Everything you need to know about buying a fax machine

What is the best fax machine for your business? Should you get a fax that prints and scans as well? What can you expect to pay? The questions are endless, but a team of office equipment experts from www.betterbuys.com has provided the following article to help you cut through the hype, focus on the facts and tell you what you need to know to make an informed buying decision.

With more than 100 models of laser fax machines from 21 different companies on the market today, determining, with confidence, which one is right for your office is not easy.

The latest upgrades and added features may benefit you but they often come with a high price tag.

Let us begin by clarifying what is meant by a laser fax machine. These are fax machines that can print on regular paper using laser-imaging technology, which also includes LED technology, which we consider laser-class. These machines can cost between US$300 and $4,000.

Major advances in fax standards do not occur with great frequency, partly because everything is governed by global industry standards that ensure all machines can communicate with each other. Therefore, progress requires considerable international diplomacy.

Fax speeds do not change at a rapid pace. From 1980 to 1991, the fax speed standard was 9,600bps, and then it was 14,400bps.

Not until 1997 were high-speed 33,600bps machines available and they are still the standard today. Though some manufacturers are still introducing machines with 14.4 modems, most new models these days come with a 33.6 modem -- the fastest modem available for fax machines.

The latest developments in fax technology involve something called Internet Fax. This means different things to different people, but the fundamental idea is to allow faxes to travel over the Internet for the long-distance portion of their journey. This can either be real-time transmissions of documents from machine to machine over the Internet, which is the ITU T.38 protocol, or a type called "scan-to-e-mail" (the ITU T.37 protocol), similar to sending e-mails between fax machines or faxing to e-mail addresses, which is something most fax machines already do. Take note of the protocol. It will help you get the type of Internet Fax capability you are after.

Low-end models

Until recently, fax machines have been fairly expensive. One reason for the high prices is that historically, traditional office equipment dealers have controlled the lion's share of distribution. There was relatively little laser-class equipment available at the retail level (i.e., office supply superstores, mail order catalogs, and the like).

These days, however, you can find some pretty inexpensive, but surprisingly upscale, laser multifunctional devices with fax functions being offered in the retail channel, where higher sales volumes mean lower margins.

Spending about $400 to $700 in the retail channel will get you a machine that in many ways matches and in some ways exceeds a dealer-channel fax machine selling for $1,200 to $2,500. Aside from relatively small paper trays, low-end retail-channel machines will give you all you need to handle a modest amount of fax traffic. And, as we will see in a moment, they also offer some of the strongest multifunctional capabilities in the fax market.

What you can expect to get for less than $1,000? * A single paper tray with a 250-sheet capacity. * A 14.4 modem. Some leading models may have a 33.6. * A single fax line. * No JBIG data compression. Data compression cuts transmission times, reducing phone costs.

High-end models

The dealer channel plays a valuable role as a source for more upscale machines that offer heavy duty users capabilities which the retail-channel models do not. Machines with 14.4 modems, single paper trays and fewer than 100 pages of fax memory are slowly disappearing from the market, leaving more current, feature-rich models in their place. For a state-of-the-art, high- end fax, you will need to look at dealer-channel machines and should expect list prices in the $2,500 to $3,500 range.

Regardless of what you pay, most high-end models promise excellent performance and: * 33.6 modems to ensure the fastest transmission times. (Speeds of 56K are commonplace in computers but are not yet part of the fax landscape and will not be in the foreseeable future.) * JBIG data compression that could reduce your phone costs by 30 percent or more. * Larger paper supplies -- two trays, at least one of which has a 500-sheet capacity. * Anywhere from 400 pages to 1,000 pages of fax memory with optional upgrades. * Optional second phone lines. * Network and Internet fax capabilities.

Multifunctional Models

Even busy offices tend not to overwork their fax equipment. Often the machine is just sitting there, waiting for the phone to ring or someone to walk up with a document. So why not put the machine to other uses?

Nearly all fax machines have multifunctional options, allowing them to perform additional duties as printers, scanners and PC fax modems. For instance, many models can be connected to your PC for use as a printer and/or a scanner.

Depending on the machine these functions may be standard, as is common in low-end models, or optional. Options vary in sophistication and price, as well as the range of functionality offered. In general, they can add several hundred dollars to the price of a fax machine, though some can be found on the street for under $100. Incidentally, almost all such upgrades work only with Windows PCs; Mac OS users are largely overlooked in the fax market.

In addition, most are designed for direct connection only. This is not a market segment where you can expect to find a large number of networkable products.

Compromised performance?

While the concept of multifunctionality is attractive, the reality at present can be somewhat disappointing, so you may want to think twice before taking this route. Remember, regardless of the additional functions offered, the machine remains a fax machine, first and foremost.

Printing

The print function on multifunctional machines is usually designed so it does not interfere with the fax function -- in other words, you can still send a fax, or receive one into memory, while a document is being printed from the PC. Obviously, only one type of document can be printed at a time, so it helps to have lots of fax memory.

The performance you get out of the printer function on your fax machine does not compare favorably with the performance of dedicated laser printers.

This is just a matter of the imaging hardware that continues to be used in today's generation of fax machines.

In the dedicated laser printer arena, "midmarket" is defined as machines that work at about 16 pages to 20 pages per minute (ppm). All models print at resolutions of at least 600dpi, and many go as high as 1,200dpi. By contrast, many laser faxes are able to operate only as 6ppm to 8ppm printers and work at resolutions of only 300dpi to 400dpi. Note, however, that some of the latest fax machines offer 600dpi printing, though they are still fairly slow as printers.

Scanning

Multifunctional fax machines also make compromises on the scanner function: The scanner used on most fax machines is not at all comparable to a dedicated scanner.

For example, most affordable dedicated scanners can work in color -- something that today's laser-class multifunctionals are unable to do -- and will not be able to do for some time. Color scanning is available on ink jet multifunctional devices.

Likewise, the PC scan function often works at only 200 x 400dpi, which is considerably less than what is offered on dedicated models.

PC Faxing

This means that you can fax documents directly from a PC without having to first print them out. You can also use this function to receive faxes directly to a PC.

While this function is handy for sending and receiving faxes through your PC, it does not usually offer more than you cannot get from regular modems most people have on their PCs anyway.

The modem in your multifunctional fax machine is strictly a fax-only device: It cannot also be used for Internet or other on- line access. For this reason, you will probably still need a regular modem in your PC, and all such modems provide a fax function as well as a data function. Roughly translated, the PC fax modem function on a multifunctional machine probably duplicates one you already have in your PC.

Copying

All fax machines can make a copy of an original, and allow you to preselect a quantity of copies, usually up to 99. Many also offer basic scan-once/print-many technology that enables electronic collation of multipage sets. Unfortunately, the copy quality you get from a fax machine falls far short of what you can get from regular copiers. You really need at least 300dpi scanning or better, but many multifunctional models do not offer this. Even at 300dpi, results are fair at best. Processing speed is also compromised with a multifunctional machine.

If you want a multifunctional machine that lets you make copies without compromising performance, you really need a model with a flatbed glass platen, where you would place your original on a single-function copier.

Better at the bottom?

Right now, the most attractive multifunctional machines that are not platen-based are those sold in the sub-$1,000 segment and can usually be found for between $400 and $700 at retail. With these models, it does not matter if the printer function is relatively entry-level, because machines at this price point are, by definition, catering to low-volume requirements.