Theoretically identical to the Xerox Phaser 6500/N, but with a print duplexer (for two-sided printing) added and with a faster speed on our tests, the Xerox Phaser 6500/DN color laser printer ($499) delivers an impressive balance of speed, output quality, and paper handling, making it a potentially excellent fit in a micro office, small office, or workgroup, and an easy Editors' Choice for color laser printers.

As with the 6500/N, an obvious point of comparison for the 6500/DN($385.07 at Amazon) is the directly competitive Dell 2150cdn, which it replaces as Editors' Choice. The three printers are similar in many ways, with all three built around the same engine and all three rated at 24 pages per minute (ppm) for both monochrome and color output. But where the Xerox 6500/N lacks the duplexer the Dell 2150cdn offers, the 6500/DN adds the duplexer and delivers faster speed as well.

The printer's paper handling is easily enough for most micro or small offices or workgroups, with a 250-sheet tray, a one-sheet manual feed, and a duplexer standard. For heavier-duty needs, you can also add a second 250-sheet tray ($199), making the 6500/DN a good choice for moderate- to heavy-duty printing by small-office standards.

Setup and Speed

As is typical for the breed, the 6500/DN is too big to share a desk with comfortably, at 16.4 by 15.9 by 16.8 inches (HWD). It's also heavy enough, at 40 pounds, so you'll likely want some help moving it. Once in place, however, setup is standard fare. For my tests, I connected it to a wired network, and installed the driver on a system running Windows Vista. Note too that if you prefer to connect wirelessly you can add an external Wi-Fi option ($219).

The printer's speed is both a key strong point and a pleasant surprise. Like many duplex printers, the 6500/DN's driver installs to print in duplex by default, so the official speed for our tests is for two-sided printing. On our business applications suite (using QualityLogic's hardware and software for timing) I clocked it at 5.4 ppm.

That makes the 6500/DN essentially tied with the Dell 2150cdn, at 5.5 ppm. However, the Dell printer's speed is for printing in simplex (one-sided) mode. When I set the 6500/DN to simplex, it came in significantly faster, at 6.5 ppm. Somewhat surprisingly, the 6500/DN in simplex mode was also significantly faster than the Xerox 6500/N, at 5.2 ppm. The difference was entirely due to the 6500/DN printing a PowerPoint file faster, which suggests it offers faster, more efficient processing for that file format.

Output Quality

The 6500/DN's output quality isn't as impressive as its speed, but it's easily good enough for almost any work need. Text in my tests was at the low end of the range where the majority of color lasers fall, but even then, it's high enough quality for almost any business use. Depending on how critical an eye you have, you may consider it suitable for moderately serious desktop publishing. Graphics quality was on par for a color laser, making it suitable for anything up to, and including, PowerPoint handouts. Most people would consider it good enough for marketing materials like one-page handouts or trifold brochures.

Photo quality on plain paper was at the high end of a tight range where most color lasers fall. If you mounted the color photos in our tests in a frame behind glass, they could pass for true photo quality.

Note that the Dell 2150cdn offers somewhat higher output quality, particularly for text, and it may still be your preferred printer if your primary need is absolutely top-tier quality. Alternatively, if you can do without a duplexer, the Xerox 6500/N will give you very similar capability to the 6550/DN. As already discussed, however, it was slower than the 6500/DN in our tests. And for most offices today, the lack of a duplexer can be a significant liability, which is why the 6500/DN earns a higher rating.

All told, the Xerox Phaser 6500/DN's balance of speed, output quality, paper handling, and price makes a compelling argument for the printer, and the combination is enough to make this color laser printer an Editors' Choice.

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