Review of the Xerox Phaser 6130 Color Laser Printer
by editor on Jun.29, 2010, under News
The Phaser 6130 is a color laser printer that packs a lot of printer into a small package. At $449, the Phaser 6130 is a bargain . The Phaser 6130 is small (the size of a 15 inch cube) and doesn’t weigh much for a laser printer (about 38 pounds). Even though it is smaller than most color laser printers , it may still a little too big as a true desktop printer .
Something to consider with any color printer is not just the initial cost , but how expensive the consumables are . The 6130 toner cartridges are rather expensive. You can save a lot by buying off-brand toner . We did our tests on the 6130 using Discount Phaser 6130 ink cartridges
Configuring the color laser is a piece of cake. Since the printer is so compact, you do all the setting up safely by yourself . Just snap the toner cartridges in place. Then all you have to do is connect the printer via USB or Ethernet , power it up, and insert the included software CD to install the printer driver .
The installation of networking with the 6130 is noteworthy for its simplicity . Locating the printer on the network and installing the Windows Vista driver took no time at all.
The Phaser 6130’s speed over a 10/100 Base-T Ethernet connection was adequate, but not impressive . It took more than 20 seconds to print a single-page Word document, about a minute to print a 10-page document , just under 2 and a half minutes to print a 25MB Photoshop image , and about a minute to print four pages from a PDF.
One of the Phaser 6130′s issues is that if the printer driver is set for color, the 6130 will always print in the 12-ppm color mode even if all you’re printing is black-and-white text. If it’s set for black and white, it will print at 16 ppm, but it will print everything, including color documents, in black and white. I’d expect most people will simply leave the printer in the default color mode instead of checking the setting each time. I ran all my tests based on that assumption.
As far as printing in color , the 6130 doesn’t distinguish itself . Most reviewers gave the 6130′s color-photo printing a 5 out of 10 rating because colors were subdued compared to the original photo. As for gradient fill and line printing, the Phaser 6130 scored a Good rating . The color ratings were the same whether we used the included OEM toner or in a machine where we installed compatible Xerox Phaser 6130 color toner cartridges .
The Phaser 6130 tested impressively in its ability to print clean , clear grayscale text . The Phaser 6130 handles any text you give it and textual printing quality was very good. Printed text was readable all the way down to 4 points. Most fonts needed no more than 6 points to be perfectly legible . Even a extremely cursive font with thick strokes printed legibly at 12 points. We had no trouble producing the same textual clarity with the low-cost Phaser 6130 black toner cartridges .
The Phaser 6130 is a smart choice for the budget-conscious , since it provides some advanced features at an affordable price. It is very affordable and prints adequately for most small office jobs. Unless you are trying to print high-quality full color graphics on a large scale, the Phaser 6130 color laser printer should meet most of your needs .
