Xerox released Phaser 8860, a laser printer that uses solid inks. It had directly compared it's performance with HP's 4700, a popular office laser printer in the market. HP was quick to fire back with allegations that 8860 consumed excessive power and was much slower while printing. They also put down the solid ink technology terming it as a non-durable print. Well, we have been reporting all about it last week. Here's an analysis conducted by Rob Mitchell, a blogger at Computer World. Here are some of the main points:

Solid Inks

HP accused solid inks to leave a coating on the page. Other complaints were scratching, bleeding through, scratching and cracking.

Observation: Durability exceeds customer's expectation. Print cracks on the crease when folded. It can be a challenge to write on the printed characters. Similar characteristics are observed from other colour laser printers.

Power Consumption

HP accused Phaser 8860 of consuming more power than its counterpart.

Observation: When compared to the wastage of 90% of printing supplies and the impact to the environment, excess power consumption will become a trivial point.

Turning ON Time

4700 takes 2 minutes to turn on the laser printer while the Phaser 8860 takes 13 minutes as per HP's fire.

Observation: It takes a longer time to heat the solid ink. On the up side, Xerox tracks usage patterns and turns itself ON and OFF based on the usage.

Conclusion

It is probably too early to declare a winner before the Xerox Phaser 8860 is tested in the real world. So far, Xerox has impressed reviewers and has got some accolades. Maybe Xerox might finish the job that was started by Kodak six months back.