Review

Xerox Workcentre XE90fx

If you're like most small business owners, space is a highly-prized commodity. There's barely enough room for all the desks and computers, never mind a printer, fax machine, photocopier and scanner.

So do you have to sacrifice one because of your space constraints? Not with the Xerox Workcentre XE90fx, which combines the power of all four devices into one unit. It will not only save you space, it will also save you money by providing most of the office equipment you'll need in one unit.

Considering the Xerox Workcentre XE90fx does four things, it's remarkably compact. How does it keep its size down? All four components share the same glass tray which reads documents for scanning, faxing and photocopying. You can even send a fax and print at the same time.

Even when not connected to a computer or network, it can operate independently to fax and copy.

Materials can be loaded through the document feeder for large jobs.

Once you have your materials ready to process, you simply load paper and go. It can hold as many as 250 sheets and accepts a number of formats including letter, legal, A4, A5, B5 and envelopes. However, trying to load too much paper may try your patience.

An annoyingly high rate of paper jams and general loading errors were encountered when the unit was loaded with almost the maximum amount of paper, however. Luckily, this was one of the only problems encountered.
The laser printer produced crisp, sharp documents at 600 by 600 dpi (dots per inch) at a consistently quick speed. The printer lived up to Xerox's claims of eight pages per minute.

One possible drawback for a small business is the lack of a color printing option. If you need to print in color, you'll have to buy a second printer or get color printing done elsewhere.

In addition, the scanner does not scan photos well, in color or in black and white. There's nothing to stop you from trying to scan a photo, but the end result is so pixelated it's not worth the effort.

The OCR (optical character recognition) works quite well, for everything from printed documents to newspaper articles. Simply scan the text you want to capture, load the included OCR software and, with a minimal amount of work, the document's text can be exported to your word processor.

For this price, you wouldn't expect color photocopying, so its exclusion isn't a letdown. Neither is the copy quality, assuming you'll never need to copy anything larger than the glass surface (8.5 by 14 inches). All the standard options you'd expect are there, including the ability to enlarge, lighten or darken.

Again, Xerox met its claim of copying eight pages per minute and the results were good.

The fax machine's speed was reliable, transmitting about six pages per minute. It also has memory to store up to 100 incoming or outgoing faxes, so you can store a frequently faxed document or accept a fax even if the paper tray is empty.

You can get 1,000 to 8,000 printouts and copies out of each toner cartridge, depending on your use. Eco-friendly users will be happy to know that Xerox has a recycling option with its toner cartridges so you can help stop needless garbage and save a few dollars by returning your empties.

If you need to scan photos or print in color, this combination unit is not for you -- having to purchase a color printer or separate scanner defeats the purpose of the Xerox Workcentre XE90fx's "all-in-one" selling point.

But if you don't need color printing or photo scans, the Xerox Workcentre XE90fx is an economical, well thought out, space saving machine that will suit the budget and needs of most small businesses.

Reviewer's rating: 4.25 / 5

Comments: If you need to use even two of the machine's capabilities, the Xerox Workcentre XE90fx will save you space and money without sacrificing quality. The lack of color may turn off some users.

Platform: PC
Interface: Parallel port
Network capability?: Yes
Color?: No
Maximum resolution (printer): B&W: 600 x 600
Maximum resolution (copy): B&W: 600 x 600
Maximum resolution (scan): B&W: 400 x 600
Maximum resolution (fax): B&W: 200 x 400
Modem speed: 14.1kbps
Maximum optical resolution (scanner): 600 x 2400
Printed pages per minute (manufacturer's claim): 8 pages a minute
Copied pages per minute (manufacturer's claim): 8 pages a minute
Faxed pages per minute (manufacturer's claim): 6 pages a minute
Paper sizes: letter, legal, A4, A5, B5 and envelopes
Maximum scanning area: 8.5 inches x 11.7 inches
Sheetfeed: Yes

More info: http://www.xerox.com

Approximate Price: $559.99 US, $900 Canadian

Where to buy on-line: Amazon.com