HP Scores Big With Outstanding Color Laser Printer
Written: Jan 14 '09 (Updated Jan 17 '09)
Product Rating:
Ease of Use:
Paper Handling:
Pros: Outstanding print quality, ease of use, good drivers and user friendliness at an attractive price.
Cons: Supply costs are a factor to consider but this printer is highly competitive.
The Bottom Line: While some companies struggle for cheap color laser printing, HP has re-defined the market with this printer. It offers high quality, affordable price and ease of use.
jlc2005's Full Review: Hewlett Packard Color Laserjet Cp2025dn With Extra...
There are a few companies that can be counted upon to work quietly behind the scenes and constantly raise the bar for an entire industry. HP's printer division is one such organization. The new CP 2020 Series of color Laserjet printers effectively re-writes all of the rules for color laser printing, most specifically the one that says, "You can't afford this." Overview The 2025 is a new family of printers. They are far more compact than their predecessors, offer outstanding, high-quality output, are fast, Energy Star compliant and uniquely affordable. There is a basic, non-networked version, a networked version with both USB and Ethernet ports and the "dn" version which offers full networking and automatic duplex printing. So effectively, this range of printers within the same family offers color printing for an individual user, a network or a workgroup, allowing the buyer to purchase the features he or she needs without having to buy features which are not needed.
Form Factor HP's first small business/workgroup color Laserjet was large. It was difficult to find a place to put one where it could be used, connected and serviced. The 2025 is a whole new approach. There are no hanging print output trays to snag clothing or be dumped and broken. It is just under 16 inches wide, 18 inches in depth and 12 inches high. Without floppy paper trays in the way, the footprint is much smaller than my first Lasertjet //p, now considered an antique. yet, this is a fast, smart color printer which takes up only a small space. Internal paper storage helps reduce the footprint and a temporary flip-down "multipurpose tray" allows for envelopes or custom stock to be loaded on an as-needed basis. Then the tray folds back up out of the way. Output appears in the tray on top of the printer. A small LCD display on the front provides basic user information in a clear and ultra-concise manner. It's just a nice cube design which is easy to locate in a typical office setting. EnergyStar Compliance and Speed THis printer offers a choice of energy-saving modes which allow selection of a trade-off between energy savings and first page print speed. because this is a color printer with a total of four drums which have to be brought online, the first page takes longer than it does on a monochrome laser. But HP allows the user to select a ready mode based on specific need. In my use of the 2025dn, I find the maximum energy saving mode to be only a couple of seconds longer than the fast mode and unless you are using this in a newsroom, nurses' station or other time-critical application, the max energy savings mode will probably be sufficient. After the first page, it simply screams, producing up to 22 pages per minute in full color or black and where. There is no difference in print time to go from monochrome to full color. Media This series can handle just about any paper media one is likely to encounter in an office setting from 3" x 5" card stock to legal and the "dn" or duplexing-network version can even duplex legal paper stock automatically. As far as I know, that's a first. This printer can handle photo paper and blast out photographs or it can duplex a long report or technical document. Duplexing is specific to this model being reviewed, the "dn"-suffixed model, but all other specifications regarding paper media apply to the whole 2020 family. The uncomplicated paper path even allows business card stock to be printed without coming apart and jamming the machine. Duplex Printing I admit to being addicted to automatic duplexing ever since HP introduced this feature in the now ancient 970cxi Deskjet printer. It's just a paper and time saver. Some printers offer "manual duplexing", meaning there has to be a seamless functioning of the operator, the computer feeding the job, the printer and the entire workgroup. This usually begins with walking into the hall and shouting, "Nobody print anything. I'm doing a duplex job!" Then the job is sent to the printer, the user walks to the printer and begins flipping pages as they print, pressing a button, hoping the just printed sheet was inserted with the right side up and the correct edge forward and this continues until the job completes - if all goes well. It usually doesn't and paper, toner and time are usually wasted along with the nerves of the user.
Automatic duplexing takes the trouble out of the process. Just send the job as a duplex job and the printer knows what to do, retracting printed pages, flipping them over and printing the other side - all automatically. The 2025dn does this quickly and seamlessly. The only caution I would advise would be against attempting to print the back of laser-perf business card stock. This is an issue with the stock itself rather than the printer.
For material being printed for archival purposes, this printer allows the user to select multiple pages per page, thus shrinking pages to two or more per page to save paper. Because print is so crisp, a lot of text material can be shrunk this way to two pages per page and then duplexing puts another two pages on the back, saving three sheets of paper and their associated bilk and weight. Drivers HP writes some wonderful software for the PC and the Mac. They support Windows from Win2000 to Vista and Mac OS 10.4.0 (Tiger) and up. HP's drivers can accommodate an entire family of printers on either platform so a driver set can be installed which will support a number of printers. This is especially evident on their all-in-one scanner/printers where one driver supports multiple models and generations of a product. The same is true of this Laserjet. The drivers are simple, compact and provide lots of easy-to-understand user options when the print dialog opens. CDs are provided and will be needed by Windows users. Mac users will see this printer load through Bonjour and the computer will fetch the driver via the Internet. Windows users using Bonjour for Windows will have an easy time with installation either by letting Bonjour fetch the driver set or by inserting the CD. Ergonomics As an engineer I have to marvel at the design of this printer. The four toner drums fit into a slide-out try which is accessed by opening the front multipurpose tray. A handle allows the whole toner drum assembly to pull out for servicing. It's neat, efficient, non-messy and fast. Anyone can replace toner drums in this machine. It doesn't require a six week course in which screws to remove. It's just easy.
Resolution This is where manufacturers engage in "specsmanship". HP quotes a resolution in b&w and color of 600 x 600 dpi. Other makers quote twice this resolution yet deliver results which are not comparable. The difference here is HP's HP ImageREt3600 technology. Explaining this would make eyes glaze over. Suffice to say, this is the magic behind HP printing technology which massages the image on the fly to produce the best clarity and color saturation. Calling it magic is not much of an overstatement. As the old joke goes, one does not need to understand the inner workings of the East India Company in order to appreciate a very good cup of tea. This printer's internal technology is much like that. It's behind the scenes technology which results in truly awesome printed output which puts others to shame. Color In reading reviews of competing printers I find over and over the statement that "It's okay" or "Not bad for the price." In looking at print samples from printers of other makers, I understand this comment. Color saturation is a problem for most, but not for HP. HP's "ColorSphere" toners are the counter part to their Vivera inks. They're simply stunning. The additive color processing of the ImageREt3600 technology combines with the vivid HP toners to produce true color which is deep and "alive" and not some less-than version of the real thing. Colors leap off the page as they leap off the screen. HP color on this printer simply rocks. Toner Cartridges This is another mysterious area in the printer business. This is where all printer manufacturers make their money. All cartridges for all printers are expensive. Period. However, a specsmanship game is often played, offering lower yield at a slightly lower price. UP's cartridges are $120 each - and four are required. The black is rated at 4000 pages and the colors are rated at 2500 pages. This allows for the fact that most users do more b&w than color printing. It's still expensive to re-stock any color laser printer, but I found in my survey that the per page cost is actually lower for this printer than competing printers. Other makers sell cartridges for a lower price but some have a yield of only 1500 pages for $85, so HP edges out other companies on the per page cost while providing a longer interval between user servicing of the printer. HP also has a prepaid recycling program where spent cartridges may be returned directly to HP at no cost to the user. Just box up the old one, slap on a label and let UPS do the rest. Overall Impressions This is a fun printer to use. It really is fun to see such high quality output come out of it. The drivers work well while taking very little system space or processor overhead and while color laser printing still may not be practical for the average home user, this printer brings it down within the reach of workgroups. The printer is quiet, fast, easy to use and drama-free. Materials of construction are of high quality. Nothing is flimsy or squeaky. There are no bumping or grinding sounds from this printer and I have yet to experience a page error. The thing just works and it works very well. I consider it a good value, so good in fact that what was once a luxury for my workgroup is now a practical and sensible addition.
Update - 01/17/09 After getting to know this printer in great detail, I really cannot think of adequate words to describe the speed and quality of the output or how seamlessly the drivers work in both the PC and Mac worlds. Additionally, it should be noted that the "monochrome penalty" is a thing of the past. Many color laser printers increment the toner cartridge counter by one when a sheet of paper goes through it even if printing in black and white only and once a magic number is reached, the cartridge stops working. This is NOT the case with this printer. There is a monochrome option in the print dialog which on the Mac can be saved as part of a setup to be chosen off a list. This takes it to grayscale, 600 x 600 dpi and just excellent quality and economy using just one cartridge. It can be switched back to 3600 dpi (the effective resolution of ImageREt3600) by checking a box or leaving this as default mode. Timing of wake from sleep and first output is nine seconds after initial morning start up. In sleep mode, the maker states power use if 4 watts. The web server for this printer is robust and allows very fine control of hundreds of aspects of the printer from the screen. This is fun to look at but the printer performs so well out of the box that I have found this kind of tweaking to be unnecessary. This printer continues to impress. It's like having a high tech print shop on my desk.
Photo Printing I loaded up a stack of 4"x6" photo paper in the multipurpose tray today and printed some photos using a "photo" color analysis setting in the print dialog and the results blew me away. Each photo requires about two seconds for the printer to analyze the file and adjust its RGB settings but prints came out at two second intervals looking as if they had been printed with Fuji or Agfa wet process photo printing. Simply amazing.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 399.00 Operating System: Windows and Macintosh
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