Hardware Review of:
Xerox DocuPrint M750 Printer 

Installation
The hardware installation was pretty straight forward and took only a few minutes using the parallel port connection. The ink cartridges are color coded and numbered so you really have to try hard to install them wrong. The software actually installed too easily. You put the CD in the tray, close the tray and boom, its finished in about 15 seconds. I usually prefer to have a little more control over installations. The process simply copies files to the hard drive, so it even bypassed the utility I have installed that is supposed to monitor all installations.

The printer comes with a special “thank you offer” that you can mail in or go online to order two software titles for $5.95 ($10 each for additional titles), if you use the mail in card, there is an additional $2 “paper processing fee” as punishment for not ordering online. The software installation also installs a screen that pops up every time you boot the computer saying “click here to go online to order”, it’s as annoying as shareware nags. After much searching through the Startup menu and the registry, I finally figured that the way to get rid of this screen is to click the button that is labeled “I don’t have Internet access”. You can always get back to it later if you want because the same screen is also installed on your desktop and in the Start menu.

Cost
The Xerox website lists the MSRP at $100. Replacement ink cartridges $22 for standard capacity black (400 pages) or $30 for the high capacity (700 pages). Color cartridges are $12.50 each (350 pages). The Office Depot catalog lists the printer at $150. The ink cartridges are the same price as listed above, however, are not available in the store and must be ordered from the catalog, they do not list the standard capacity black cartridge. Each color has a separate cartridge so if you run out of one color, you don’t have to replace everything at once. Page count capacities are based on 5% coverage, a standard text page.

Features
The M750 can print on plain paper, coated or photogloss paper, envelopes, labels, transparencies, iron on transfers and banners. The printer can handle paper sizes from 3x5 cards to legal 8½x14 and thicknesses from 16 to 110 pounds. The input tray has a capacity of 150 sheets and the output tray 50 sheets (20 lb). There is also a rear single sheet feed for use with heavier paper. The rear feed can also be used with fan-fold paper to print banners up to 5 sheets long.

Speed
The literature specifies speeds of 10 pages per minute in black and 6 pages per minute in color. In my test prints, I did not get anywhere near these speeds. Tests were printed on standard 20 lb copy paper. My test results for black text was 4 pages per minute, color text 50 seconds per page. Color labels printed at 3 pages per minute. I used Avery 2186 floppy disk labels, these are on a 4½x10 inch page with 4 labels per page, see below for problems encountered with printing labels. Full page, high resolution graphics (800x600, 24 bit, 300dpi) printed at 3 minutes per page.

All print jobs took about 6 seconds to initialize before beginning printing. After the job has completed, it takes about 40 seconds for the print head to reset. Any job submitted before the head has reset will be ignored. I have not yet had the opportunity to run network tests.

Problems
As mentioned above, I encountered a problem printing labels. Using WordPerfect 8 to print floppy disk labels, the bottom half of the last label on each page did not print. I am still trying to figure out a solution to this one.

The printer has a “reset” button so that interrupted jobs can be resumed from where they left off, it doesn’t work. I ran out of paper in the middle of a 14 page document. After refilling the input tray, I pressed the reset button and nothing happened. I resubmitted the job, nothing happened. The jobs simply stacked up in the spooler. I deleted all jobs from the spooler and resubmitted, nothing happened. Finally, after about 30 minutes, I figured out that the only way I could print the document was to unplug the power cable for a few seconds, plug it back in and then resubmit the job, starting back at the beginning. Unplugging the printer is not a desirable solution because it has a heater that keeps the print head warm to prevent problems with ink flow.

In most of the test prints that I ran, the ink was dry by the time the page was completed. This was not the case, however, when using photogloss paper. The ink was still wet when the page was ejected from the printer so I set it aside to let it dry. It still had a tacky (like wet paint) feel after 24 hours.

System requirements
Minimum requirements are a 486 running at 66MHz with 16 Mb RAM and Windows 95. Test were done on a 500MHz desktop computer with 128 Mb RAM and a 350 MHz Toshiba laptop with 64 Mb RAM. Both computers use a K6 processor running Windows 98.

Conclusion
Because of the problems encountered in my tests, I cannot recommend the DocuPrint M750 for any but the simplest color printing needs. Be sure you have enough paper in the tray before you submit a job and don’t print floppy disk labels unless you don’t mind wasting 25% of your labels.

Xerox Corporation
PO Box 9604
Webster NY 14580.