Xerox WorkCentre 3215 Printer Review

The brand name Xerox itself became a synonym to the word photocopy globally, that serves as a verb or a noun. Since then, Xerox expanded their product range. One of their best-selling products that is currently available is the Xerox WorkCentre 3215. The WorkCentre 3215 is an entry-level all-in-one monochrome laser unit. Listed for only 109 USD (from Xerox or Amazon) it’s competitively priced monochrome laser printer vs other similar laser units like Brother MFC-L2750DW currently priced (as of writing) at 181 USD or HP LaserJet Pro M426FDW with a price tag of 449 USD. For someone who’s looking for an affordable monochrome laser printer, it’s a good choice that fits your budget. Have a look at its specs:

 

 

Key specifications:

Print output: Black

Print speed: up to 27ppm

Functions: Print, Scan, Copy, Email, Fax

Wireless printing: Yes

Cartridge capacity: up to 1,500 pages

Drum capacity: up to 10,000 pages

Monthly duty cycle: up to 30,000 images

Primary Tray: 250 sheets max

ADF: 40 sheets

Output Tray: 120 sheets

Toner cost (original): $63.99

Drum cost (original): $64.99

Right out of the box, the printer comes with the driver CD, user manual, USB cable, fax cord, and AC power cord. The cartridge is placed inside the printer and its protective plastic snaps should be removed before using. I have removed the protective snaps without a problem but some users reported its toner spewed a lot of powder upon removal. For safety, make sure you have a cloth near the toner and cover yourself substantially before you open its protective snaps slowly in case the toner cartridge spits out a lot of powder.

 

Button Layout

The panel buttons are pretty much easy to navigate although they are labeled with symbols. Some of the essential functions are the following:

• The power button rests on the extreme right of the panel.
• The machine status can be accessed by pressing the button with [i]
• On top of it is the power-saver indicator that flashes if it’s on sleep mode and dims when ready.
• The big teal button is the Start button and its function is dependent on the three buttons located on the left side of the panel. 
• Top button is Print
• Middle button is Scan
• Bottom button is Fax. 
• The red button is Stop.
• The button with “C” label is to Clear.
• The yellow button is Clear All
• The navigation buttons are in the middle of the panel.
• Below the LED message display on the right side is the wireless indicator. It glows when the printer is configured for wireless function and the WiFi already on.

Setting Up

The overall installation is a bit quirky; not really that easy to setup but it turns out ok. Some things to look out for:

• The printer, for some reason by default, always prints a status page every time you power it up. To turn off this wasteful feature go to the following (in order)
• Open CentreWare Internet Services (should be installed during driver installation)
• Click Properties
• Go to Machine Settings >> System >> Setup
• At the very bottom, uncheck Startup Configuration Report
• For setting up the network, you need to access the Network menu from the machine status button and choose a wide variety of options available. Make sure your SSID or WiFi name has no special characters otherwise your printer wouldn’t be able to detect it.

When you’re about to print and both USB and wireless printing have been set up, the software you’re using will display two listed WorkCentre 3215 printers but wireless printing will have a name extension containing the alphanumeric name automatically assigned during wireless setup.

Print Speed

Xerox listed its WorkCentre 3215 can print 27 ppm but there was no indication at what page coverage percentage the claimed ppm was derived. I tested to print a full page of text, approximately 10% page coverage and one page printing took about 11 seconds from initializing and prints 14 pages in a minute. Since there’s a wide difference of the actual ppm vs claimed ppm at 10% page percentage I tried printing again but with approximately 5% page coverage more than a half full of plain text and the printed output went to 26 pages in a minute. Close enough.

Print Quality

Printing quality is excellent. The text looks crisp and clean. It doesn’t print double sided though it’s not an issue for my needs or any simple printing task.

After I have used it for a few months, I set the printing quality to draft. The print quality is still good, barely lighter than standard printing that you won’t even notice from reading afar. The toner lasted for quite a while before replenishing that a rough estimate of number of pages printed in text somewhat increased around 8% than its rated capacity.

Scan Quality

I scanned an ID and the result is very good. A bit bright but not much of an issue.

Verdict

Setting up: 3 / 5

Print Speed: 4 / 5

Print Quality: 5 / 5

Scan Quality: 4 / 5

Overall rating: 4 / 5

The Xerox WorkCentre 3215 all-in-one monochrome laser printer is a very good printer at its price point. It prints fast that’s close enough to what Xerox claims its speed to be. The printer truly shines when you’re printing in draft mode as the text doesn’t look like it’s being printed in draft. Because of this, it has the edge that maximizes your toner that delays or saves you time from replacing the toner. It’s understandable that it doesn’t have double sided printing feature as laser printers with this feature cost significantly higher. Scanning is also decent; might be a bit bright to your liking but not really that affecting the scanning quality. The only thing that prevents it from getting a higher rating is that setting it up takes longer than other printers normally do.