Is this the ideal heavy duty printer?
Written: Oct 19 '01 (Updated Oct 19 '01)
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Pros: Expandable, high volume, reliable, fast, capacity, print quality.
Cons: Expensive, modest improvements over previous product, heavy and bulky.
The Bottom Line: Your heavy duty printer for enterprises.
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| lavoisier's Full Review: Hewlett Packard LaserJet 8150n Laser Printer |
In an environment where printing large documents are necessary, you need a heavy duty laser printer, and I chose it to be the HP LaserJet 8150N. This is the networked version of the HP LaserJet 8150. In my office, I print many outlines for a webpage design and invoices I also use the printer to print documents. Every year, I print out multiple pages of financial statements to determine growth and analysis. As a result, I needed the printer in events that my business grows.
The nice things about the printer are that it's expandable, so it grows with your business needs. It's expandable by having additional paper trays, paper handling, interfaces etc....
With the optional copy module, the printer can become your only photocopier.
With a duty cycle of up to 150,000 pages a month, the printer can safely print up to 4800 pages a day. After owing the printer for 7 months I can say that it's a reliable printer. It's reliable, because it has never jammed, misprinted or even gone under misrecognition. With the printer it comes standard with the 2-500 sheet trays and a 100-sheet universal tray, which has a capacity of 1100 sheets, but the printer can accommodate up to 3100 sheets which is necessary for large enterprises and businesses, since they print large documents frequently and it allows overnight printing without supervision on whether the printer needs to refill on paper.
The print quality is beyond resume perfect, where the blacks are saturated, unsmeared, smooth and crisp. Second to none even to Lexmarks or Xerox printers.
With the printer speed of up to 32 pages per minute (Letter or A4) or 16 pages per minute (Tabloid or A3), this is a workhorse, the pages just fly out of the printer.
With a 20,000 page toner capacity, it keeps the costs of printing down and productivity up. At only about 2 Canadian pennies a letter or A4 page, I can definitely use some savings.
The drawbacks to the printer are expensive since I purchased this printer for $2600 at buy.com. The options are rather pricey, but compared to ordering through HP, it's cheaper at buy.com. They include the following:
3000 Sheet Stacker: $1600; 2000-sheet tray: $820 and Envelope Feeder: $375.
Since the LaserJet 8150 is a successor to the LaserJet 8100 improvements only included the web-access DIMM, optional infrared interface (Wi-fi) and extra memory. I wished that it could handle more pages, since the 8150 is the replacement for the 8100.
At 112 pounds, this is something that you would not put on the desk, since it will splinter unless the surface it rests in is thick and reinforced. With the 2000 sheet tray, the printer will include casters, which can rest on the floor. By the time the output capacity is expanded, it can weigh a massive 250 pounds. For the desk real estate, it will need a dedicated desk for it, since the trays will need some room to be extended.
Currently, my LaserJet 8150N is fitted with the optional envelope feeder, which can print up to 75 envelopes in the feeder rather than the 10 on the universal tray. The thicker and heavier media must be printed on the universal tray and leaving the printer through a straight thru paper path, since it may curl or damage the meaia if you put them into the standard paper trays, envelopes are no exception.
Here is the technical data for the printer:
Speed: Up to 32ppm (Letter and A4), Up to 16ppm (Tabloid and A3)
Memory: 32MB (64MB on 8150MFP) (Expandable to 160MB)
Input Capacity: 1100 sheets (Max. Capacity: 3100 sheets) (Max Capacity Standard on HN and MFP)
Output Capacity: 600 sheets (Max. Capacity: 3600 sheets) (Max capacity standard on HN and MFP)
Trays: Base, N, DN: 3; HN, MFP: 4 (Up to 5)
Interface: Parallel (+ 10/100 Optional on Base) (Optional Infrared)
Envelope Capacity: 10 (On Universal Tray only) (75 with optional envelope feeder)
Duty Cycle: up to 150,000 pages per month (75,000 2-sided pages)
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 2600
Operating System: Windows
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Epinions.com ID:
lavoisier
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Member: Hugh Jazz
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Reviews written: 180
Trusted by: 26 members
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