Excellent for Office Sharing
Written: Nov 22 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Large feed bin, multiple output trays, print job managing, network capability
Cons: confusing tray label(s), limited side output tray volume
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| jcpii's Full Review: Hewlett Packard LaserJet 8500dn Printer |
In a medium sized office, the HP 8550DN can certainly hold its own. The printer has among its more useful features, a 2000 page feed bin, multiple output trays, print job managing, and it works quite well over a network. Less attractive features include the limited size of the secondary output tray and a mislabeled/confusing side feed tray.
The Plus:
A 2000 sheet feed tray (more like bin) on the bottom is ideal for situation where no one person is responsible for regularly filling the paper trays. Two thousand sheets goes a long way, even in an office of 40 users. All the trays are fairly easy to load and even the smaller trays fit a full ream (500 sheets) of standard 20 lb. paper. The side feed tray also allows for odd sized sheets and will be overlooked when the paper in the side tray is the wrong size. The print starts at tray one and moves its way down through the trays looking for the proper size of paper. This is ideal if you have all three permanent trays full of different sized paper; say legal, 11x17, & letter. This also makes it easy to print on letterhead by simply placing it in tray one (the side tray) overriding the other tray selections.
With 2 output trays, the printer is able to separate documents between the upper and side output trays, keeping large jobs separate from smaller ones. In addition, the combination of the side feed tray and opposing side output tray allows for printing on card stock that otherwise could not navigate through the rollers of the printer (up to 54 lb.).
Print job managing adds a great deal of flexibility to this printer. You can send jobs to the printer to be stored on its hard drive. You can then print these jobs at later times; maybe after you have walked to the printer with your letterhead, or periodically when the office runs out of pamphlets. The printer can also be set to allow smaller print job to be moved up in priority so that no one has to wait through a 50 page job for their one page. There are many more interesting features here that deserve note as well, but to make this opinion of reasonable length, they have been left out.
Networking the printer on a Windows network is relatively painless, and works equally as well whether the printer is connected to a print server, or sits alone on a computer network. Printer administrators will also like the numerous statistics that the printer can supply about itself, even email alerts for things such as low toner or servicing.
Other plusses include the printer's speed and accuracy. Every sheet it pulled through evenly and when possible, two sheets are printed at once. When a job contains multiple letter-sized pages, the printer kicks them out two at a time - this is a real time saver. The duplex tray is built in (it doesn't take up the space of a feed tray) and can duplex all sizes the printer can print (but not all thicknesses).
The Minus:
Most of the negative aspects of the printer are nit picking. The side feed tray's label can be confusing at times when you want to print on the back side of a page. You may find yourself printing upside down or on the wrong side until you get used to it. Also, the side output tray can only hold about 50 or fewer pages as compared to the upper trays comfortable 300-500 pages. Lastly, when installing the printer to be used from a printhost, be careful to set up all the printer options exactly the way you want the default to be on your user's computers. Some of these options are difficult to change or impossible to change without reinstalling the printer's software.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 8000
Operating System: Windows
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jcpii
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