Customer Reviews

Xerox XE90fx WorkCentre All-in-One

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

At last, manufacturers are realizing business users want laserrather than inkjet multifunction devices. Copy quality and speed isfar superior and cost per page much lower. For over a year, I used an HP3100 which had the market to itself. We needed to add a second machine and purchased the XE90 which competes directly with the current HP model 3150. Advantages of the XE are slightly faster speed and having both ADF and flat bed scan/copy/fax. However, the XE90 has only one paper input tray, whereas the 3100/3150 has a second adjustable input slot for envelopes, labels, second sheets. This may be a decisive feature difference for some office users. Without the second input source, each and every time you print a letter plus envelope, after printing the letter you then have to unload the tray, adjust to envelope size, and after printing the envelope readjust the tray to letter size and reload the paper. END

Other reviews contain much to say about the many good features of this machine. Overall I'm very pleased with the product. But note the following: There is no enclosed paper tray. The paper stacks on the exposed slide on the back of the printer like a Canon inkjet printer. The angle of paper feed has caused some toner ruboff on the next sheet on two sided copies, leaving a smear on the top of the next page. Colored paper causes more toner ruboff. The working footprint is much larger than the pictures show because the paper path is 90 degrees to the scanning/coping glass. Paper comes out the front of the machine on an extended "catcher." Though the copier reduces/enlarges, the glass is only 8-1/2" wide so you cannot place two sheets at 90 degrees and reduce to one sheet. With an answering machine attached, the answering machine message completely plays before detecting a fax tone (good chance of time-out by sending machine). With a computer modem hooked to the same phone line, the fax seems to interfere with internet communications (MUCH slower connections). The quality of copies is very good. Toner saver setting available. Easy to use controls. "Scan once, print many" feature is very nice, especially for auto document feed copies.

An amazing printer for the price. Fast, clean print outs. Easy copies and faxes. The flatbed scanner allows you to easily make copies from books or of receipts. It also has a form feeder, so you can copy many sheets at a time quickly.

There's a couple minor issues, though. You can't fax directly from MS Word or other applications without additional software.

And, the scanner software didn't work at first because I needed to change my printer port to ECP mode. The most frustrating thing about this is that the error from the scanner software says that the problem is that you're _not_ in ECP mode, but then the (relatively poor) documentation says you want to be in ECP mode. I found Xerox tech support to be somewhat unhelpful here; they told me to contact my PC vendor for help changing it to ECP mode. But, it's easy to do. Just go to the BIOS settings on startup and change it. After that, the scanner software worked reasonably well, though I wasn't too impressed with the OCR in my first few attempts.

Overall, though, I'm incredibly happy with it. Really easy to copy, fax, and print. Very fast, at least x10 faster than the color inkjet I replaced with this printer. Very crisp print outs, much crisper than an inkjet.

I bought the XE90fx when it first came on the market (through Amazon because it was not available in retail stores yet). It was the only machine that did everything I wanted for a reasonable price. I am now on my fourth machine. No, I have not bought more machines, rather Xerox has replaced the first three. On the first machine, the clip on the paper tray broke (it is rather flimsy). Xerox replaced that machine with a refurbished machine which did not feed straight. The third machine (also a refurbished machine) did not feed at all - right out of the box. Since we'd had so many problems they sent us another new machine. This one has developed spotting in the printing. None of them have been able to print on my letterhead (the ink smudges). I love the variety of functions, and wish it actually performed. Unfortunately, it is not nearly sturdy enough. Xerox has been good about replacing the machines, but after awhile enough is enough.

I am disappointed with this product in several respects. The lack of a paper tray and the fact that the printer lays out the printed pages face up causes the documents printed to come out of the printer in a stack that is arranged in reverse order. That can be corrected by instructing the computer to print in reverse order, but it is then a nuisance to use letterhead or cover pages, as they cannot be inserted on the top of the paper stock. To print an envelope, one has to remove all of the paper stock. The instructions that come with the printer also recommend that only one envelope be printed at a time, which requires standing over the computer. The printer often causes a "product communication error" message which requires that the print job be aborted and restarted. The time between pushing "print" and the first page being printed is unbearably long at times. The toner is used up more quickly than any other printer I've ever used, and the ink doesn't adhere to the page well enough to use on envelopes without covering the address with tape. The printed manual is remarkably poor and often useless. I would not buy this product again and do not recommend it. A stand alone copier, fax, and scanner would have been a far better way to go. The aggravation that has gone into this printer far outweighs the additional cost of three separate machines.

I don't have enough time to list all the problems that I've had with this unit. I wouldn't have another one even it it was free.

This is an abomination! I had to return my first WorkCentre because the copier didn't work. They sent me another one and every now and then it goes into a loud "HUMMMMM" mode in which it won't print or shut up (it needs to be turned off for a few minutes to cool down). 'E1' errors abound all the time, forcing you to reload paper on average of every 5 print/copy jobs even though there is no paper jam.

On top of all this, the software driver acts also as a printer monitor which takes up significant system resources. The worst thing about this is when you print, or if the printer is shared and somebody else prints, there is a huge lag depending on the size of the print job, rendering the OS unusable until the printjob is completely sent to the printer. So basically, you can't use your computer for a minute or so after you hit the print button.

In short this is a very bad choice. Others I know purchased the HP printer/scanner/copier/fax and have had much better experiences.

I recently bought the Xerox xe90fx to use as a laser printer, fax and copier. The machine performs all functions very well with high print and copy quality. When it arrived, there was a problem printing from Windows 95 on a 3 year old Pentium 166 Packard Bell computer. Xerox support spent hours working on the problem (phone, fax and e-mail), even sending an overnight replacement just to make sure it was not a hardware issue (which it was not). Eventually, the problem was solved (Change LPT1 to ECP in Bios), with minor exceptions including a relatively long spool time in Turbo tax, and the "test page" doesn't print correctly. Otherwise, it functions pefectly. In summary, this is a very nice machine which combines true laser printing and digital copier (which would already make it price competative at $600) with flat bed design, page feeder and stand alone fax. Technical support was supperlative. A warning that it may not work "out of the box" with older versions of Windows 95 or older machines withour ECP printer port capability would be nice.

When i went looking for a workhorse unit, i was referred to a Xerox product called the Xe90fx. The guy said this thing goes all day and all night. I really like the 8 pages per minute printing and copying. Fast and easy. i found the fax machine to work flawlessly but i do wish the digital display was tilted up just a bit so i could see it easier. unless you can find another unit like this (laser print, fax, copy, scan, flatbed, @ $599), i'd have to say this one is pretty hard to beat. you can even fax stuff thats being copied on the flatbed. what i like the most is the nonstop operatability about it. no matter what i do for how long i do it, it keeps going. that's how office equipment is supposed to be. you're not supposed to have to worry about it. when the guy said this thing was a workhorse, he wasn't kidding. Definite Buy.

This machine is everything I want in a single machine and easily fits in my home office. Great quality! However, this machine will not scan if you have an AMD processor found in high-end Compaqs such as mine. So beware of that since the company does not mention that in any literature.