The Bottom Line: This is a high volume production printer and easy to operate. I would recommend this printer to businesses that need printer like this.
opinionated3's Full Review: Hewlett Packard LaserJet 9000n Printer
As many of the people who read my review know that I used to work for a computer and printer service company. This is how I have acquired my knowledge of printers and in my reviews I try to pass on some of that knowledge along with specific details of the printer I am reviewing.
I am currently working for a former client that I used to service at my old job. We recently purchased one of these HP Laserjet 9000n printers for a major new project that our Information Systems Department was working on. This project requires the printing of numerous print jobs that require the printing of thousands of pages at a time. We turned to this printer due to the fact that it has the ability to print this many pages without breaking a sweat.
The printer
The HP LaserJet 9000n printer is an amazing printer that has so much to offer, it can be a high volume data processing printer that is used for one single use or can be used by a large number of users in a busy department. The HP 9000 series laser printer was created to enhance the large business size printer line that HP already offers. Until now the HP 8100 series printers were the top of the line for the high volume printing needs.
Initial Setup
Our printer was delivered in three huge boxes and that is because of the optional 2000 sheet paper drawer and 3000 sheet stacker units that we bought with the printer. It took two of us to unload the printer from the box and place it on top of the 2000 sheet paper drawer. Fortunately the 2000 drawer has casters built in so it was easy to move it around. After pulling off all of the orange colored tape that HP put on every drawer, door or movable part so they don't get broken in shipping. The toner cartridges is a lot bigger than most laser printers that I have dealt with and that is because this printer is capable of printing 11" x 17" tabloid paper. One of the negative points of this printer is that it has a very long warm up period that reminds of the HP Color Laser printers. I had it already to power on and I pushed the button and it started the warm up procedure that seemed like it was never going to end. But once it warmed up it was time to finish the setup procedure.
Connectivity
This is a network ready printer and that means that HP has included an Jetdirect 610n internal network interface card and it fits into one of two EIO ports on the printer main logic board. All that is left for me to do is to input all the network settings and I was ready to go. All of the printer settings are accessed through the LCD operator panel. Like the rest of the printer, the LCD display is large and is back lit and has a Indigo blue tint to it. Along with the LCD display there are numerous buttons to help you maneuver through all the menus. The setup guide also includes a step by step instruction on making changes to all the settings. Even those this is a network ready printer you can still choose to connect this printer using the USB interface or parallel. If you choose to select the USB or parallel interface you do not need to make any changes in the settings. HP did not include any cables with this printer so you will need to supply your own cables no matter how you decide to connect it.
Speed and Print Quality
Speed in a laser printer is actually measured a couple of different ways; time to print first page and time to print a number of pages. The time to print the first page is determined by how long it takes to heat up the fuser element and move the paper through the printer. The time to print the number of pages is a combination of the time to print the first page and how much you are printing on each page and how many trays you are pulling the paper from. The HP Laserjet 9000n is by far the slowest non color laser printer as far as the time to print the first page. It has a very slow warm up time and that directly affects the speed at which it prints the first page from a power save mode or a powered off state. But once it starts to print you will be blown away by how fast it prints. HP claims it will print 50 pages per minute at optimum conditions. This refers to 8.5" x 11" paper and 5% coverage. But the speed will be affected by the size of the paper you are printing on and what tray you are pulling the paper from.
I was worried that the print quality would suffer a bit since HP was concerned mainly with the speed of this printer, but I was wrong to be worried. The plain black text is crisp and clean and the grayscale graphic images are very vivid. Now it will not print photo quality images no matter what you try. But it is capable of printing black text and grayscale at up to 1200 dpi (dots per inch), but default resolution is 600 dpi. Even at 600 dpi black text will look very crisp. Unfortunately it won't edge to edge or borderless prints, but it will get pretty close to the edge.
To help keep the print jobs flowing within a group of users HP included a 300 MHz processor and 80 MB of memory. This allows the printer to do much of the processing of the information instead of requiring your computer to do all of the processing and holding of the files as they are printing. The 80 MB of memory is the standard amount of memory, but you can add extra memory up to 384 MB. This is done by adding memory modules to the system board. There is also a place to install an optional hard drive.
Size
When I first saw the HP Laserjet 9000n I thought it was a new copier. It didn't look like the usual laser printer that I was used to. I found out by asking the people in the office, that the reason it looked so much like a copier is due to the optional features that were added to it to expand the functionality of the printer. A little later I will explain the different optional features available for this printer. This is a very large printer and requires a heavy duty stand or table to set it up on. There is an optional stand available from HP that is designed to handle the size and weight of this printer. Not only is it a large printer but it is also a very heavy printer. It weighs in at a hefty 148 lbs for the this model and the weight increases as you add the options to it. The optional features will increase it's dimensions considerably, the standard dimensions 35.9" W x 31.1" H x 28.4" D.
As I explained earlier our specific model includes a couple of options that added considerable size and weight to our machine; 2000 sheet motorized paper drawer sits below the printer and the 3000 sheet paper stacker is attached to the left side of the printer. If you add the same features you wouldn't have a need for a table or stand.
Operating System Compatibility
HP seemed to have put a lot of thought into making this printer usable by the widest range of applications. To put it simply if the operating system you are using is TCP/IP compatible, then this printer will work for you. It uses PCL 5e, PCL 6 and Postscript languages standard. We are currently running Windows 2000 Server as our network software. I have had no problems running this printer on our network. I really don't want to list all of the Operating Systems that this printer will work with. We currently using this printer to print reports directly from our IBM AS400 across our network and this is accomplished by using an IPDS DIMM module. This module occupies one of the memory slots, so we are limited on the amount of memory we can put in our machine.
Consumables
Those that are familiar with laser printers know that the purchase price is just the beginning of your costs to operate a laser printer. First you have the toner cartridge (dry ink cartridge) and then you have the fuser unit (unit that is used to make the toner stick to the paper). These two items need to be replaced based on your usage. The toner cartridge usage will be based on the number of pages you print and how much coverage per page. The approximate number of pages that the toner will last is 30,000 at 5% coverage. The fuser unit is designed to last a finite number of pages and depending how heavy you print will determine how many times you will need to replace this unit. Both of these items are available on the web or you should be able to get them through your current office supply vendor. The fuser unit is part of the maintenance kit and it will need to be replaced at 350,000 pages. The printer will display a message on the operator panel telling you that it is time to perform the scheduled maintenance. This kit contains the fuser unit and a complete set of replacement rollers; separation/feed rollers, pickup and transfer rollers. This kit is consumer replaceable or you can have a local HP Service company install it for you.
Technical Information
The HP Laserjet 9000
300 MHz Processor
50 pages per minute
1200 dpi print quality
Monochrome print (Black and White)
300,000 duty cycle
2 paper trays
1000 sheet input - Standard
3100 sheet capacity
Letter, Legal, tabloid and Envelope size paper
3x9 to 11x17 paper size
64 MB of memory
Max. memory is 384 MB
Parallel port (with supplied cable)
3 EIO slots for expansion
Light gray exterior
Optional features
500 sheet paper tray
100 sheet multipurpose tray
2000 sheet paper tray
3000 sheet stacker unit
3000 sheet stacker/stapler/sorter unit
Duplex unit (2-sided printing)
Upgrade memory modules (100 pin DIMM SDRAM), 16MB, 32MB, 64MB, 128MB
Jetdirect 600n/610n Ethernet card (EIO)
5.0 GB Hard Drive (EIO)
Fast infrared port
Models that make up the 9000 series
HP 9000 model:
Includes all the standard features listed above.
HP 9000dn model:
Includes all the features of the HP 9000n plus an auto duplex unit for double sided printing.
HP 9000hns model:
Includes all the features of the HP 90000dn plus it includes a 5 GB hard disk and it includes the 2000 sheet paper tray and the 3000 sheet stacker unit.
My thoughts
HP has hit a home run with this Production Class laser printer and I would definitely recommend this printer to any business that needs a printer for large volume unattended print jobs. With added paper handling options this printer will handle 3000 page print jobs without slowing down. When I first saw this printer a few years ago I was amazed at how fast it printed and now that we have one running in our department I get to use it on a regular basis.
The model we got is network ready and that is a really handy feature of this printer. The LCD display is very easy to read and it is back lit in an indigo blue color which helps to make it easier to read. All of the network settings are handled through the operator panel and are very easy to follow.
With the printer we are able to direct one of our very large print jobs that are only done once a month and not have to worry about someone watching it and reload it with paper. Since it has the optional 3000 sheet stacker we don't have to worry about removing the paper from the output tray before it takes the printer offline until the paper is removed.
I would definitely recommend this printer to anyone looking for a printer to place in a large department or a high volume production area.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 3400.00 Operating System: Windows and Macintosh
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