The Xerox WorkCentre 6515/N ($469) is a capable and speedy laser-class all-in-one printer that delivers above-par overall output quality and particularly good text. It's a good choice for a small or micro office looking for a workhorse color multifunction printer. The 6515/N lacks an auto-duplexer and built-in wireless connectivity; if you need those features, you could spring for a higher-end model in Xerox's 6515 line, or go with the likes of the Editors' Choice Dell Color Cloud Multifunction Printer H625cdw ($249.99 at Dell) .

Design and Features

The 6515/N is LED based, meaning that it uses light-emitting diodes instead of lasers as a light source. LED printers have many of the characteristics of laser printers, and are considered laser-class devices. They tend to be a little more compact than similarly equipped laser printers, and the 6515/N is no exception. It measures 19.7 by 16.5 by 19.9 inches (HWD), so you'll still want to put it on a bench or table of its own, and as it weighs 67 pounds, you will want two people to move it into place. A 5-inch color touch screen positioned to the right of the output tray can be tilted upward for easy visibility. Below the display is a port for a USB thumb drive. The printer is topped by a letter-size flatbed scanner and a 50-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF) that supports single-pass two-sided scanning.

Standard paper capacity is 300 sheets, split between a 250-sheet main tray and a 50-sheet multipurpose feeder. An optional 550-sheet tray ($199) can be added, for a maximum paper capacity of 850 sheets. The 6515/N lacks an automatic duplexer for printing on both sides of a sheet of paper, but the otherwise identical Xerox WorkCentre 6515/DN ($549) includes one. With a 50,000-sheet maximum monthly duty cycle and a 3,000-sheet recommended page volume, the 6515/N is suitable for up to heavy-duty printing in a micro or home office or up to medium-duty printing in a small office.

The 6515/N connects via USB or Ethernet. I tested it over an Ethernet connection with a PC running Windows 10 Professional. The 6515/N lacks built-in wireless connectivity, but a related model, the Xerox WorkCentre 6515/DNI ($599), adds both 802.11n Wi-Fi and Wireless Direct, as well as the auto-duplexer. The recommended PostScript driver installs by default, and is what I used for testing; you can also install a PCL driver.

Print Speed

I timed the 6515/N at 28.8 pages per minute (ppm) in printing the text-only (Word) portion of our new business applications suite, nearly matching its rated printing speed of 30ppm. The first-page-out time was 12 seconds. In printing our full business suite, which includes more complex documents in PDF, PowerPoint, and Excel formats in addition to the aforementioned Word document, it averaged 13.1ppm, just short of the 14.7ppm turned in by the Samsung Multifunction ProXpress C3060FW . We can't directly compare the 6515/N speed-wise with printers like the Dell H625cdw and the OKI MC362w ($879.99 at Amazon) , which were tested using our old protocol; suffice it to say that the 6515/N is reasonably fast for its rating and price.

Output Quality

The 6515/N's output quality was above average for a laser-class printer, with excellent text, slightly above-par graphics, and average photos. Text output should be good enough for any business use, even those that require very small type, at least with standard fonts.

Graphics should be fine for most business uses, including PowerPoint handouts. Their main downside was a slight blotchiness visible in some dark backgrounds.

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Photos should be good enough for use in company newsletters, but not for marketing materials. In a couple of cases, colors appeared overly saturated. There was a slight loss of detail in bright areas in a couple of prints.

Overall output quality for the 6515/N was better than with the OKI MC362w, especially for text. The Samsung C3060FW couldn't quite match the 6515/N's text, but did a bit better with both graphics and photos. While the Dell H625cdw printed better graphics than the Xerox, its text wasn't quite as sharp.

Running Costs

Running costs, based on Xerox's price and yield figures for the 6515/N's toner, drums, and waste bin, come to 2.5 cents per black page and 14 cents per color page. These figures are reasonably typical of a printer of its price and capabilities, with the color costs a touch on the high side. The Dell H625cdw has costs of 2.2 cents per black page and 12.8 cents per color page, the OKI MC362w has costs of 2.8 cents for black and 13.9 cents for color, and the Samsung C3060FW comes in at 2.4 cents for black and 13.6 cents for color.

Conclusion

As the base model in Xerox's 6515 line, the WorkCentre 6515/N is fairly low priced for a color laser-class all-in-one printer, while eschewing an auto-duplexer and built-in wireless connectivity. If you need those functions, the Xerox 6515/DNI fits the bill, as do the Dell H625cdw, the OKI MC362w, and the Samsung C3060DW. The 6515/N stands out for its text quality, but the Editors' Choice Dell H625cdw has better graphics quality and a more robust feature set, and lists for an even lower price than the 6515/N.

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