I have owned this printer for a few months now and I am very happy with it. I wouldn't normally recommend HP since other brands are often cheaper. Often, they are identical models too, Canon have made a lot of printers for HP in the past.
This time was different, the HP was the cheapest colour laser I could find where the cartridge prices were also reasonable.
Being a laser printer, these do take drums as well as toner cartridges. All laser printers do, but the cartridges for this one come together with the drum. This means to the end user, you only need to change 4 toner cartridges, one for each colour of black, cyan, magenta and yellow.
They are the standard four colours but you need to be careful
when ordering replacements. Normally, manufacturers list the cartridges in the following order: black, cyan, magenta, yellow. The part numbers often follow suit but not on this printer. Cartridges are Q6000A to Q6003A and you would expect the 6003 to be the yellow, but it isn't. It's the magenta.
Fitting the cartridges, one of the first jobs you have to do is straightforward. Each cartridge has a coloured strip along one edge which matches the coloured edge of the inside of the printer so it is obvious which cartridge goes where.
Once up and running, printing is just like printing to an inkjet except it is a little quieter. It certainly is not the quietest laser I have ever used, in fact I would say it is just a little quieter than most inkjets.
The paper tray on the bottom is fairly large and can take around 150 sheets of paper (perhaps more). This means you rarely need to refill the printer. The paper comes out of the top and the print quality is really quite good for a budget laser. I was expecting worse for the price I paid. However, it does get worse since it does seem to curl the paper slightly - although that might be because I use cheap paper in there.
The printing speed isn't actually all that quick - again quicker than my inkjets, but they are slow as well. First page print doesn't take too long which for a laser is quite good since they do need to heat up before they can print.
Once I had tested the printer, I had to find a location for it. Wow, this is quite large. The printer is a good 18 inches tall, about 14 inches wide and is very deep. Probably only 14 or 16 inches back when you look at the printer, however the paper tray sticks out the back. I am not sure why this is. Either because the US uses shorter paper or to force you to keep some air behind it to keep it cool? Whatever the reason, it adds a good 2 or 3 inches to the length.
Prices vary and I can't go into costs on here since I work in the trade and got this at cost price. Looking on the internet, I can see these for around £120, cheaper in some places which is good value. Cartridges are around £70 each although the way HP is putting prices up at the moment, expect them to be closer to £100 by the end of 2009. Cheaper, compatible cartridges are available and these are what I am using. These are less than £40 if you shop around. They sound expensive, but they last a long time - much longer than any inkjet cartridges.
I did compare this to other manufacturers when buying and found this to be the most cost effective. I was looking for a budget colour laser printer. I didn't need bells and whistles and I wanted low cost per print, but also low cost to buy.
If you need the same type of printer, this is highly recommended.
----
Added Sep 2009: Recently I have tried to print double sided using this printer. There is no duplex facility and the paper needs to be put back into the paper tray. It will not print double sided, whatever you do. It flatly refuses and you get a paper jam every time. That's on standard 80g right up to 130g. When this printer jams in the output section it is virtually impossible to clear the jam. I have had to knock two stars off for this since there is still paper jammed inside that I cannot get to, although the printer still prints it does now make noises from this jammed paper.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Dec 28th, 2008
(Sep 9th, 2009)
very helpful by (100%):
