Xerox Delivers Black Prints, Color Scans

Most inexpensive multifunction devices use color ink jet technology to perform printing functions. That's great if you want color capabilities, but most businesses require the crisp output that only a laser print engine can provide. Xerox has responded to the needs of small businesses with its WorkCentre 390. This model--which can handle printing, scanning, faxing, and copying--uses a monochrome laser print engine and features a sheet-fed color scanner, so you won't sacrifice the accuracy of your scans. And the $450 price makes it a viable choice for any size office.

A Stand-Alone MFD

Installation of the WorkCentre 390 went smoothly on our test PC. The drivers on the included CD-ROM allow the printer, fax, and TWAIN-compatible scanner to work with Windows 95, 98, NT 4.0, or 2000. You can hook the device up to your PC through either the parallel port connection or the Universal Serial Bus connection. (Only a parallel cable is included.) However, we appreciated the convenience of operating the WorkCentre 390 as a stand-alone fax machine and copier--which you can do regardless of whether the unit is attached to a PC. Unlike some competitors (such as Hewlett-Packard), Xerox doesn't provide a command center to access all of the device's functions; as a result, you must launch separate apps to perform each task.

The WorkCentre 390 is a good printer, providing a 600-dpi print engine rated at 10 pages per minute by Xerox--not as fast as the speediest network lasers, but good enough for most small or home offices. Its print quality is praiseworthy; we were particularly impressed with the crisp black text and detailed, accurate line art. Both were as good as the output from any stand-alone laser printer you might buy for a home office. (The quality of printed gray-scale photos did leave something to be desired, but that's par for inexpensive monochrome lasers.)

As with other inexpensive MFDs, the WorkCentre 390's fax functionality is what you'd expect from a baseline fax machine, with such features as speed dial, deferred sending, and fax polling. On the other hand, the unit's 2MB of memory may prove limiting to businesses with high fax volume, since it doesn't leave much breathing room for printing, handling incoming faxes, and storing deferred faxes.