Hands On With The Fuji Xerox DocuPrint CM315z

Despite the world being increasing paperless in some things, there are still times when paper is needed. Whether that’s for providing clients or colleagues with reports, school projects or paperwork for banks or other “official” institutions the world still needs paper. The Fuji Xerox DocuPrint CM315z looks like your run-of-the-mill small office multi-function device but I think there’s a little more to it.

Speeds and feeds

The CM315z is a printer, scanner, copier and fax. It supports duplexing for both printing and scanning. Unlike some low end multi-function devices, the duplex-scanning is handled in a single pass.

Paper loading delivers a capacious 300 sheets with 250 and 50 sheet trays so you can load the larger tray with regular paper and the smaller one with specialised stock so you don’t have to swap paper all the time. The output tray can handle 150 sheets.

It supports wireless printing use WiFi and supports AirPrint and Google Cloud Print. Interestingly, the WiFi module is separate to the main body and I had to install it after removing the printer from the box and ripping off the orange tape securing all the panels. The WiFi module plugged into a socket on the back, that was concealed by a small, removable panel.

One of the things Fuji Xerox has done really well is to make the toner cartridges for this LED printer really easy to change. Each cartridge is accessed through a door on the front of the device and can be easily removed by simply pulling the cartridge out and sliding a new one in.

In many offices, this is important as it means you don’t need the IT guys to come and swap cartridges out.

All the settings and other configuration items were easily managed using the touchscreen.

Performance

Printing performance was slick. Fuji Xerox rate the device at 24ppm and I was able to print a variety of documents for different types from various applications with barely a couple of seconds of wait time before the first page was coming out

Every print job I threw at the CM315z was handled with ease. Complex documents with a variety of text styles, graphics and photos printed beautifully on plain paper.

Copy performance was also excellent although I did find copied photos were a little grainier than the originals.

If there was one word I’d use to summarise my experience of the CM315z it’s “boring”. The printer did everything I asked of it without any hassles.

I didn’t test the faxing capability because it’s not the 90s.

It’s not just a multi-function

Something I’ve come to realise is that good multifunction device does more than print, scan and copy. It helps you manage information better.

While the CM315z lets you scan to a network location, computer (over USB) or print using pretty much any device you have, it can be used to help manage documents.

For example, you can scan documents and send them directly to network shares. I’d have liked this extended further to support scanning to information management applications.

Price and recommendations

The Fuji Xerox DocuPrint CM315z retails for around $899. Consumables cost around $190 for black and $280 for each of the magenta, cyan and yellow cartridges. Each of those gives a yield of about 6000 pages.

That’s the sticking point for me. While the printer is reasonably priced, a full set of ink will set you back more than the printer. But the print quality and performance compensate for that in my view.