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WHAT'S HOT: The Phaser 860N uses solid-ink technology, which heats blocks of wax and bonds the molten ink to the paper instead of using a toner and a fuser. Solid ink technology is less expensive than that used in laser printers and helps keep the Phaser 860N's price down to a reasonable $2399. The 860N also prints color graphics at 2.8 pages per minute, which is the fastest graphics printing we've seen.

The 860N is part of the Tektronix line of printers. In an effort to persuade monochrome laser users to make the leap to color, Tektronix began providing free black ink for the life of the printer several years ago, and Xerox has continued that policy since acquiring Tektronix's printer division. Monochrome users may also be persuaded by the 860N's text quality, which is clean, dark, and even.

WHAT'S NOT: The 860N's 7.2-ppm text-printing speed isn't fast enough to convince monochrome users to take the chance with color. Also, the solid-ink technology requires a long warm-up period (10 to 15 minutes) while the waxy ink melts. Once the 860N starts printing, it clanks, knocks, whirs, and whistles so loudly that you won't want to be in the same room, and another reason to lock it away in a separate room is the burning-plastic odor of the molten ink.

The main paper tray doesn't hold legal-size paper, and the auxiliary tray, which can process legal-size, is the hand-fed, single-sheet kind. The 860N has one of the most baffling control panels we've seen--hierarchies have no discernible organization, and the same items sometimes appear under more than one menu. Finally, both color and gray-scale images show a dotty texture and poor detail, while narrow parallel lines overlap and drop out; the prints look like they were made on a low-cost ink jet.

WHAT ELSE: If you need more paper capacity, you can add one or two 500-sheet feeders ($599 each). An internal duplexer comes standard on the more-expensive DP and DX models ( PC World did not test those models). Though we found the control panel confusing, the big and backlit LCD has extensive on-screen tips and how-to guides.

BEST USE: The fast color printing and free black ink may entice users who do a lot of printing, but other printers in the same price range provide more capabilities and less aggravation.

SUMMARY

Xerox Phaser 860N Rated 10-ppm monochrome/10-ppm color, solid-ink laser, standard 64MB of RAM, 464-by-928-dpi maximum resolution, 200 sheets input, 250 output. $2399 877/362-6567 www.xerox.com/officeprinting