The Xerox Phaser 6128MFP colour laser multifunction printer could be a good choice for low-volume users who have exacting colour needs.
It sells for a nice, low price and produces high-quality output - but it does so slowly, and at a high consumables cost.
The Xerox Phaser 6128MFP's greatest strength is its output quality, aside from one notable quirk. Scans and copies look good, and anything using black toner alone looks great: printed text and line art come out perfectly formed, and our monochrome photo showed depth and good shading.
Colour images appeared accurate, with impressive textures, contours, and details. Surprisingly, however, our Xerox Phaser 6128MFP unit struggled with printing straight edges in colour: whether it was the side of a photograph or a plain bar of colour, the edge was wavy. Xerox advised us to run a number of specific calibration routines; these lessened but did not eliminate the problem.
Unfortunately, the Xerox Phaser 6128MFP's attractive output emerged slowly. Xerox claims modest print speeds of 16 pages per minute for black text and 12ppm for colour graphics, but in our tests it fell well short of those speeds, managing 12.9ppm for text and 3.5ppm for colour. Copy and scan speeds were slower than average, too. On the other hand, regardless of what the MFP is doing, it does it with impressively little noise.
Because of its sluggish performance, the Xerox Phaser 6128MFP is best suited for light use. The main paper tray holds 250 sheets, and you can't add further capacity. The tray feels slightly flimsy, especially when it's extended for legal paper.
Instead of including a multipurpose tray, Xerox equips the Xerox Phaser 6128MFP with a manual-feed slot. Duplexing is manual, too. The automatic document feeder (ADF) can hold up to 35 pages for copying or scanning. The control panel, which features a four-line monochrome LCD, can be confusing because buttons aren't segregated by function.
The toner cartridges come out in a single, weighty stack that you must lift over the exposed transfer belt. The thumbscrews that release the stack are easy to see but not easy to figure out, and one of them fell out during our testing.
The Xerox Phaser 6128MFP's expensive toner is its biggest drawback. It ships with relatively puny, 1,000-page starter supplies for all four colours - so you'll have to buy replacements sooner rather than later.
Running costs are above average.
