| Xerox Multifunction Devices provide top quality printing, copying and scanning together in one easy, cost-efficient solution. Flexible media weights, outstanding print speeds, and incredible network capabilities are just a few of the differences you’ll find that come standard with Xerox multifunction printers. As inventors of the laser printer, Ethernet and copier – Xerox knows multifunction the best. Xerox has absolute market leadership in color quality and productivity. Gartner and BLI (Buyer's Labs) prove that Xerox Multifunction devices are the only true multifunction devices on the market. All machine specs and brochures will make you believe there is little difference between models and therefore some decide to buy the lowest cost model. But print speed specs don't tell the whole story. Everybody's machine will run at rated speed as a copier, but today, most companies print 80% of their volume and only 20% is copying. How a machine performs as a network printer in an actual networked user environment with multiple jobs from different applications is the true test of performance. We have personally witnessed a side by side test of multiple Xerox devices run side by side with a half dozen competitive machines all printing the same set of print jobs and Xerox won every single time, and not by a small amount of time either. Xerox controllers have a goal to "keep the paper path full". They will jump ahead in the queue and process large jobs ahead of time in order to keep paper moving. If a job requires a paper type or tray that is not available, that job is held and it goes on to the next job. The competitive devices ALL stop and wait. Xerox also has exclusive Smart Trays that report the paper size and status dynamically and automatically back to the client print driver. These differences and more add up to a much higher value for Xerox. If you want the overall best value and most user friendly product, Xerox is sincerely the winner. Color / Black & White |  | HP is best known for its solid performing laser printers; which is why the technology of the LaserJet printers was incorporated into their multifunction products. HP is very universal in any environment, straight-forward and very user friendly. While you won’t get the “jump off the page” vibrant colors when compared with Xerox, you will get a performer that will beat any other comparable product – hands down. Expect to be completely satisfied with the printing or any other single function in itself – just not the simultaneous multifunction capabilities. Color / Black & White |  | Konica does incorporate its camera/imaging technology into its product; however, the heart of the company is not in printing. While Konica will do the job for you, it will not impress anyone in terms of image quality, throughput or features. It is built to be a baseline multifunction product at a low price and it is just that. Expect a machine that will bottleneck, have difficult to navigate menus but is still fairly reliable. Color / Black & White | 
| Ricoh is the price leader in equipment acquisition costs. Often, you will find much of the same functionality as comparable manufactures – but you will quickly notice why their product leads in respect to acquisition costs. Build quality and output efficiency is not to be expected on a Ricoh product. If lowest possible capital cost is the biggest concern, Ricoh may be the answer. However, expect high total cost of ownership, increased downtime and significantly slower than average processing and printing speeds. Color / Black & White |  | Canon was one of the earlier manufactures to produce multifunction products. Canon has slowed in its evolution and still bases some of its products off of designs from over eight years ago. Canon product cost is typically high but output is still above average. Canon does not particularly lead in any category of image quality, output speeds or functionality - but all around you will get a solid product. Canon is closest and probably the only other manufacturer which can compete with Xerox in color quality; while you won’t get the impressive quality as you will from Xerox, you will not get the poor quality as you will from others. In the side by side real world network printing tests mentioned in the Xerox section, Canon was among the slowest in the group. Color / Black & White |
|
