I purchased this product because I needed a color printer that could pump out some quantity, and I have had about enough with inkjet printers. A high-end inkjet costs about the same as the CLJ 4500, and the 4500 is a very flexible printer.

To be upfront, this printer has more consumables that just toner. Here's a list and how much they cost. You will need to replace these periodically.

HP Drum kit: $80 (25,000 pages black & white, 6,250 pages color)
HP Fuser kit: $200 (100,000 pages black & white, 50,000 pages color)
HP Black toner cartridge: $80 (9,000 pages)
HP Magenta toner cartridge: $80 (6,000 pages)
HP Cyan toner cartridge: $80 (6,000 pages)
HP Yellow toner cartridge: $80 (6,000 pages)
HP Transfer kit: $180 (100,000 pages black & white, 50,000 pages color)

All of these page count averages are based on a 5% coverage of the page. Keep in mind that most people print on more than 5% of the page. 5% is roughly one page, with doublespaced type. For instance, if you use 10% of the page, cut all those figures in half.

The printer's engine speed is 4 ppm color and 16 ppm black. Know beforehand that this printer (nor any other printer) will always live up to that claim. All this means is that the PRINT ENGINE can print at that speed. By the time your 2 meg Powerpoint document gets rasterized by the printer and ready to print, it may be 50 megs.

Overall, this is a good printer, and has solid support. The warranty support was quick to answer any of the questions I had, and I felt like they really wanted to help.

Oh - and you can disable the 'sleep mode' as was mentioned in an earlier review. You can set the time limit to whatever you want, or turn it off completely.




Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 2700
Operating System: Linux