High-Volume Office Printing Showdown: Xerox AltaLink C8145 vs HP Colour LaserJet Enterprise Flow M880z+

So, should you buy the HP Colour LaserJet Enterprise flow M880z+ Multifunction Printer? Is the HP Colour LaserJet Enterprise flow M880z+ Multifunction Printer good value? The short answer to both questions is NO – read on for our dissection and explanation.

Busy offices with high-volume printing demands need a powerful multifunction printer (MFP) that can keep pace with your workload. Two contenders vying for your attention are the Xerox AltaLink C8145 and the HP Colour LaserJet Enterprise Flow M880z+. Both offer impressive features, but which one reigns supreme for your busy office? Let’s delve into their strengths and weaknesses to help you make an informed decision.

HP printers are hugely successful, HP manufacture some of the top selling A4 printers sold in to the corporate marketplace. But HP have struggled to get much of a foothold in to the large A3 multi-functional arena. This arena is dominated by Xerox, Canon, Ricoh and Konica, who all hold at least 15% market share.

HP currently only offer one A3 colour machine in the UK – the HP Colour LaserJet Enterprise flow M880z+ Multifunction Printer, whereas all the aforementioned competitors have several models, at a wide range of price points. You would have thought that HP would be able to manufacture competitive products suited to specific needs, instead they manufacture one machine that they shoehorn to fit all scenarios.

Here are our key findings

Multi-Function Printer – Personalised user experience

Multi-Function printer copier scanners now carry out a plethora of tasks and link into most businesses’ workflows for scanning and processing documents. They are one of the few pieces of electronic equipment in the office that everyone has access to, and everyone uses. The problem is that we all need to use them in different ways but with HP you are stuck with a fixed screen layout that was created when the printer copier was installed. That’s like having to use a mobile phone that was set up by someone else and all the apps you need are buried somewhere on another screen. Then, when you use an app you have to enter your login credentials, every time! What a faff that would be!

Xerox have really thought this through and have created what they describe as a “personalised user interface”. A user can have a Single Sign On (SSO) and the machine unlocks to their personalised setup, it knows who the user is and logs on to all the cloud services that you have authority to access, the same way that your own personal PC and corporate password works. The apps that you use most frequently are right there to hand, no scrolling through screens to find what you need. When the next user logs on, the machine is personalised to them.

The icing on the cake is that you can do this with your mobile device (NFC) or your corporate swipe card, no tapping of keyboards.

Genuine Adobe Postscript

One of the biggest drawbacks of the HP is that it does not have a genuine Adobe Postscript license, it is not even an option on the HP. We believe that this is all about cost saving, Adobe charge quite a premium for licensing an A3 printer, HP want to build their printer as cheap as possible and make a bigger profit margin.

Why is not having Genuine Postscript a problem? For the majority of users printing things like text-based documents, it’s not a problem. However if you’re printing complex PDF’s, work in any form of design or architecture or print from Macs, you’ll be printing in the Postscript language.

To get around this problem HP, and many other manufacturers, use emulation software, (in any other world we would call it Pirate Software). These emulations work fine for a lot of the PDF’s you print that are just Word conversions or PowerPoint presentations, but if you’re a designer and the fine hatching doesn’t render properly when printed, you could have a big problem. If you’re an Architect and your printed plans miss off some important aspect of a drawing, it could be catastrophic.

The Xerox AltaLink C8145 comes with Genuine Adobe Postscript 3 as standard.

Processor Power

HP have scrimped again, this time on the processor. They don’t even name the brand, so it’s just a generic 880MHZ unit, that’s not going to cut it in todays busy offices where users are printing and scanning simultaneously. Xerox on the other hand have gone all out and fitted one of the fastest, if not the fastest processor on an office machine. It’s an Intel Atom® Quad Core 1.91 GHz.

Xerox AltaLink C8145: A Feature-Packed Powerhouse

The AltaLink C8145 boasts an impressive array of functionalities, making it ideal for offices with diverse printing needs. Here’s what sets it apart:

• Unmatched Power  and Productivity: The AltaLink takes the crown when it comes to power and performance. The AltaLink C8145 comes with an Intel Atom® Quad Core 1.91 GHz processor, it simply knocks the HP’s generic 800Mhz processor for out of the ring. Not only that the Xerox AltaLink C8145 boasts an impressive 4GB of RAM against the HP’s 2.5GB. The Xerox is the powerhouse in this contest.
• Security Focus: Xerox prioritises data security with features like data encryption, user authentication, and secure print options, ensuring your confidential documents remain protected.
• Customisation Options: The AltaLink allows for extensive customisation through its app store, letting you tailor the MFP to your specific workflow needs.

Cons to Consider:

• Higher Initial Cost: The AltaLink C8145 might have a higher upfront price tag compared to the HP M880z+. However, Scriptum guarantee to beat any official HP Print suppliers price for the M880z+

HP Colour LaserJet Enterprise Flow M880z+:

The HP M880z+ emphasizes speed and user-friendliness.

• Fast Printing: This MFP boasts print speeds of up to 46 ppm (pages per minute) for both black and colour documents, keeping your workflow humming along. Although that is only 1 page per minute faster than the Xerox AltaLink C8145.
• Higher standard paper capacity: HP’s standard paper capacity is impressive. It has a 100 sheet bypass, 500 SRA3 sheet tray, and two high capacity A4 trays totaling 3,500 sheets.
• Document Feeder: The M880z+ has a higher capacity document feeder, capable of taking 200 sheets Vs the AltaLink C8145’s 130.

Points to Ponder:

• No Genuine Adobe Postscript: A serious oversight from HP is the lack of genuine Adobe Postscript, it’s not even optional. If you’re a design professional, architect or work with any graphic based programmes, you’ll want to give the HP M880z a wide berth. The Xerox also trumps the HP with its superior resolution of 2,400 x 1,200 DPI vs HP’s 1,200 x 1,200
• Security Features: While HP makes bold claims about their security features, they aren’t as comprehensive as Xerox’s on the AltaLink C8145.

The Final Verdict: Choosing Your Champion

Scriptum are a Xerox Authorised Document Technology Partner, so we do have a little bias towards the Xerox AltaLink C8145, but we struggled to find any significant advantages that it offers over the AltaLink C8145.

Both the Xerox AltaLink C8145 and HP Colour LaserJet Enterprise Flow M880z+ are MFPs designed for high-volume printing. Here’s a quick summary to help you decide and we’ve added a handy comparison table further below.

• Choose the Xerox AltaLink C8145 if: You are a busy office with multiple users who are likely to put demands on the printer, you’re a design professional and quality and accuracy are paramount. You need the most robust security features. You need the capability to integrate the MFP with other cloud services. You want the lowest total cost of lifetime ownership. You want a print partner who is a dedicated print expert and specialises in Managed Print Services and integrations.
• Choose the HP Colour LaserJet Enterprise Flow M880z+ if: You are an HP corporate client and have a loyalty to the HP brand and your HP technology support partner(s).