IT Pro Verdict

Small businesses that want an affordable, feature-packed and easy to use colour MFP won’t go wrong with the Xerox WorkCentre 6515DNI. Comparatively high running costs limit it to occasional colour use but it makes up for this with superb output quality, great performance and the best mobile print and scan apps.

Pros

+
Excellent print quality and speeds; Simple setup; Good range of network and cloud connectivity features

Cons

-
High running costs; Can’t install additional apps

Xerox's WorkCentre 6515 multi-function printer (MFP) family aims to tempt small businesses with a range of enterprise productivity features at a price they can afford. It combines print, scan, copy and fax functions, teams them up with a fast 28ppm LED print engine and offers plenty of connection options.

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We review the 6515DNI model which includes Gigabit Ethernet and Xerox's little wireless 11n dongle that slots in at the rear. Both connections can be active simultaneously, where the 6515DNI presents its own wireless SSID and it supports AirPrint and WiFi Direct plus NFC tap-to-print services for Android devices.

It's designed to be simple to install and the big 5in colour touchscreen kicks off with a setup wizard to help configure the network connections, access security and apps. The touchscreen's tablet-style menu is very similar to that offered by its VersaLink stablemates but it doesn't support Xerox's ConnectKey technology so you can't access the App Gallery and install more apps.

That said, the 6515DNI comes with a good range of preinstalled apps, which include ones for scanning to SMB and FTP network destinations, fax, email and a local USB stick. The Scan to Desktop icon allowed us to push scans directly to our Windows 10 PCs that had the WSD (web services device) driver installed.

The 6515DNI isn't bereft of cloud support either; you can use the well-designed web interface to register it with Google Cloud Print. With LDAP authentication configured, users can also scan directly to their home directory once they've logged in at the control panel.

Mobile users will love Xerox's free Mobile Link app as they can create one-touch workflows for automating common tasks. We had no problems using the iOS app on our iPad and created workflows that sent scans directly to four different locations simultaneously.

This is probably the best mobile print app we've seen, providing a wealth of document capture, storage and sharing features. We could send scans to and print documents from multiple accounts including Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, Box, Office365 and SharePoint.

The MFP uses plenty of consumables and offers a choice of toner cartridge capacities - but avoid the standard ones at all costs as these deliver a mono page for 3.5p and a colour page for a gob-smacking 22.5p. The extra high yield versions drop mono and colour costs to a more palatable 2.3p and 12.3 per page -- still a tad high for MFPs in this price range.

Print speeds are perfect with our 28-page Word document dispatched in 58 seconds at both the standard 600dpi and enhanced 1200 x 2400dpi resolutions. Our challenging 24-page DTP colour document also returned 28.8ppm at both resolutions while the time to first page was never more than 10 seconds for all tests.

The integral duplexer delivered on Xerox's promises as our 28-page test document was printed on both sides at the quoted 19ppm. Copy operations are equally efficient as the 50-page duplex ADF completed 10-page single-sided and duplex-to-duplex copies at 13ppm and 8.2ppm.

For a budget-priced MFP, print quality is nothing short of exceptional with razor-sharp text down to 4pt fonts -- even on cheap 75gsm paper. Our performance chart showed why the 6550DNI is so good at this as it revealed the minute 0.1pt gaps in our black block test -- something many more expensive lasers can't do.

The chart also showed super-smooth transitions across complex colour fades which translate to punchy, eye-catching graphics and marketing material. Colour printing is a real strength as our photos were sharp with excellent detail and only the tiniest hint of banding in large single-colour blocks.

Small businesses that want an affordable, feature-packed and easy to use colour MFP won't go wrong with the WorkCentre 6515DNI. Comparatively high running costs limit it to occasional colour use but it makes up for this with superb output quality, great performance and the best mobile print and scan apps.

Verdict

600dpi A4 colour LED

28ppm A4 mono/colour

600dpi duplex colour scanner

1.05GHz dual-core CPU

2GB RAM

5in. colour touchscreen

Gigabit

11n wireless

NFC (Android only)

USB 3

33.6Kbps fax/modem

Duplex

250-sheet paper tray

50-sheet bypass tray

50-sheet ADF

Rec. monthly duty cycle, 3,000 pages

420 x 506 x 500mm (WDH)

30.7kg

Lifetime on-site warranty (with yearly toner purchase)

RUNNING COSTS

Dave is an IT consultant and freelance journalist specialising in hands-on reviews of computer networking products covering all market sectors from small businesses to enterprises. Founder of Binary Testing Ltd – the UK’s premier independent network testing laboratory - Dave has over 45 years of experience in the IT industry.

Dave has produced many thousands of in-depth business networking product reviews from his lab which have been reproduced globally. Writing for ITPro and its sister title, PC Pro, he covers all areas of business IT infrastructure, including servers, storage, network security, data protection, cloud, infrastructure and services.