Not too long ago I was asked by a friend to review a piece of obsolete technology; the Phaser 790 printer and Xerox Phaser 790 toner from Xerox. My friend who made the request works with an NPO and was looking for a quick fix to replace their broken printer to allow them to continue until the new fiscal year.
The nature of working for a charitable organization is that there is never enough money; in this area the Phaser 790 perfectly matched the needs of my friend's agency. Because it is no longer available new it can be hard to find this model, but when it is it can be had for a sizable discount from online vendors or used electronics shops.
The 790 isn't the fastest printer I have seen but with speeds of 11 pages/minute for black and white and 6 for colour it would suffice for this agency. The most common use that a printer is put here is to produce attention grabbing worksheets for the client and that is usually done in advance of lessons. When it's not possible to print early the speeds would allow worksheets for 30 clients to be printed in about 5 minutes.
Another feature in the Phaser 790's favour was the fact that it has a 400 page capacity, allowing staff to focus their time on working with the individuals they are supporting, rather than refilling the print trays. As anyone who has ever worked for a non-profit knows, the only thing that employees have less of than money is time.
Another time saving feature of this Xerox printer is the ability to store documents for reprinting on the standard 6 BG hard drive. Rather than finding and sending a job to the printer and going to collect it, a staff member could simply walk to the machine and spool through the memory to print the document.
The Phaser is not without its negatives however. I feel that the lack of any USB ports is detrimental to productivity as flash memory continues to become cheaper and more present in the workplace. It may not be a commonly accessed feature, but one I feel the staff at this agency would come to miss. The Phaser 790 comes with a standard 10/100 ethernet switch built in as well as a bi-directional serial port.
The fact that the Phaser is only available used was mentioned previously as a pro, but there is always a risk with any purchase of used or refurbished goods. The potential for maintenance costs to eclipse savings exists, especially if it is bought from a dishonest merchant. - 22787
The nature of working for a charitable organization is that there is never enough money; in this area the Phaser 790 perfectly matched the needs of my friend's agency. Because it is no longer available new it can be hard to find this model, but when it is it can be had for a sizable discount from online vendors or used electronics shops.
The 790 isn't the fastest printer I have seen but with speeds of 11 pages/minute for black and white and 6 for colour it would suffice for this agency. The most common use that a printer is put here is to produce attention grabbing worksheets for the client and that is usually done in advance of lessons. When it's not possible to print early the speeds would allow worksheets for 30 clients to be printed in about 5 minutes.
Another feature in the Phaser 790's favour was the fact that it has a 400 page capacity, allowing staff to focus their time on working with the individuals they are supporting, rather than refilling the print trays. As anyone who has ever worked for a non-profit knows, the only thing that employees have less of than money is time.
Another time saving feature of this Xerox printer is the ability to store documents for reprinting on the standard 6 BG hard drive. Rather than finding and sending a job to the printer and going to collect it, a staff member could simply walk to the machine and spool through the memory to print the document.
The Phaser is not without its negatives however. I feel that the lack of any USB ports is detrimental to productivity as flash memory continues to become cheaper and more present in the workplace. It may not be a commonly accessed feature, but one I feel the staff at this agency would come to miss. The Phaser 790 comes with a standard 10/100 ethernet switch built in as well as a bi-directional serial port.
The fact that the Phaser is only available used was mentioned previously as a pro, but there is always a risk with any purchase of used or refurbished goods. The potential for maintenance costs to eclipse savings exists, especially if it is bought from a dishonest merchant. - 22787
About the Author:
After weighing the potential of the Xerox 790, I chose to offer a conditional recommendation. We were also able to find a deal on the Xerox Phaser 790 toner, so I thought that this would be a viable option for them. Check out our site http://www.qtoner.us.
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