X9350 (MULTIFUNCTION - COLOR - INK-JET - FAX / COPIER / PRINTER / SCANNER - UP)

Pros: Great Print Quality, Low Ownership Costs, Duplexing, Imbedded WiFi - A Workhorse!

Cons: Slightly noisy when initially loading the first page of a print job.

Summary: Who at C/NET reviewed this printer... a 6.6?

I was originally in the market for a high-end color All-In-One laser printer, either an HP 2840 or a Canon 8180c, when research brought me back to reality. I am extremely fortunate for this. The HP color lasers had several vastly reported issues with them, such as gross quality control problems, lack of support from the company - if one would purchase a defective unit the company would not replace it but try to repair it then offer a remanufactured unit in its place (even if the unit was less than one month old). Both had hidden usage charges that could add up to hundreds of dollars a month, HP was the most abusive by placing a usage chip on the toner cartridges for residential and small business users that will signal an empty cartridge even if there is 50-70% capacity remaining. I will describe this on separate HP and Canon posts, but for now I’ll get back to the X9350.

I purchased this unit from Staples, who matched Circuit City’s web sale price of $219. This is one heck of a lot of printer for two hundred dollars! The printers that I had looked into did not have WiFi, so I would have had spend another $120 on a wireless printer server. This unit comes with one already built in. It’s a relatively small and quick printing unit. It makes a little noise when initially loading the first page, but goes quiet after that. It can print, copy, scan and fax pages in duplex mode to save paper or keep the original copy’s format. All copies or prints can either be specified as Color or B&W so this can save you on replacing the color cartridge later on. The nice thing is that the cartridges are offered in normal or high-yield capacities. My older HP inkjets dumped the cartridges in no time. I get several hundred pages per cartridge making the TCO is much lower than its rivals.

Installation was straightforward; my family’s desktop is directly connected to a Linksys Wireless-G router. The installation requires a supplied USB cable be attached from the PC to the printer. Once the install CD is loaded, there is a discovery step that detected the network configuration and prompted for Firewall changes to allow wireless access to the printer from the PC via the router. I followed a few simple steps and was prompted to disconnect the USB cable. Presto, I was able to print to the printer using the wireless router. Subsequent installs do not require the USB cable. I went to each of the laptops and loaded the install CD, the printer was automatically detected and secured connections established. Done.

This printer copies forms perfectly. The printout rivals the top HP inkjet offerings, though Canon inkjets do give a slightly better image quality. I am an IT officer for a global bank and have researched all candidate printers. If Canon offered something that was comparable to the X9350, I might have looked into it at the time, but the ease of installation, imbedded WiFi, low cost of ownership and functionality places the X9350 as the strongest inkjet MFP on the market.