Product Reviews

The majority of multifunction devices, which have been popping up with ever increasing frequency of late, offer a low-cost mono or colour inkjet print engine combined with scanner, copier and fax capabilities. While these devices can be great space savers, quality - which rarely matches that produced by the equivalent individual devices - is usually the first casualty. Canon attempted to remedy this with its MultiPass L60 (reviewed issue 54, p179), which marries a 600dpi laser printer with a scanner, fax and copier, but we weren't impressed with its output quality or high price.

Xerox has decided to go in the opposite direction with its WorkCentre range, ditching not only the modem component but also the scanning facilities. What you get instead is a decent 600 « 600dpi mono laser printer with a standalone photocopier dropped on top.

The WorkCentre range comprises three models with the identical XD100 and XD102 aimed at catalogue and direct sales, while the XD104 on review is available from main dealers. All offer the same resolution along with speeds of 8ppm for printing and 10ppm for copying. Each uses the same bulky chassis, which contains the printer assembly in its base, and the copier on top. However, the XD104 has a couple of differences: the first is an extra, 50-sheet capacity paper tray, and the second is its Book mode which allows you to automatically copy facing pages of a document on to separate sheets of paper. All of the models use a Windows GDI driver for printing, so performance will depend on the specification of the host PC, and although its standard memory is a mere 4Mb - which cannot be upgraded - I found it to be adequate.

At the top of the machine, you'll find a comprehensive control panel. This is primarily concerned with copier functions and allows you to select up to 100 copies at once, as well as specify reduction and enlargement ratios in one per cent increments from 50 up to 200 per cent of the original size. There are also six preset sizes available, as well as a customisable setting. In addition, you can set up a maximum of 14 different custom profiles, where groups

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of settings such as output magnification, default paper tray, image quality and contrast can be stored for quick access.

Below this is a single base tray with a capacity for 250 sheets of A4-sized paper, and an output tray that can handle up to 100 sheets at a time. Consumables consist of a toner cartridge (£115) and drum assembly (£130), both of which are easily accessible behind a small panel at the front. Unfortunately, these don't last that long and the result is prohibitively high printing costs. An average yield of 6,000 and 18,000 pages respectively, at five per cent coverage per page, gives an overall cost of 2.63p per page - the highest we have seen from any laser printer. It's just as well the XD104 has a 50 per cent toner-saving mode; you'll need to use it just to keep running costs down.

On a brighter note, I found that print and copy speeds were easily up to Xerox's claims. Attached to a Pentium II/266 system running Windows 98, it completed a 15-page text-only Word document in 110 seconds - an average speed of a touch over 8ppm - and the 23-page PC Pro monochrome printer test was dispatched almost as efficiently at a rate of 7ppm. This tough test, which combines large graphics and heavy formatting, has had many printers struggling so I was impressed to see such a small drop in speed.

The overall print quality at 600dpi was good too, with text sharp at all font sizes, and photographic image output marginally better than that produced by printers such as Kyocera's 8ppm FS-800 (reviewed issue 46, p158) and Oki's OkiPage 10i (reviewed issue 47, p152). Although a certain amount of graininess marred the overall effect, high levels of detail were evident and banding was kept to a minimum. It wasn't good enough, however, to beat HP's LaserJet 1100a combined laser, scanner and copier (reviewed issue 52, p179), which produced much smoother and more detailed results from its 600dpi engine.

Copying performance was just as competent: the XD104 managed to produce ten copies of a single page in just 63 seconds for 9.5ppm. Output quality was again impressive and, although I had to fiddle with the density settings for some test copies, I found that the levels of detail were superior to most standard photocopiers.

Small to medium-sized offices that require laser quality printing and good photocopy facilities will find that the WorkCentre XD104 will deal with these demands competently. It is, however, a tad expensive, and its value-for-money rating is driven down further by the high printing costs. If scanning facilities are also on your wish list, check out the more flexible HP LaserJet 1100a which is substantially cheaper and delivers similar print and copy speeds.