The HP Laserjet 4050N is of the 4050 series which has been discontinued by HP and replaced by the 4250 series (this particular model has been superseded by the C4253A).
We use the 4050N as a network printer at our office and it serves 14 people well on a daily basis. HP used to advertise this range as being "ultra-dependable black-and-white laser printer" which I would pretty much agree with. It's worked well here for years and as the old saying goes: "If it aint broke, don't fix it!"
TECHNICAL SPEC
The 4050N is a robust workgroup model which prints 16 A4 (or 17 letter) mono (black & white) pages per minute. It has 2 paper trays; one holding up to 600 sheets and you can get an additional tray which holds over 1000 sheets. It's capable of printing 1200dpi resolution and has a HP JetDirect 10 Base-T Ethernet as standard.
The
printer comes with 16Mb of memory which is expandable up to 192Mb. It can print up to 220 levels of grey.
The output tray can comfortably hold up to 250 pages cutting out the need for removing wads of paper when printing large documents and the rear output tray can hold up to 50 sheets.
The ability to hold 250 sheets is a real bonus as far as I'm concerned, it doesn't affect me too much as the printer sits at the end of my (huge) desk but the others who use it would have to come trundling over ever few minutes to remove the paper so the output tray didn't clog up if it didn't have this capability.
The system requirements for this printer are a minimum of 12Mb RAM and 8Mb of free disk space to install the print drivers.
TONER CARTRIDGE
The original HP toner for the 4050N is product code C4127A and can be purchased for £69.99 from cartridgesave.co.uk - it has a page life of about 6,000 pages based on 5% page coverage. You could also get the C4127X toner which has a life of about 10,000 but costs a bit more depending on where you purchase it £79.99 (from cartridgesave.co.uk). Personally I'd rather pay the £10 extra and get 4,000 pages more, wouldn't you?
I'd also mention that it's very easy to remove the toner cartridge and replace with a new one. I'm quite experienced at fiddling with printers when they have jams (which I'd add I haven't experienced with this printer) and changing toner cartridges but generally I'd say that changing the toner is as easy as pie!
FOOTPRINT
The printer is 13.3 inches in height by 15.4 in width and over 24 inches deep. It weighs just under 18 kilos (without the print cartridge installed).
Overall it's quite big and heavy for a desktop printer by any standards. I wouldn't recommend moving this on your own!
PRINT QUALITY
The HP has a FastRes feature which prints 1200dpi (dots per inch) for faster printing and a feature called ProRes which is lso 1200dpi but with better graphics. I've printed digital pictures on it and they've come out crystal clear and sharp (but obviously black and white) and I think I mentioned already that it is capable of printing up to 220 levels of gray for smooth, photo-quality images.
You can also choose to print at 600 or 300dpi for when you don't need the documents for sending out external or for presentations, although I'd add that even at 300dpi I'd be quite happy to send out a letter to a customer as the quality is still pretty sharp!
It also uses HP precision toner for a very clear, sharp output. To date I've not seen any toner residue on printed pages or even fadeout when the cartridge is running low like I've seen with other laser printers when they're running short on toner.
There's an easy to use flap at the front to pull down to insert letterheads or envelops and this print with ease and the minimum amount of fuss. Hey presto and your envelope's done quite nicely, no tell tale signs that it's been through a printer such as slight folds or creases as is the norm with many other printers.
Oh I almost forgot to add that it handles double sided printing quite easily although it takes slightly longer. This is really handy for printing off reports and, if you're like me, you won't leave it till the last minute so that time is an issue. The printer works well with you if you work smart and not hard!
WHERE TO GET ONE
As these are discontinued I did a search for reconditioned machines, you can pick one up from mindmachine.co.uk for just under £300 (including VAT) with a 6 month parts and labour warranty. This isn't too bad considering a new machine would have only come with a 12 month warranty.
According to my research this model used to cost around the £800 mark when it was generally available.
MY THOUGHTS
As far as I' concerned a printer this cheap that can service so many people's needs is well worth the money. It's pretty much worthwhile to serve a network of users, I'd recommend something smaller, lighter in weight and cheaper if it's just for use by one person, but as a group print server, it's pretty damn good and reliable. To my knowledge in over 2 years it's never experienced a paper jam, the toner cartridge last as long as it says it should and then some and considering its size and output it really isn't very noisy. After all, it sits on the end of my desk and I'll soon be demanding it be moved if it was noisy to the extent that it disturbs my work whenever people came over to collect their printouts.
One thing I would mention though is some of my colleagues send large documents to print and then stand in front of the printer waiting for it to print - and then wave their arms around saying they can smell the toner being burnt onto the paper. I tend to let my whole document print before I get up to walk around my desk to pick it up and as such haven't noticed this particular issue.
I'm very loyal to HP laserjet printers and to date I've not had ANY reason not to be loyal to their products and especially not to this printer. I can't advis e how much the maintenance costs for this printer as there has been no reason to call out maintenance in over 2 years of use.
On the whole, I'd rate the HP Laserjet 4050N as a strong 9 out of 10. As I mentioned already it's been discontinued, I only hope the series that it's been replaced with are as reliable and functional as this one! I'd also add that it's most effective as a workgroup printer as opposed to home use due to its rather large footprint!
21.08.2006 17:45
I have a HP printer and it has done stirling work for years.
08.08.2006 13:36
We use these in school and even the kids haven't managed to break them, which is quite a recommendation. xx
05.08.2006 11:40
I'd go along with all of that - it's the printer that I'm using at home, although it has a rather large footprint for a home printer! Mine is a slightly older model - exactly the one shown in the picture there - I've replaced the toner cartridge twice in the last five years - I was bulk printing the company's catalogue (B&W!) on it for most of last year. Richard.