Comparison of the Old HP LaserJets
Nov 20 '01
The Bottom Line You can get a little more speed, and more memory, but the best value for the money is the LaserJet III, maybe the best laser printer ever produced.
LaserJet III
Today I had my friendly laser printer specialist in for a visit. He comes in every year or so, to keep my twelve-year-old LaserJet III working. HIs visit started me thinking about printers, and about the various HP LaserJets that have blessed my offices over the years, starting with the LaserJet III. That printer, now attached to my four-PC home network, started life as the sole printer for a busy law firm, and for six years it printed more than 35,000 pages a month. A little bit of regular service, and it never broke down. (Never, you say? OK, twice. In six years.) Since then, it has been at home, averaging perhaps 3/4,000 pages a month.
Compared to today's printers, the LaserJet III is like the runt of the litter. It has almost no memory (1 meg, which I later upgraded to 2 meg - oh, joy), so try to print any of today's large documents. Of course, it's only black and white, so its memory needs are not that huge. It has two insertable paper trays that hold perhaps 250 pages each, limited fonts, and a menu/controls system that would be incomprehensible (except that by now, I actually understand some of it - not bad for twelve years).
At the beginning, the worst thing was that it was not network-enabled, yet it had to be the4 shared printer for eleven computers on a network. Thankfully, that was not a problem. It was connected to one of the network computers (not the server), and operated without any problems and without any degradation in the performance experienced by that user (despite the fact that the computer was a 386 - remember those?).
There are good things about it. From the beginning, and without fail, it has produced clean, crisp, clear documents at a relatively quick (at the time) 8 pages a minute. It almost never jams, a function of the "straight-through" design of the paper feed. Toner cartridges last twenty to thirty thousand pages, and reconditioned cost under US$40. They are easy to replace, and shaking the cartridges makes them last several days longer.
But the biggest advantage of this printer is that, like the claim of the Eveready bunny, "it just keeps going and going.." I looked around my office and my home at the many pieces of computer hardware and software. Are any of them eleven years old and still working? The oldest computer gear I still have operational other than my trusty LaserJet III is my Sidekick '95 (a calendar/cardfile software package that addicted me against my will).
LaserJet IIIsi
The replacement in 1996 for the LaserJet III was a used LaserJet IIIsi which already had more than a million pages printed on it (it came from a translation company). For us, it was an upgrade. It had its own Ethernet card, two 500 page trays, and printed at 11 pages per minute. It also had 4 megs of memory, and a more complicated but easier to understand menu system (that I have never learned). For years it printed more than 30,000 pages a month. Less reliable than the III, it broke down once or twice a year. Repairs were not expensive.
Some say the print on the IIIsi is clearer, but I could never tell the difference.
Two years ago, after four years of busy law firm service, the IIIsi made the trek with me to a high-tech company, where it rested in semi-retirement, underutilized by underappreciative techies (some of whom couldn't read web pages that were not printed in colour). I called them today. Whenever the colour printers break down, the IIIsi continues to plug along. Output not as pretty, but they are never without a printer.
LaserJet 4si
At the company, the main printer was a 4si, also used, that after several years of 300,000 pages a year settled down to its own more leisurely pace of 15,000 pages a month. Just a bit faster still, the 4si also had lots more memory (wasted in that environment), but was otherwise almost indistinguishable from the IIIsi. Only two things were really noticeable. First, the 4si has an offset feature designed to pile each copy so that they are separated sideways in the out bin. Unfortunately, it appeared to turn on randomly (or we never fully understood how it worked), and sometimes made a loud clunking sound when it worked. Second, it broke down every four months on average. Still not a terrible record, but it suffers by comparison to the III and IIIsi. (I'm told the 4si also had some fonts not available on the other two, but I never had a font I couldn't print on any of them, so this never affected me.)
Conclusion
All three of these printers were exceptional products, better by far than any of the many other printers I've used over the years. Yes, they are all limited in their functionality, and anyone who wants the latest and best will not be satisfied. But if you want solid, reliable document production, with limited graphics, there is nothing better.
So while you're rooting around in the used printer store, which one do you want? For my money, a LaserJet III (at a cost of about $350 at our local used equipment store) is a better deal than the IIIsi (at about $500) or the 4si (at $600). The "si" models are faster, and network enabled, but the III is the most reliable laser printer ever made.
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gandalf2001
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