Comparison Xerox WorkCentre 3025BI vs Xerox WorkCentre 3045B

— Inkjet. With inkjet printing, an image is applied to paper using microscopic drops of ink directed by the print head. This technology is well suited for home use and colour printing: inkjet printers are relatively inexpensive, and print quality can be as high as photographic. On the other hand, such printers are not suitable for printing large volumes, in case that cartridge yield is low and the price per page is quite high. In addition, if left idle for several days, ink remains in the print head will dry out, degrading print quality. This can be avoided by using the printer continuously or by using a special cleaning procedure that does not improve cartridge yield.

— Laser. Printing in such printers occurs as follows: a laser beam marks individual points of the photosensitive drum, toner (powdered paint) sticks to these areas, which is then transferred to paper. Laser printers are more expensive than inkjet printers and are primarily monochrome; at the same time, they provide high quality and permanence of black and white printing at a low cost of the print itself, which is why they are considered optimal for business documents.

— LED. Printing technology, in many ways similar to laser (see above); the only key difference is the use of a string of LEDs instead of the actual laser. This allows you to keep the main pros of laser technology (quality and d...urability of black-and-white prints at their low cost), slightly reducing the cost of the printers themselves.

— Solid ink. As the name implies, the ink for such a printer is initially in a solid state. Right before printing, they are heated to become liquid and applied to paper through a special heated drum (as in laser printers) or directly (like inkjet printers). Prints from a solid ink printer are distinguished by high-quality colour reproduction and resistance to moisture. On the other hand, the resolution of such devices is lower than that of inkjet printers, and the prints fade quickly enough in the light and are sensitive to scratches. Another feature is that the printer takes a portion of the dye from the cartridge every time it is turned on, and if there was no printing, this dye does not return to the cartridge when it is turned off, but is dumped into a special container as unsuitable for further use. Thus, ideally, a solid ink printer should not be turned off at all. Therefore, such devices are mainly used for office printing in design and advertising firms.

The time passed from pressing the Copy button to the completion of the first copy in MFPs. Typically specified for low quality black and white printing on A4 paper. The time for the first copy to be released is the longest (because of the time to prepare for work and scan the document); subsequent copies of the same document are printed much faster. Fast first copy time is important if you have to copy documents frequently.

Black and white copy speed – the number of copies of one page that the MFP can produce in 1 minute. Typically indicated for poor print quality. This option is important if you often need to make many copies of a single document.

The number of pages the printer can produce per minute in black and white mode. Typically indicated for low print quality, higher print quality takes longer. This setting is important if you need to frequently print text documents.

The maximum number of pages that the MFP can print in a month while remaining fully operational.

Approximate number of pages that the MFP can print in black and white mode without replacing the cartridge. In fact, this greatly depends on the specs of the images to print, so the actual resource may greatly differ from the claimed one in one way or another. Nevertheless, according to this indicator, it is quite possible to evaluate the capabilities of the MFP and compare it with other models.

Types of cartridges (both black&white and colour) used in the MFP. Some models of the MFP are able to work with third-party cartridges, but this feature usually refers to undocumented, and the manufacturer's warranty applies only to specific types of cartridges. So, use third-party compatible cartridge models with caution.

— Connection to PC (USB). USB is a universal interface used to connect various devices in computer technology, and it is the most popular among these standards nowadays. In this case, it is used to connect the MFP to a computer.

— Network connection ( LAN). Port for wired connection to LAN and/or the Internet. This feature allows you to use the MFP in the format of a network device — getting access to printing, scanning, etc. from any computer of the network, or even use cloud printing (see below). At the same time, some models may require a print server for operating via LAN — a separate PC, router or NAS server responsible for managing the MFP and acting like an intermediary device between the MFP and the rest of the network. However, most modern MFPs can also work in peer-to-peer networks — without a print server, with a direct connection through a simple router.
An alternative to LAN is wireless Wi-Fi (see below); a wired connection is less convenient due to the need to put cables, but it is more reliable and cheaper.

— Wi-Fi. A technology used to make wireless connection to LAN and/or the Internet, and to connect devices directly to each other. For the last option, see Wi-Fi Direct below; and a network connection allows the MFP to operate as a network device — similar to the LAN described above. At the same time,...a wireless connection is somewhat more expensive than a wired one, but it is more convenient because of cable absence.
Modern MFPs may use different Wi-Fi standards — most often it is Wi-Fi 4 (802.11n) and Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac). In most cases, you should not pay special attention to this nuance: the standards differ primarily in speed, however, these differences are not significant regarding the tasks MFP are operating with; and there are usually no problems with the compatibility of different standards with each other.

— Card Reader. Slot for reading memory cards, usually, with the feature of direct printing (see above). In this case, this function is convenient primarily because memory cards are widely used in modern photo and video cameras; thus, the card reader allows you to quickly and conveniently print the footage — just remove the card from the camera and install it in the MFP. However, this function can be also useful for exchanging data with other devices — for example, laptops; and in some models of the MFP, it is even possible to work in the mode of an external card reader for a PC.

— USB. A classic USB connector for connecting various external media — flash drives, digital cameras, external hard drives, etc. The presence of such a connector usually means at least the possibility of direct printing the content from the connected device, without the need to use a PC. However, there may be other purposes of use, such as copying scanned materials to external media.

— Bluetooth. The technology of wireless communication between various devices is convenient primarily due to the absence of wires. The specific use of Bluetooth in multifunction devices may vary. Some models use such a connection to connect to a PC; this is especially convenient for laptops — almost all modern laptops have built-in Bluetooth modules. Other MFPs allow you to send files from smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices for printing via Bluetooth, or copy scanned materials to external devices. There are models that combine these functions in one way or another. Such details should be clarified separately.

— NFC. Short-range wireless standard with a range limit about 10 cm. Most often used to simplify connection via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth (see above): no need to fiddle with the settings, just bring an NFC-compatible device to the NFC of the MFP and confirm the connection. The other way to use NFC is to automatically send materials for printing when you bring your smartphone or tablet to the device; such feature is usually carried out through a special application released by the MFP's manufacturer.

— Wi-Fi Direct. A feature found on models with built-in Wi-Fi modules (see above). Direct support allows you to connect other Wi-Fi devices (laptops, smartphones, cameras, etc.) to such an MFP directly, without using a router and a local network. This can be especially convenient if there is no network equipment, or if it needs to be additionally configured. The functionality of the Wi-Fi Direct connection is generally similar to Bluetooth (see above); the main difference is that Wi-Fi provides a faster and more reliable connection with a greater range. This is especially useful for transferring large volume of data — for example, sending large documents for printing or copying high-resolution scanned materials. In addition, such a connection is better suited for direct printing from cameras — Wi-Fi is the most common type of wireless connection in that devices.

— AirPrint. Same function as above (Wi-Fi Direct). Allows you to connect to a device without using a router or installing specialized drivers. However, in this case, we are talking about connecting Apple equipment — iPhones, iPad, Mac laptops. AirPrint-enabled printers are natively compatible with devices running iOS or Mac OS software. Printing can be done via a wireless Wi-Fi connection, an Ethernet cable or via a regular USB connection.

Cloud-enabled MFPs allow you to work directly with cloud services without connecting to a PC.

The general point of such printing is that the documents sent for printing (and in the case of MFPs, also scanned materials) are stored on a server on the Internet. Thus, the connectivity of the printer/scanner is not limited to the local network — you can send documents for printing and receive scan results from anywhere in the world where there is access to the World Wide Web. In addition, cloud services make it easy to share access to the MFP and other people.

Note that cloud printing can also be used with MFPs, that do not have such a function by themselves — for this, you need to connect the device to a PC with the appropriate software.