Pros & Cons
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- Excellent text quality.
- Slightly above-par graphics.
- ADF supports single-pass, two-sided scanning.
- Includes Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi Direct connectivity options.
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- Similar printers deliver better graphics and photo quality.
- Limited optional paper capacity for its price.
Xerox WorkCentre 6515/DNI Specs
| Automatic Document Feeder | |
| Color or Monochrome | 1-pass color |
| Connection Type | Ethernet |
| Connection Type | USB |
| Connection Type | Wireless |
| Cost Per Page (Color) | 14 cents |
| Direct Printing From USB Thumb Drives | |
| Duplexing Scans | |
| Maximum Scan Area | Letter |
| Maximum Standard Paper Size | Legal |
| Monthly Duty Cycle (Maximum) | 50000 pages per month |
| Monthly Duty Cycle (Recommended) | 3000 |
| Number of Ink Cartridges/Tanks | 4 |
| Number of Ink Colors | 4 |
| Print Duplexing | |
| Printer Input Capacity | 300 expandable to 850 |
| Rated Speed at Default Settings (Color) | 30 ppm |
| Rated Speed at Default Settings (Mono) | 30 ppm |
| Scanner Optical Resolution | 600 pixels per inch |
| Scanner Type | Flatbed with ADF (Standard or Optional) |
| Standalone Copier and Fax | Copier |
| Standalone Copier and Fax | Fax |
| Type | All-in-one |
The Xerox WorkCentre 6515/DNI ($599) is a capable laser-class all-in-one printer with speed, good output quality, and a robust feature set. It's worth a close look for use in a small or micro office if you need a color multifunction printer for up to heavy-duty use. It falls a little short of the Editors' Choice Samsung Multifunction Printer ProXpress C3060FW in features, overall print quality, and performance, but is still worth consideration thanks to its superb text quality and fast scanning.
Design and Features
As an LED-based printer, the 6515/DNI uses light-emitting diodes instead of lasers as a light source. LED printers are considered laser-class devices, and share many of the characteristics of laser printers. They tend to be more compact than similarly equipped laser printers, and the 6515/DNI is no exception. It measures 19.7 by 16.5 by 19.9 inches (HWD), so it will need to be on a bench or table of its own. And because it weighs 67 pounds, you will want at least 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. Scanning both sides of a page at once is faster than scanning with the reversing ADF found on the Samsung C3060FW, which scans one side, flips the page over, and then scans the second side.
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. For many offices that will be enough, but some similarly priced printers have better paper handling options. The 6515/DNI has the same standard paper capacity as the Samsung C3060FW, but the Samsung has greater optional paper capacity (to a maximum of 1,400 sheets). The 6515/DNI includes an automatic duplexer for printing on both sides of a sheet of paper, unlike the Xerox WorkCentre 6515/N ($379.01 at Amazon) , the base model in the 6515 series, which also lacks the 6515/DNI's wireless module. A third model, the Xerox WorkCentre 6515/DN ($549), has a duplexer but no wireless module. The 6515/DNI has a 50,000-sheet maximum monthly duty cycle and 3,000-sheet recommended page volume, making it suitable for up to heavy-duty printing in a micro or home office, or up to medium-duty printing in a small office.
Connectivity and Drivers
The 6515/DNI's connectivity choices include USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and Wi-Fi Direct. The printer comes with a wireless module that plugs into a port located behind a removable door in the back of the printer. Once you install the module and turn on the printer, choices for Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi Direct appear on the touch screen's Connectivity menu and can be configured using the screen. I performed the 6515/DNI's speed and quality testing over an Ethernet connection with a PC running Windows 10 Professional, as well as some ad-hoc testing over a Wi-Fi connection. The recommended driver, which installs by default, is PostScript; you can also install a PCL driver.
Print Speed
I timed the 6515/DNI at 28.8 pages per minute (ppm) in printing the text-only (Word) portion of our business applications suite, nearly matching its rated printing speed of 30ppm for simplex (one-sided) printing. 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 C3060FW.
I also did some ad-hoc testing of the 6515/DNI in duplex mode, as it's a major difference between this model and the 6515/N. It printed out the full business suite at 10.7ppm, a very good clip for duplex printing considering its simplex speed of 13.1ppm. (It takes time when printing a two-sided page to flip the page over to print on the back.)
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Output Quality
The 6515/DNI'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 requiring 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 that was visible in some dark backgrounds.
Photos should be good enough for use in company newsletters, but not for marketing materials. In a couple of cases, colors seemed overly saturated. There was a slight loss of detail in bright areas in several prints.
Overall output quality was a bit short of that of the Samsung C3060FW, which couldn't quite match the 6515/DNI's text but did a bit better with both graphics and photos. While the Dell Color Cloud Multifunction Printer H625cdw ($249.99 at Dell) printed better graphics than the Xerox, its text wasn't quite as sharp.
Running Costs
Running costs for the 6515/DNI, based on Xerox's price and yield figures for its 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 OKI MC362w ($879.99 at Amazon) has costs of 2.8 cents and 13.9 cents for black and color pages, respectively, and the Samsung C3060FW's costs are 2.4 cents and 13.6 cents.
Conclusion
As the premier model in Xerox's 6515 series, the 6515/DNI offers a full set of all-in-one features, including automatic duplexing and wireless connectivity (both Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi Direct), both of which the Xerox 6515/N lacks. The 6515/DNI delivers decent speed, though it's slightly slower than the Samsung C3060FW. While the Xerox printers discussed here stand out for their text, the Samsung C3060FW has better overall output quality, suitable for use in marketing materials, which isn't quite the case with the 6515/DNI. But while the C3060FW remains our Editors' Choice, the Xerox WorkCentre 6515/DNI is a very capable and well-rounded alternative as an all-in-one laser-class printer for a micro or small office.
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