A close competitor to the Editors' Choice HP LaserJet Pro MFP M521dn, the Xerox WorkCentre 3615/DN offers the same kind of credentials as a monochrome laser workhorse, only more so. Like the HP printer, it delivers all the multifunction printer (MFP) features a small office needs, but with a higher duty cycle (the number of pages it can print per month), a higher input capacity, and faster speed. The combination is enough to edge out the HP printer and make the 3615/DN the new Editors' Choice for heavy-duty use in a small to mid-size office or workgroup

Like the HP printer, the 3615/DN offers a full set of basic MFP features. It can print and fax from, as well as scan to, a computer, including over a network, and it can work as a standalone copier, fax machine, and direct email sender. In addition, it can both print from and scan to a USB memory key, although, unlike the HP printer, it won't let you preview an image before printing on its 4.3-inch touch-screen control panel.

Assuming you connect the 3615/DN to a network, it will also support mobile printing, both for printing through the cloud and printing over Wi-Fi from iOS, Android, and Windows phones and tablets. Note that for printing over Wi-Fi, you need a Wi-Fi access point on the network. You can optionally add Wi-Fi as a connection choice for the printer ($99.99 direct), but it doesn't support Wi-Fi Direct for connecting directly to mobile devices.

Pushing Paper

The 3615/DN's paper handling is one of its biggest strengths. The 110,000-page maximum monthly duty cycle and recommended 12,000-page maximum per month for regular use, is substantially higher than the HP printer offers, which makes the 3615/DN suitable for heavier-duty use. In addition, it offers a higher paper capacity, with a 550-sheet drawer and 150-sheet multipurpose tray standard, along with a built-in duplexer (for two-sided printing).

The 700-sheet total should be enough for most small to mid-size offices with medium-duty print needs. If you need more, however, you can add up to three additional 550-sheet drawers ($199.99 direct each) for a maximum 2,350-sheet capacity.

The printer also does well on paper handling for scanning. Like most office MFPs, it offers both a flatbed scanner and automatic document feeder (ADF). Unlike many, including the M521dn, both the flatbed and the 60-page ADF can handle up to legal-size paper. Even better, the ADF can duplex for scanning, copying, faxing, and emailing, by scanning one side of the page, turning it over, and scanning the other. For copying, the combination of duplex printing and duplexing ADF lets you copy both single- and double-sided originals to your choice of single- or double-sided copies.

The duplexing ADF is a bit of a mixed blessing. On the one hand, it isn't as fast as a duplexing scanner, like the one in the M521dn, which scans both sides of the page at the same time. On the other, being able to duplex at all is a lot better than being limited to simplex (one-sided) scanning only. And unlike the M521dn, the 3615/DN has the advantage of letting you scan duplex originals when faxing also, which makes it the more capable of the two in at least that respect.

Setup and Speed

As is typical for this class of MFP, the 3615/DN is too big to comfortably share a desk with, at 21.6 by 19.5 by 19.4 inches (HWD). It's also heavy enough, at 47.4 pounds, that you'll probably want some help moving it into place. Setup is standard fare as well. For my tests, I connected the printer to a wired network and installed the drivers on a Windows Vista system.

Speed isn't a particular strong point for the 3615/DN, but it's not a problem either. The engine rating is 47 pages per minute (ppm) in simplex mode and 28 ppm in duplex. Both of these are the speeds you should see when printing text pages with little or no formatting. One minor complication is that the driver is set to print in duplex mode by default, which means I had to use duplex mode for our official tests. However, I also ran the tests in simplex mode.

Surprisingly, the printer came in at essentially the same speed on our business applications suite in either mode. I timed it (using QualityLogic's hardware and software for timing) at 9.9 ppm for its official result, and a nearly identical 10.0 ppm in simplex mode. Either way, the speed counts as more than acceptable, but not impressive. It makes the 3615/DN significantly faster than the LaserJet Pro MFP M521dn, at 5.3 ppm, but slower than some less expensive printers, including the Editors' Choice Brother MFC-8950DWSEE IT, at 10.6 ppm for example, and the Canon imageClass MF4770n, at 12.3 ppm

Output Quality and Other Issues
The 3615/DN's output quality is well within the typical range for mono laser MFPs across the board. Text is dead on par, making it easily good enough for virtually any business need. However, it's not a match for the M521dn's text quality, which is suitable for desktop publishing applications.

Graphics and photo quality are both at the high end of par for a mono laser. For graphics, that makes the output good enough for any internal business need. Depending on how critical an eye you have, you may also consider it good enough for, say, PowerPoint handouts. For photos, that translates to being potentially high enough quality for one-page handouts or the like, depending once again on how demanding you are.

Two other issues that demand mention, finally, are private printing (which Xerox calls secure printing), and the ability to save jobs in the printer. Private printing lets you send a job to the printer and tell it to wait until you enter a PIN code at the front panel before printing it. This can be helpful if you need to print something you don't want others to see.

Saving jobs lets you store forms or other pages you use repeatedly in the printer, so you can print them with front-panel commands. This can be particularly convenient with printers that offer a touch screen like the one on the 3615/DN. For the feature to be truly useful, however, you need to add the optional Productivity Kit ($349.99 list), which lets the printer retain the stored jobs even if you turn it off.

The Xerox WorkCentre 3615/DN is a highly capable printer for heavy-duty use. If you need particularly high-quality text, you may prefer the HP LaserJet Pro MFP M521dn. For most offices however, the Xerox printer offers the far more attractive combination of features, with excellent paper handling, par or better speed and output quality, and assorted conveniences like private printing. Factor in the low claimed running cost as well, at 1.7 cents per page, and the Xerox WorkCentre 3615/DN is an easy pick for Editors' Choice.