Phaser 6180 color laser now $100 off, ->before $50 rebate

[Psurfer]

Attn color laser shoppers!
The major web retailers now list the 6180/N price as $399 after $100 "instant coupon". It was selling for $449 - 499 just last week, and there's still a Xerox $50 rebate on the printer through 6/30.


I see no mention excluding the Xerox rebate from the vendors' instant coupon thing:

Phaser™ 6180 Rebate Conditions: This $50 USD rebate is valid for end-user customers who purchase a new Phaser 6180 N or DN from April 1, 2007 to June 30, 2007. Xerox must receive the completed rebate claim submission fax coversheet (provided at the time of claim submission), printer startup page and a copy of the invoice no later than July 31, 2007. Please reference code EU04076180.

I've ordered one. I returned the 6120, finding its printing of business letter fonts too heavy. It's color was really good, though, and the 6180's color is supposed to be even better.

A/R, etc*, the 6180 will end up costing me only around $50 more than the lesser 6120 I bought last month. Glad I waited a week.
*(Staples sent me a $30 gift coupon and allowed me to re-use/stack it w/the $30 cpn I had used for the 6120 purch)

[Silencio]

Well, shoot. That leaves the duplexer model (6180DN) at a nice $150 premium.

I'm probably going to get three of these for a new business I'm working on that's going to have several small remote offices that all need a decent amount of color output. I'd really rather get the duplexer because I can see these guys doing a lot of two-sided presentations, reports, booklets and the like.

[PeterB]

Hmmm... I was asking earlier about if any of the color lasers approach photographic level quality. How does this one do?

[Silencio]

Quite a few threads to be found about the output quality of the 6180 if you STF. Elmo himself provides some valuable comments and tips on the matter..

[PeterB]

Silencio, yes, I did STF -- it seems the reviews on this one are mixed...

[Racer X]

I think that, overall, the solid toner lasers have a slightly better output than the regular color laser printers, but I have yet to see any that i would call "near photographic output" but I have damn high standards when it comes to color photo prints.

Yes, elmo3 has been helpful in the past. That's why there are 4 grease pencil hashmarks on my monitor case. I kept track as a joke to myself. I decided to track positives rather than negatives. Hard to find grease pencils in 1 gross boxes these days.

[Silencio]

[quote Racer X]I think that, overall, the solid toner lasers have a slightly better output than the regular color laser printers, but I have yet to see any that i would call "near photographic output" but I have damn high standards when it comes to color photo prints.
Yeah, I too would not expect inkjet-like photo output on a color laser. You can get them to look pretty decent nowadays, but don't expect what you'd get out of one of those 26-ink Epsons printing on über-expensive sheets of glossy film.

Yes, elmo3 has been helpful in the past. That's why there are 4 grease pencil hashmarks on my monitor case. I kept track as a joke to myself. I decided to track positives rather than negatives. Hard to find grease pencils in 1 gross boxes these days.

Totally agree. Didn't mean to bring up Elmo's name gratuitously, but I was purely by coincidence STF'ing on the old threads about Xerox color lasers earlier this morning.

[PeterB]

Right about the "don't expect inkjet-like photo output on a color laser" -- I guess what I'm wondering is, when (or if) we will see that. I personally would like to dump the inkjet entirely, but would rather make the leap when the color lasers are close enough that you're not going to see THAT much difference between them.

[Racer X]

I think that they will both advance at roughly the same pace. not sure that we will see laser getting much closer and the gap getting narrower.

[Psurfer]

If this helps,the photos printed on Plain paper on the 6120 I had were better than inkjet prints would be on the same paper. Didn't print any on glossy paper, but I expect they'll be pretty decent on the 6180, if more limited in range of contrast compared to inkjets.

See Elmo's comments about printing from the 6180 using ColorSynch and the ICC profiles. (And I wish he'd return and explain exactly how to do that for me...)