The Xerox Phaser 8860 is a solid ink printer that could save you money. Most of us crave color printing capabilities, but the cost -- which can be as much as three times the cost of monochrome printing -- requires many of us to stick with grayscale. With their Phaser 8860, however, Xerox claims that monochrome and color printing cost about the same.

The 8860 uses solid ink technology instead of the more common laser or inkjet. This technology uses solid waxy ink blocks that are heated until they become liquid, and then places the liquid waxed ink on a drum, where it's then transferred to the page. The result is not only crisp, clean and accurate color and grayscale images, but also a per-page cost as low as 2 cents. This makes the Phaser 8860 one of the least-expensive color printers to operate and puts the cost of color printing on approximately the same level as that of monochrome printing.

This workhorse printer includes USB and Ethernet connectivity. You can also add optional IEEE 802.11a/b/g capability for wireless printing. The 8860 supports print speeds of up to 30ppm, and features full duplex printing as shipped.

Print quality is very good, although images tend to be glossy because of the wax content of the ink. Images also tend to have a raised look because the ink stays on top of the paper. Text quality is on par with laser printers, with easy readability even at small font sizes. We were also pleased with this model's color output quality; images have deep, saturated color with accurate rendition.

Solid ink printing does have a few problems. Because the ink must be heated, it takes anywhere from 5 seconds to 17 minutes for the first page to print, unless you leave the printer on all the time. Also, because the ink remains on top of the page, cracking can occur if a page is repeatedly folded.

With its impressive output quality and low per-page output costs, the Xerox Phaser 8860 may be an ideal printer for a workgroup or small business that needs color printing capabilities.


Pros: Vibrant color, low per-page costs for color and monochrome printing, high monthly duty cycle
Cons: Long cold-start time, ink remains on top of paper

Warranty
1 year, limited