HP LaserJet 3380

.../> This printer uses the HP C7115A ( HP 15A ) toner cartridge. These cost around £25 and will last for approximately 3,500 pages. Obviously this will depend on the black coverage for each page.


==Technical Spec==

The specification for this printer is quite large due to all of the functions available. So as not to pack the review out unnecessarily, anyone wishing to view the full specification can visit http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/en/WF06b/18972-238444-410636-12004-f51-378060-378062-378063.html
...now a few year old and is starting to show its age. We have printed 39,000 pages in its lifetime and it has not once, show any signs of malfunctioning. This is a great device for an office environment where jazzy colour printing is not essential and the copy and fax functions are useful every now and then. As the printer is made by HP, you can be assured of its quality. I would recommend this printer to anyone looking for a heavy duty device.
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Introduction

As a company we have always bought Hewlett Packard printers. We have always found them to be the most reliable manufacturer on the market and the quality is second to none. As we had historically just had printers in our office, my boss decided that we needed a little bit more functionality and decided to go for the Laserjet 3380.

The Laserjet 3380 is a multifunctional laser printer. As well as printing, the device is capable of copying, scanning and faxing documents. The printer is designed to be a single use printer but we have networked it and although in principal this sounds a good idea, we have lost some functionality which I will touch upon later in the review.

Find your way around the Laserjet 3380

First impressions of this printer is that its very bulky and ugly. Starting at the top, there is the document tray which is used for loading original documents that are due to be faxed or copied. These documents feed inside the printer and are returned to the user on the next level which , as well as being a returned document tray, doubles up as the scanner lid.

Below the scanner is the main control centre of the printer where there seem to be more buttons than in an airplanes cockpit. From left to right we have the speed dial buttons, there are 9 of these in total that can be programmed to allow for frequently used fax numbers to be stored for one touch faxing. To the right of these buttons are the fax options, these include things such as volume control, resolution of the fax and the actual send button. This brings us to the middle of the control panel where there is a LCD display giving us the status of any current job it is dealing with plus other messages such as the current time if the printer is idle or status messages like ‘Out of Paper’. To the right of the LCD display are the copying options and the copy button itself. Here you can specify the number of copies, the brightness of the copy and the collation options. Finally for this section, we have the scan button, there are no options here, all we can do is press the button to start the scan.

Under the control panel section is the paper out tray. This is really a big hole in the middle of the printer where the paper is gathered. Be careful if printing a large amount of pages as there is nothing in this section to prevent the paper from falling all over the floor.

The final section, right at the bottom of the printer is the new paper store. The store is capable of holding a couple of hundred sheets of A4 paper quite comfortably, there is a guide in this section which aids the user in lining up the paper correctly to prevent it going into the printer at an angle and producing a lop-sided output.

Printing

Obviously the main function anyone will require from a device like this is good quality prints. Although the Laserjet 3380 is only a black and white printer, it is still an extremely useful companion for printing out standard office documents where exceptional presentation is not required. For the kind of documents we print such as technical specifications, this printer is more than adequate although I must admit, if we do need to print anything a bit more glamorous, we do use a colour printer.

Fax

You can connect the Laserjet 3380 to any standard telephone network which immediately turns it into a fully functional fax machine. Although the fax machine has had its day, this functionality is still vitally important to us, for example, if we need to get an order sent off quickly then the fax is still the way to go as signatures via email are still not accepted by a great number of establishments. It is simple to send a fax via the Laserjet 3380, load the document into the document tray, key in the recipients fax number on the keypad, click send and let the machine take care of the rest. Faxing a 4 page document takes between a minute and a minute and a half as each page is scanned into memory before being transmitted.

Copy

The copy function turns the Laserjet 3380 into a standard office photocopier. I am not going to dwell too much on this section as it really is straightforward and pretty obvious what it does. Much like faxing, you just load the document into the document tray, click copy and wait for it to print. You can change options with the copier such as number of copies. Advanced options such as back to back copying are not available on this model.

We tend not to use the copy function too often as it is usually as easy to just reprint a document from our computers.

Scan

We do not use this function in our office due to the fact that once we had networked the printer, this function was no longer available to us. As the printer is only intended to be used as a single use device, it is not capable of transmitting scanned data across the network to an individual PC. Similar devices are available on the market that do allow this. With this in mind, I am not going to comment on the Laserjet 3380’s capabilities as a scanner.

Network Connectivity

As previously mentioned, we have used this printer as a network printer. Although this isn’t how it is designed to be used, we have connected it to a JetDirect card which is an extra piece of hardware which then gives the printer a network address. The only functionality we have lost be doing this is scanning. All other functions perform in exactly the same way as they would if the printer was connected directly to a PC.

Toner

This printer uses the HP C7115A ( HP 15A ) toner cartridge. These cost around £25 and will last for approximately 3,500 pages. Obviously this will depend on the black coverage for each page.

Technical Spec

The specification for this printer is quite large due to all of the functions available. So as not to pack the review out unnecessarily, anyone wishing to view the full specification can visit http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/en/WF06b/18972-238444-410636-12004-f51-378060-378062-378063.html

Verdict

This printer is now a few year old and is starting to show its age. We have printed 39,000 pages in its lifetime and it has not once, show any signs of malfunctioning. This is a great device for an office environment where jazzy colour printing is not essential and the copy and fax functions are useful every now and then. As the printer is made by HP, you can be assured of its quality. I would recommend this printer to anyone looking for a heavy duty device.
 

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