Affordable color lasers have multiplied from discounted old stock through new, slightly more compact, models a year later to today. When every small office and workgroup can enjoy a workhorse, high-volume alternative to inkjet printing and every vendor offers a color laser priced low enough to tempt even solo, let alone network, users.

The Xerox Phaser 8400 printer uses not laser but solid-ink technology to deliver gorgeous, smooth color at superior speed, plus PostScript compatibility and color-tweaking you can't get from an entry-level color laser. It's something of a compromise. No match for a laser for cranking out lots of black and white pages, and not quite up to an inkjet for photo-quality images, but it's a very cool one.

The Phaser 8400 is a solid ink printer (also known as wax-jet or phase-change printer). Instead of using liquid or powdered inks, the Phaser 8400 utilizes small solid blocks of yellow, cyan, magenta, and black ink that are specially shaped to be held and used by the printer. Because the blocks are solid, the Phaser 8400 is easy to reload with no mess or fuss.

Accustomed to conventional ink and toner cartridges, it was slightly unnerved that the Phaser's front-panel LCD and software driver don't offer an ink-remaining gauge though the former does display a low-ink warning; instead, you simply lift the hood and look. You can top off or add ink anytime, such as before starting a big print job, with no more wondering whether an installed cartridge will go the distance.

Unlike the hassles of disposing of or trying to recycle an ink cartridge or waste tank, the Phaser 8400 ink pack is friendly to the earth - requiring you to replace a single tiny kit or image drum lubrication package every ten or thirty thousand pages. There's also a wastes tray you have to keep empty and replace now and then.

The crayons are melted within the printer. It draws up to 1500 watts. The Phaser 8400 however, claims that the printer averages less than a fifth of that into an ink reservoir. There is a rotating drum inside which gets heated. The print head, which is a 1,236-nozzle, 600 by 600 dpi, sprays the ink onto the heated drum. Where low-priced color lasers print the matter in four passes, this requires just one pass to print the same matter.

The ink dries off immediately on the page, and unlike inkjet there is no seeping and this won't blot on the paper, also it would not smear when swiped with a damp finger, however this can be removed if scratched with a fingernail. Hence the printout when dry would appear damp. The printout would practically look like having been painted on with rich, glossy shades and the negatives like banding that inkjets and to an extend laser printers have are eliminated here.