Xerox Phaser 8400/N Solid-Ink Color Printer

Before finding this one, I had purchased an HP color laser in the same price range, thinking that a color laser would certainly be the best option for me! Was I ever wrong!! What a disappointment, at least the one I bought! Extremely noisy, slow and constant paper jams. I only had it for one day (well, only part of a day!) and was completely fed up! So I sent it back and hoped I could find something better that wouldn't break the bank!

Then, a friend of mine recommended Xerox. I figured they would be too expensive, but what the heck... never hurts to look! Then lo and behold, the salesman came to my house and showed me the Phaser line of printers (as well as the more expensive color lasers). Wow -- something nice in my price range! In this brand, the Phaser and color laser printers looked pretty comparable in print (all fantastic!!), but with my budget, the solid ink Phaser seemed like the way to go. (It's about a thousand dollars cheaper than their comparable color laser, if I remember correctly. And I can think of other things to do with a thousand extra dollars!!)

I was skeptical at first, however, considering that this "solid ink system" is a newer technology. Thought I might be taking a risk, but the samples I saw from this printer were just as good (actually better!) than those of printers I had seen elsewhere at three times the price! I was absolutely blown away!!! All of their printers have terrific print quality, but since this was the cheaper one, I decided to go for it! Seemed like a bargain in comparison to everything else I had seen.... trust me, I looked everywhere! You can find many color laser printers for two to three times the money that don't even come close to the Phaser 8400's print quality! Everyone who sees my prints is always very impressed. It's the "star" of my office and just makes me look good!

The Phaser is incredibly fast, quiet and always dependable! The controls and interface are easy to use, and if you can't figure something out, you can even print out a manual from the front control panel. It couldn't be any easier! I absolutely love it and highly recommend this printer to anyone needing high-quality color printing... who wants to wait forever for inkjet prints? With this, you get things almost instantly! Great for impatient people like myself!!

And you never have to buy special paper. Because of the waxy feel of the ink, your prints are always crisp, glossy and professional, even on cheap paper. In fact, it seems to print best on just regular 20-24 lb stock, as well as card stock. The ink is quite expensive, but at least you'll save money on paper! (Keep in mind that you cannot use the photo paper that is made for inkjet printers or the special glossy color laser paper -- it will smear!) But who cares? Your prints look glossy on regular paper anyway, so you don't need anything special!

The only real downfall is that it has to stay powered on for the ink to stay melted... this results in a very warm (okay, HOT!) office, so you do need to have good ventilation or air conditioning in warm weather. But to me, that's a minor issue that I can compensate for.... it's worth it for such a quality printer. (It automatically goes to "power saver" mode after being idle for a while, though, so that does help.)

The ink seems quite expensive (about $400 to fill it with all four colors... ouch!), but when you consider how long it lasts, it's possibly cheaper than an inkjet in the long run. I've had this printer for four months and have only had to buy ink ONCE so far... with my old inkjet I was buying at least 2 new cartridges every month (at $50 each)!! So it's probably not as expensive as it seems, when you figure the cost per page. (And remember, you're saving money on paper!!)

I should also mention that the support from Xerox has been outstanding as well! They are always there to answer questions and have been happy to help with anything, large or small! True professionals that care about their customers! Everyone I dealt with was very friendly. Nice people! (Hey, good customer service is very important... seems like that's lacking in too many companies today, but not Xerox!)

So as you can tell, I am very satisfied with this purchase. Yes, it was a little expensive for someone used to an inkjet printer, but for this quality, it was definitely worth it and I have no regrets whatsoever. A great value when you consider the cost of a similar color laser printer -- anything that even comes close will cost you two to three times as much as this one! And if you compare the Phaser with everything in its OWN price range, there is just NO comparison! The Xerox Phaser 8400 just blows away the competition! It's just unbelievable! Compare them for yourself and you'll see what I mean!!

Keep in mind that if you only need something for home use or don't even print that often, this is too much printer for you.... go ahead and stick with an inkjet. But if you need a great office or graphics printer, this is it!!

To describe it in just one word, it's AWESOME!!!!!


Professional print quality at a fraction of the cost   December 11, 2004
Diana Sanchez (San Francisco, CA USA)
15 out of 15 found this review helpful

This machine was just installed in my office, and it's like a dream come true. The quality of the "solid ink" (really, a colored wax block) on regular paper is something comparable to the pages you'd find in professional, high-gloss magazines. The wax actually melts onto the paper, creating photo-print quality output. We have only used the regular stock paper, so I do not know what the output is like on cardstock or any of the glossier types of material.

I work for academic support, needing to print out flyers, brochures, invitations, as well as quality check graphics being submitted for publication in textbooks or syllabi. Before this printer, we ended up outsourcing print jobs to another departments and vendors. We had a color inkjet that would run out of ink and streak after very few printings. The Phaser replaced that machine. There is no comparing the output of the old printer to this new one. The Phaser just blows any other color printer in this price range out of the water.

One drawback, however, is that the Phaser does require a 15 minute "warm-up" period before you can start printing, in order to melt the wax. This is the reason for four stars instead of five. If your machine goes into sleep mode, you will have to warm up the wax again even if you just did a print job. The smell of the wax can also be a little stuffy, if you are in a small office like I am. If you are just printing black & white text w/ no graphics you may want to have a separate laser or even inkjet to do that job. However, for high-quality graphics like pics, slides, artwork, and such, the output of the Phaser is well worth the wait.

I am also an art/graphic design student on the side, an am seriously considering purchasing a Phaser for personal use at home, based on its perfomance on the job. It outputs magazine quality color prints on regular paper, and with all those saved trips to Kinkos in the middle of the night for this type of print to submit for class, not to mention the money to be saved from such adventures, the Phaser looks to be worth every penny.


Living with an 8400   July 23, 2005
Leon W. Blocker (Muscatine, Iowa United States)
10 out of 10 found this review helpful

Everyone else has already covered the basics, and I shall not further beat the horse to glue. Here are the realities to happy 8400 ownership, and ignore them at your own peril :

1. Use the highest quality paper you can get. High quality is defined as at least 24 lb. paper, at least 94 briteness. Yes, the 8400 makes any crappy piece of paper look good, but you have a fantastic COLOR printer, so go the very little extra and get the paper to really make the color shine.

2. Never EVER shut the power off. The dirty little secret of the 8400 is how much ink it will suck down if you try to save on electricity and power it down overnight. Wrong move. It will eat ink like there is no tomorrow if you do. Preferably, set the 8400 for the longest sleep setting there is - 240 minutes. Once you plug it in and configure it, then leave it alone.

3. Most of the time the lower (or even lowest!) quality settings will MORE than suffice, and save you a bundle on ink. Did I say run it there all the time? No. Use the print settings in whatever program you are using to ramp up the quality if you need eye-popping color. Most of the time, however, you and your wallet will be more than pleased with the 8400 parked in the lower settings.

That's about it.

This is a fantastic printer for the money. Feed the 8400 great paper, keep it turned on, and take advantage of the lower quality settings and it should be a stellar performer for any SO/HO.


Would never ever recommend this printer   July 30, 2006
Linda Rogers (NYC)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful

The cleaning cycle on this machine scrapes off piles of melted ink everytime the machine is rebooted. Xerox advises you to keep the machine on all the time. That helps only if you don't have power outages or other problems that require you to reboot the printer.
Since last year... and I've measured the weight of the waste on a postal scale... I've discarded the equivalent of 8 blocks of ink at about $30 each. Considering I've purchased and loaded 64 blocks of ink since August, that's a considerable loss.

In addition, color is very important to my work as I'm a graphic designer who does short runs for my clients. The color color has become faded over time, especially the blues.

Also, if you print on coated photo paper, the color peels off.






Love the Xerox 8400N!   February 20, 2005
CMcQ (Atlanta, GA USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

Maybe I'm a printer-holic: I have an Epson Photo R200 for photos. I have a Primera Signature Z6 for CDs (fantastic printer, by the way). But I needed a fast, reliable printer for handouts and training materials. I work in Illustrator and InDesign, and PostScript Level 3 was critical. This printer is genuine Adobe PostScript (not "PretendScript" like other printers), and it shows. But, beyond that, the entire experience is superior: the manufacturing standards are splendid (great fit and finish!), and the set-up guide is perfect--you can't go wrong. The little ink sticks are shape-coated so that even a trained squirrel could load them. The "walk-up installation" that finds Windows boxes and says "hello" automatically is wonderful. It's speedy, sharp and chock full of great features I didn't know I'd love. I highly recommend this printer!