Xerox Phaser 7300DN Laser Printer (Xerox-7300DN)

Xerox priced the Phaser 7300DN at the low end compared with competing tabloid-size printers--$4199 with an internal duplexer. It is also among the least expensive to supply with toner, using 11 cents' worth of toner per page in PC World's toner-yield test. The 7300DN has blazing text speed: In our tests it printed text at 23.3 pages per minute, which made it the fastest model on our May issue's chart and put it about 50 percent ahead of the chart average. Graphics also printed fast, at 4.3 ppm. The text on our printouts looked very clean and sharp (if a bit light), and the device printed narrow parallel lines distinctly, with perfect definition and no smudging in between. Its gray-scale photos came out too dark, however, and were marred by moire patterns; image detail survived, however. Color prints looked grainy and had some dottiness, but retained detail well.

Xerox embeds help files in the printer's permanent memory, so when you need a reminder, for example, on how to move the printer or how to adjust toner density, you can print a tips sheet from the control panel. A nice touch: The 7300DN's control panel LCD is backlit. From a browser window on your PC or network print server, you can easily keep an eye on the printer's status. Xerox's other documentation gets a neutral score. The printed setup and quick-reference guides consist mostly of illustrations and pointers to information on the CD-ROMs. The driver CD and another disc dedicated to documentation provide excellent animations showing how to set up and maintain the printer, but they rely on short, choppy Acrobat files for troubleshooting, network management, and other topics that should be addressed in detail.