exclusively because it looks professional, but is not as slow as the Photo mode. The machine is genuinely fast in Fast Color mode, but this is really a draft mode, with washed out colors and blacks that look gray. Standard is better, but slower, and not quite the saturated professional look I want. Enhanced gives impressive print quality at a reasonable speed. However, the print speed slows down after a few hundred pages to prevent overheating.

The noise is a real issue. I tried putting it in my living room. My wife immediately complained. She said the living room sounded like a factory. I tried moving it downstairs to a closet at the foot of the stairs. We could still hear it upstairs and I had to move it into a downstairs bedroom. At least it only really makes a lot of noise while printing. In sleep mode it is quiet.

The ink for the 8570 seemed very expensive. (Ink for the 8870 comes in larger cubes and is definitely cheaper than for the 8570.) The starter ink for the 8570 (four cubes one small cube of each color) enabled me to print about 1100 two-sided black and white sheets 8.5 x 11" before I was notified that the black ink was getting low. I had only done a dozen or so color test prints and the color ink was already running out. A lot of ink was wasted by the process of shutting down and moving the machine three or four times. A certain amount of ink is purged during the shut-down process. (The shut down process can take up to half an hour if the machine has been in use and you use the shut down procedure for moving the machine. Or shut down can take 30 seconds if you are just re-starting the machine to clear a glitch or install software.) Also, some of the color ink is used while printing black and white pages. The color ink is combined to create black. This problem is reduced or eliminated if you use the black and white print setting rather than the color print setting on your computer when getting set to print. (But don''t use the black and white mode for photos that need to look their best.)

When using this black and white print setting, the black ink is used up more quickly on black and white jobs. By my reckoning, with the 8570 I was paying at least 3.5 cents per black and white print or about 7 cents per two-sided sheet, not counting the cost of the paper. For my calculations, I tried to estimate the amount of ink I wasted by turning the machine off and on, and did not count that toward my costs. I should also note that my black and white documents are dense with text and illustrations, and many of my print-outs were on legal-size paper. Nonetheless, my actual cost could be higher if my math or estimates are off. One thing I have not factored in is the cost of the maintenance kit. Also, if you print documents with a lot of color, your cost could easily be three or four times my estimated costs. The color ink cubes cost twice as much as the black and white cubes. I got sticker shock as I looked at buying more ink. However, a local Xerox leasing agent offered to lease me a similar machine (8870) with a low cost pay-per-print arrangement included, so I am trying leasing now. More about that later.

If you start running out of one color of ink (other than black), the machine will stop. It can maybe be coaxed to continue printing black and white by pushing buttons on the control panel. But if you have to turn off the machine and restart it while it is low one color of ink, it may be impossible to resume printing until you get the ink. The good news is that Xerox seems very fast about shipping the ink. The machine wants to print some color test pages every time it is started. But this can be turned off using the instructions on the test pages.

One thing I like about this printer is the quality of the printed pages. There is a slightly glossy appearance to the ink, giving a professional look that reminds me of off-set printing or a magazine. Standard mode provides acceptable text and line-art quality at fast speeds. If you look with magnification, you can see that Standard mode is not quite as crisp as Enhanced mode. But to the naked eye they are pretty darn close. The other thing I notice is that in Standard mode, the solid blocks of black in illustrations are not as deep and rich as you might prefer. To get the deeper black, you need to use the Enhanced mode. Undoubtedly, this uses more of the expensive ink.

As with other inkjet type printers, the pages come out flat. Laser printers will curl the paper. One of the benefits of a flat page is that it is much easier to jog the paper. This is great if you are printing a lot of big documents. These flat and somewhat slippery pages also go through our paper-folding machine more smoothly than do print-outs made with a laser printer.

Color prints are as fast as black and white prints and look good. The ink adheres well to plain paper, and is not prone to melting, even if pages are left in a sunny window. (Fading in sunlight might be a problem though based on other reviews I have read.) The ink is also water resistant. It might even be waterproof when used on a glossy paper. One problem I have noticed with color printing is that on some glossy papers or cardstocks, the image is easily marred by scratches. Rubbing a fingernail across the page can be enough to produce a visible scratch. The ink is not necessarily rubbed off by a fingernail, but the finish is changed so as to leave a scratch. Xerox may sell specialty photo papers that reduce or eliminate such problems. Another problem with printing on some glossy papers is ghosting, where part of a faint duplicate image appears on the page. I''ve found that this can sometimes be corrected by setting the paper type in the printer driver to the transparency mode. This does slow down the printing.

I have been printing with a USB cable from Windows XP. But the printer is really designed for use on a network with an Ethernet cable so that everyone in a small office can use it. It has several administrative features that don''t work with a USB cable, though the basic functionality is there. I have a computer set up next to the printer and I like to be at the printer when it is printing to watch for problems so the fact that I have not set the printer up to print from remote computers is not a problem for me. Be sure to download and install the latest firmware. I have found Xerox to have above average technical support by phone, assuming you can get them on the phone.

So to summarize some of my early impressions:

PROS:

Fast duplex printing on shorter jobs, especially in Standard mode.

Consistent print quality with few paper handling problems. (This consistency of print quality seems to decline somewhat over time. See my additional notes below.)

Flat pages that are not curled.

Nice looking printouts in color or black and white.

No need for replacement drums or toner cartridges. (But the maintenance kit must be replaced periodically, and that can be expensive, unless you lease and such items are included.)

CONS:

Noisy.

Expensive ink. (Look into pay-per-print pricing programs or leasing programs that may be cheaper.)

Should be left on all the time.

Slows down dramatically on large print jobs of more than a few hundred pages. (Just when fast printing would seem most desirable!)

The maintenance kit is a large rubber roller in a plastic tray that must be removed and exchanged for a new one periodically. This is very easy to do. Just takes a few seconds. The roller is about the size of a rolling pin or a small toner cartridge for a desktop printer. I''m guessing that the standard maintenance kit has to be replaced after every 10,000 print-outs. Maybe its 20,000. There is also an extended capacity maintenance kit, but it costs more, and I have not used it. So instead of going through two to four toner cartridges a month, I am going through two maintenance kits a month (and a dozen or more ink cubes). And unlike toner cartridges which can be refilled or recycled locally, options are more limited for the old maintenance kit. If I want to recycle it, I can send it back to Xerox, at my own expense. Not sure if it is worth it because I''m not sure to what extent Xerox will actually recycle it. With its soft rubber roller dampened with cleaning solution, it does not seem very recyclable. (A Xerox rep speculated that the maintenance kit was cleaned as part of the recycling process, but I''m not sure I believe it.)

These machines are touted as being more environmentally friendly than laser printers, partly because they don''t have toner cartridges and drum units that constantly need replacing. But they do have maintenance kits that need replacing as noted above. Also, they need to be left on all the time as explained above. One other consideration is the amount of energy used while printing. Laser printers heat a drum as part of the printing process. I have a laser printer that makes paper so hot that it is a little uncomfortable to hold a fresh stack of prints. But with the 8570 or 8870, prints are only slightly warm coming out of the printer. I think this is an indication that the printer needs much less heat and much less energy to operate. Last year my household energy bill went down 1/3 from the year before. During the last few months of the year we were relying on an 8570 or 8870 for most of our printing. I don''t know how much energy we may have saved by using the 8570 or 8870 because we also made other changes at the house like adding insulation. But my guess is that if you do a lot of printing, you probably will save at least a little energy by using this type of solid-ink printer.

The 8870 seems to differ from the 8570 only in the size of the ink cubes that it accepts. They are bigger on the 8870, and priced differently, so that the cost-per-print should be much less than with the 8570, even if you are not leasing the machine. But I recommend leasing. It seems to be the cost-effective way to go with perhaps fewer hassles.

I am in love with the print quality and the flat print-outs. Paper handling is super reliable. We routinely feed paper through the machine that has been damaged in transit. Even paper with bent corners goes through the machine without a problem. We have also used oddly shaped paper, like 7 x 8.5-in. paper in the bypass tray with good results.

One problem that we have had is light stripes. These are light-colored vertical stripes about 1/4-inch wide that run the length of the paper. They are especially noticeable when they appear in an area of solid color, like solid black. These arise when one of the hundreds of ink jets becomes clogged. Such incidents were rare during the first couple of months of use, but seemed to become much more common over time. They eventually became a weekly or even daily occurrence when we were doing a lot of printing. When light stripes occur, you have to go through the cleaning procedure. This just takes a few minutes and a few sheets of paper. The process usually unclogs the ink jet, though sometimes you have to do it two or three times. The light-stripes problem is one of the real weaknesses of this technology, especially if you print a lot of graphics. I suspect that part of the problem is the dust generated by the paper as it goes through the machine. Avoid running rough or dusty papers through the machine. We use only recycled paper, and though it is smooth, it may generate a little more dust than non-recycled papers.

Further update, with leasing info:

I have now had the 8870 for seven or eight months. I am leasing it. Mostly the printer has been reliable with few hassles. We''ve been doing some color printing, and that looks good most of the time. However, two months ago the printer developed an image-quality problem that proved difficult to resolve. The problem we had involved white speckles on dark areas of certain graphic images. The problem is much worse in the black-and-white print mode. It mostly disappears in the color mode (even though the images are black and white). We are supposed to pay extra for the color mode, regardless of whether the image is color or black and white.

We had two different Xerox technicians come out to try to fix the problem. They made a total of four visits, without any success. One technician thought the problem might be inherent to the print technology. However, until recently, the printer did not have this speckling problem. No major parts were replaced, though at one point, one technician said he planned to replace the print head. As it turned out, a different technician showed up, and he did not have the print head! On three occasions, the technician was supposed to get back to me after researching the problem further, or getting parts, but he did not, and I had to call Xerox. Getting through to Xerox support was very difficult. I was on hold for 15 minutes yesterday, and then 15 minutes today, before finally getting through to someone. I will say the phone support people seem genuinely intelligent, even though we were not able to fix the problem over the phone.

It took two months to get this print-quality problem resolved. What finally happened was that I called Xerox and mentioned the Customer Satisfaction Guarantee found in my lease agreement. On hearing this, I was told that I would be sent a refurbished machine to replace my malfunctioning machine. I was told it would arrive in a week, though it actually was more like two. The refurbished machine turned out to be almost new, and worked great.

At one point during this crisis, a local Xerox sales rep called me. She said she had heard about my problem and wanted to know if I would like to upgrade to a bigger and better machine, at a higher monthly cost. She felt that a laser printer would deliver more consistent results, and that if I continued with an 8870 machine, I would encounter similar problems every few months. She felt the machine was not designed for the kind of print quantities I was doing each month. The irony is that Xerox says this machine has a maximum duty cycle of 120,000 prints a month. I had only done something like 70,000 prints total in seven months, averaging maybe 10,000 a month. The Xerox rep said that the stats provided by Xerox regarding their machines should not be believed because they are not accurate! I decided not to upgrade my machine. I was sold a certain machine at what seemed like a reasonable price. If the machine can''t do what it is supposed to do, then that is not my problem. If I have to, I will ask Xerox for a replacement machine every six months, assuming that they will let me do that. The real problem seems to be that my local Xerox office seems ill-equipped to repair my machine. Perhaps that will change. I hope so.

After six months or so of heavy use, my replacement 8870 machine developed the same problem as the first one -speckling or graininess in certain mid-tone areas of photos printed in the black and white mode. By this time, my local Xerox office had contracted with a third-party repair service. So a new technician came out. He had never worked on this model of machine so far as I could tell. He did not have the repair manual either, saying something about it being on his other computer. I had to help him download a copy of the repair manual from the Web because he had trouble downloading one directly from Xerox! He claimed to be a Xerox certified technician, but he did not have his certification number, claiming he had never been given one. He had trouble convincing Xerox technical support of his identity, though he made an effort that convinced me he might be who he said he was. Later he had to go to Home Depot to buy a certain type of screw driver needed to repair the machine... He was at the house for maybe 12 hours total trying to fix this problem. But no luck. At least he was able to put the machine back together. This time Xerox was not so quick to send me a replacement machine. Instead, they had me send their engineering team some sample prints showing the problem. After a few weeks, they concluded that I should use the Enhanced mode, which I had been doing all along!

While the engineers were trying to figure out the problem, I decided to just stop printing photos in the black and white mode. I started using color for the printing of photos whenever decent quality was required. This cost me more, but I figured at least I was getting something for my extra money -namely color.

After another month or two of heavy use, the replacement printer died. It started printing very blurry images. When the technician came to repair it, he said that it appeared that the internal frame was warped. The machine has a plastic frame that acts like a skeleton on which all the other parts are attached. With a warped frame, the parts could not move properly. The technician did not say how or why it had warped, but I suspect heat was somehow to blame. The machine could not be fixed. Three weeks later, I received from Xerox a brand new 8870 printer.

After all the problems I have had with grainy photos in the black and white mode,

I was careful to do some testing of the new printer right away. I noticed that even when the printer is brand new, printing photos in the black and white mode results in slightly grainy photos. The results are noticeably better in the color mode. This problem apparently exists even when the machines are brand new, and it seems to get progressively worse over time.

Leasing has been something of a nightmare so far. We are supposed to call once a month to report our meter-reads that is, how many print-outs we have made in color and in black and white, based on the meter in the machine. But this has been difficult because often the automated phone system has refused to believe our reports. The online system is similarly finicky, claiming our meter-reads were "out of historical range." For the first few months, none of our meter-read reports was accepted.

Finally, a Xerox rep called to get the meter read and said that, based on our usage, our billing for ink was going to be something astronomical, like $150,000! That was for fewer than 50,000 print-outs. Turned out that she had made a mistake and thought we had a different type of machine. Eventually, we got that sorted out, and our corrected ink bill finally arrived, showing more than $1700 in charges for the first six months of ink use on top of the monthly leasing charges. So leasing has not been cheap. Though it may be much cheaper than buying a machine and buying ink if you do a lot of printing. And all the supplies and repairs and machine replacements have been free so far.

When the machine works, it works great, and I remain impressed with its potential for smooth paper handling and good print quality.

Buy 8570DN - Color Printer Now

We purchased this for one of our customers as a replacement to an older Brother color inkjet printer. This is the newer version of the Xerox Phaser 8500 series printers. The 8570DN "ColorCube" is based on the same basic design as the infamous Phaser printers that are very good for small to large sized businesses, but not so good for occasional home use. Like the Phaser, the 8570 uses Xerox''s 4-color (cyan, yellow, black, and magenta) solid ink technology. Unlike a powered toner or liquid ink cartridge in a laser or inkjet printer, the "ink" comes in specially designed solid blocks and has the consistency of wax. The printer melts the wax and stores it in a liquid state until it''s ready to be used and then applies it to the stock like an inkjet printer would. This is a great design in concept and works very well, but there are a few caveats.

The 8570 is pretty big, easily bigger than an HP Laser Jet 2100, take up a good chink of desk space, and weighs a lot. I estimated it weighs about 65 lbs and it took my boss and I to carry it over to where it was being set up! Once it was unboxed, you cold tell that Xerox put a lot of thought into their packaging. There''s a minimum of polystyrene and plastic in the box, and all of the compartments and access doors are taped off to keep them from opening. The tape also has tabbed edges so it was easier to peel it off. Thanks Xerox! Features include a good-sized paper tray (I estimated it would hold 500 sheets) that has adjustable guides for lots of different paper sizes. It comes with the very important maintenance kit, overflow/waste tray, and 2 sets of ink (one set was already in the printer). There''s a fold-out front feeder and access port for clearing jams as well. It''s pretty straightforward to set it up. You get a set-up guide, which wasn''t much help if you don''t know what you''re doing, and a user guide that''s in about 10 different languages. The driver software comes on a CD-ROM and is includes a video tutorial of the exact same user and installation guides you get in the box, which doesn''t make sense to me. Why not just put it on the CD?

Initial set up is easy. Loading paper is a snap...pull out the tray and set it in. You shouldn''t have to adjust the guides at all if you''re using A5 letter paper. Loading the ink blocks is also simple. Just lift open the top and drop them into their respective slots (the blocks are shaped so they will only go in one way so you don''t put one in the wrong slot). You have to remove the access panel on the rear right hand side to access the power socket, ethernet, and USB port. The 8570 supports both USB and ethernet networking connectivity, and neither cords are included (lame...you''d think Xerox would include a $3 cord with a printer that costs $500). You do get a standard 3-prong power cord like the ones PC''s use and it''s pretty long, which was great. There is no WiFi connectivity, but that''s actually not a bad thing. WiFi can be unreliable, and when it goes down, you can''t print which can be bad. For a home user, it''s fine, but for business, productivity mandates reliability.

The printer has to be connected (counterintuitive to what I have learned in IT) and powered on before installing the drivers, but the configuration procedure (we set it up on a network and gave it a static IP, which was easy) was very easy. The driver install wizard was also super simple. It pretty much did all the work for you and was very fast. The wizard finished in about 2 minutes. It runs Adobe PostScript and PCL5, so that was a nice addition. The menus were well laid-out. Some of them were a little confusing, but everything was pretty easy to find. The initial power-on procedure took forever and a day. From activation to first print took (no joke) about 20 minutes, but after that, pages printed very quickly, about 5 seconds from "print" to print, and the print speed averaged about 30 pages per minute color and b/w. About average for these types of machines. When the machine isn''t being used for a while, it goes into standby "power save" mode. The 8570DN model will also do automatic duplexing and can print on just about any type of paper or media you ask it to (aside from huge banners), brochures, pamphlets, cards, letters, photos, envelopes etc.

Print quality is very good and Xerox lists the max resolution as 2400dpi for color and black. I was impressed with the color reproduction capabilities of the 8570. The colors were very rich and vibrant, I''d say as good if not a little better than a color laser, and the blacks were very crisp just like a good laser, so nothing to complain about there. The texture of the print is also very nice. Thanks to the solid ink, the prints are shiny and a little raised, giving it the look of a business card, and this will make it so you can get very good print quality even if you are using cheap paper, which is good for cost-savings. However, the quality when printing photos wasn''t that great. I have seen better photos come out of a $150 inkjet printer, but the Xerox can print on glossy or matte photo paper (unlike a laser, which uses heat and would ruin the plastics in the paper) to help the quality, but to be fair this isn''t a photo printer and wasn''t designed to be. Text and graphics came out excellent! I was impressed. One downside is that you can''t laminate ColorCube prints because the heat of the laminator remelts the ink and can cause smudged or blurred texts or graphics, sort of like an out-of-focus camera image.

Paper jams with this machine are pretty rare, and they are painfully reliable. I rarely hear of these breaking down, even under heavy use. If you can, get the extended warranty from Xerox. If it breaks, they send a tech out to fix it for no charge (like Dell''s service). Duty cycles are high, with (as per Xerox''s recommendation) of 85000 images per month. The ink also lasts a long time (provided you don''t turn it off). High volume applications can have the large blocks last for several months before needing to be replaced, and the printer holds a lot of ink. It came with 2 sets of the small blocks, and you could fit up to 4 of those blocks in the slots. Xerox also sells the larger blocks for longer life as well.

Now, for those who have read some less than amicable reviews of this, I will say that for what it was designed to do (print) it does fantastically, but for most of us, the 8570 will be overkill and possibly a little annoying or hard to live with. It is noisy and impractical for anything less than continuous or commercial use (like in an office environment). Turning it on takes forever, and during the warm up process it makes lots of weird noises...clunks, squeaks, hissing, grunts, you name it. My boss said it sounded like a Star Trek Tricorder a couple times! During the print process you get a mechanical racket of clanking and thumping until your print comes out. It''s not obnoxious, but noticeable. It does have a "quiet mode" that did help with the noise, but not a drastic improvement.

The printer does have fans that run to keep parts inside cool, but they aren''t noisy at all, about like a PC fan, but quieter. The room also started to smell a little bit like chemicals, no doubt from the melted ink in the printer, but it went away. Also, when I turned it on, I got a warning saying the maintenance kit wasn''t installed even though it was, so I took it out and put it back In and it was fine. Another annoying thing is that after the initial configuration it printed 8 pages of the printer configuration specifications...what a waste, and after every reset it would print a status page. Annoying. You can turn this feature off though to prevent it from recurring.

The other issue is that the ink is expensive. To replace an entire set will run $100 or more, so you could essentially buy a new inkjet printer with the ink replacement costs of the ColorCube, but again, this is a work machine that costs $500, so in the long run it is still cost-effective because the blocks last a long time. You measure their duty cycle in thousands of pages instead of hundreds like with high capacity inkjet cartridges, which cost about $80 to replace a set of 6 cartridges (like with an HP C6000-7000 series printer) and $50 to replace 4. Others have complained that it wastes ink, and it does, but only if you turn it off. Xerox even recommends that you don''t turn it off unless you absolutely have to. The reason is that the printer keeps some ink in a liquid state so it can use it to print a job instead of waiting to melt some (which takes 15 minutes). When the power to the heater is turned off, it is forced to dump out the melted ink to prevent it from solidifying and clogging (ruining) the print heads. This is why it has a power save mode. Some complain that it doesn''t save power, but it''s really not that bad. The full-load of this machine is over 200 watts, but the at-rest power consumption is about 45 watts. During the power save mode it isn''t that noisy at all. I only heard a really quiet fan running on occasion and that''s it. More than quiet enough for an office, but it''s something else when it''s printing, which is why this wouldn''t be optimum for a home.

On a side note, for those who want to cost costs by buying third-party ink...don''t.

Xerox inks have a proprietary formulation that makes them melt completely and evenly, and the ink particle size is optimized for the printer. Third-party inks are not made the same way with the same formulation, and although you can use them and make them work, it''s not worth the risk of having the ink solidify in the print head or clog it up. Aftermarket inks also have trouble duplicating the colors and saturations the OEM inks do, which is problematic if you want nice prints. So, if you don''t mind running the risk damaging the printer or wasting money on inferior prints, then go for third party inks. Some companies offer a free replacement guarantee where they replace your printer or components if it''s damaged by the ink, but it''s not worth the risk (or downtime!)....just my professional opinion.

So...

Pro''s:

Reliable

Very good print quality for graphics and text

Lots of essential and useful productivity features

Ink lasts a long time

High duty cycle

Fast first print

Easy to set up

Versatile, can use a variety of stock quality, type and size

Con''s:

Printer is a little expensive

Ink is expensive

Big and heavy

It can be annoyingly noisy

Can''t turn it off

Can''t laminate prints due to remelting of the ink

Photo prints not on par with inkjet printers

I really like the Phaser printers and my customers have nothing but good things to say about them. For an office or high volume production environment these are excellent printers! You can''t go wrong with a laser, but the Phaser/ColorCube fills a very specialized niche and can do everything a laser can with added duty cycles and lower costs.

Read Best Reviews of 8570DN - Color Printer Here

I bought this printer to replace a color laser printer. So far I am impressed with this printer, it is quick and the quality is decent. It does not print photographic quality, but color lasers do not either. I have printed on a range of media from plain paper to card stock to transparency foils, and it has handled all of these without issue.

As for the ink being fragile, it will not wear off under normal use. Unless you normally scratch at your prints with your fingernails or other sharp objects. I did compare this to my color laser prints, and the Xerox is slightly more fragile. However, you can fold the prints without any cracking or pealing of the ink.

Overall this is an excellent printer, that will meet our needs for quite a while.

Want 8570DN - Color Printer Discount?

I purchased this printer locally in OKC, OK on July 1 so I could play "20 questions" and run samples of my own files on a flash drive. It was an extremely pleasant experience. However, the current price at PC Nation is better what I paid initially.

The printer uses solid ink that is melted rather than toner or ink that is stored in a liquid state. The printer ships with very small partial blocks installed and one full block / stick of each color (CYMK) in a separate package. The printer holds up to 3 blocks each color at a time. When I first turned on the printer (with full blocks added) two read at 30% full and two at 40%. After 600+ printouts, I''m reading 30% for each; must report in 10% increments.

The printer was purchased to replace both an aging HP LJ4 (purchased for $1100 circa 1992) and an HP PhotoSmart 7350. The LJ could no longer feed from the bypass tray except one at a time and toner was starting to flake off when printing on card-stock or envelopes. The photosmart works well, but is very slow and cartridges are expensive.

I am running the printer on a home network of three computers: 1 Win 7 laptop, 1 Win 7 desktop and 1 Win XP Pro desktop. I''m using a wired LAN connection to my DSL Router. This is great as the other printers were using a centronics parallel port (remember those?) and a USB port on the XP machine, so when it was down, noone could print. The printer is for home use (2 adults, 2 middle schoolers, 1 high schooler) and for printing correspondence for my KofC council. Once placed and turned on, it has not been powered down to conserve ink.

PROS: Text is crisp. I have my monitor calibrated using Spyder 3 and printed images perfectly match the colors of photos in LightRoom. The inkjet produces a sharper image on photo paper, but the color is better with 8570 and printing is much quicker with the 8570; great for proofs before taking the photos to a processor. The image printouts are certainly good enough for general correspondence and school reports. Greatly appreciate having built-in duplex. The vendor was able to print on windowed envelopes, but I haven''t tried and the documentation discourages the practice. Solid ink feels slightly raised, so output seems more impressive. Green: uses less power than HP LJ 4 and the solid ink has far less packaging. As you adjust Tray 1 width, the printer automatically recognizes going from 8.5 x 11 to Commercial #10 envelope and gives you an option to override.

CONS: As others have mentioned, the printer is loud, more so than the HP 4 and definitely more than the inkjet, hence the knock of a star. The envelopes that I use get a crease at the fold of the flap, beginning near the center of the fold edge reaching about 1 mm at the corner of the envelope; no-biggie, but not perfect. Ink is expensive, but it is still less expensive than the inkjet''s; you just have sticker-shock as the solid ink lasts longer so you are actually "buying more" at one time. About 4-5 minutes to wake up from "deep sleep", but fast once it gets going. Also as mentioned by another reviewer, ink flakes off of photo-paper; doesn''t have that issue with other paper.

I was able to get $150 for my HP LJ as a trade-in through Xerox''s "Sure it Works" program. For supplies, my vendor set me up with a Xerox eConcierge account; free extended warranty support with two supply orders through it. I plan on splitting an order of ink to spread out the cost a little and to qualify for the warranty.

Bottom line: I wish I had the printer sooner, especially with the Knights work. Great for general (lower volume) use, but is not meant to be a photo-only printer. If you have higher print volume, recommend the 8870 which is higher in price initially, but has less expensive color ink.

I''ve owned Xerox Phaser and ColorCube printers for more than 10 years. I just got an 8570 as part of a warranty replacement for an older version. Xerox got tired of sending their tech out to fix the old one, and just gave me a new one. For me the bottom line is pretty simple: they''re expensive to own.

GOOD

The print quality is excellent for business letters. It makes my small business look like a big business. This is why I keep the printer.

BAD

The printer costs less than one set of ink! Xerox Ink Genuine 8570 10 Pack Ink Set (4 Black, 2 Yellow, 2 Cyan, and 2 Magenta) And it takes 2 sets of ink to fill the printer.

Breaks down always. There''s wax to melt, nozzles to keep clean, gears to synchronize. The inside of one of these things is incredibly complicated. I spend about $250 a year for a Xerox maintenance contract. I''ve never not used it. But hey, the Xerox guy comes out the next day and I keep a cheap backup laser printer, so breakdowns are only a problem if you don''t buy the warranty.