mrkstvns's Full Review: Hewlett Packard LaserJet 4050tn Printer
After almost 2 years of moderately heavy daily use, I feel comfortable recommending the Hewlett Packard Laserjet 4050TN, not just for its good print quality and its support of many different types of computing platforms and networks, but for its reliability and durability. Like most people in the computing field, I've used HP products many times over the years and I always feel comfortable with their reputation for quality and value -- this printer just reinforces that view.
Performance
The HP 4050TN is a veritable Corvette in terms of printer speed and performance (at least at this price level). At 17 pages per minute, it's a zippy enough for most office workgroup environments. if you've used laser printers much, you probably realize that its not always just the engine speed that really counts, but how fast it can handle real-world documents.
This printer isn't just fast in factory performance specs, it's fast in the office. I print a lot of documents that might challenge another printer, and I really like that the HP processes pages quickly even when its handling graphics and layout intensive pages.
While some printers bog down at the sight of a job that includes multiple fonts, lots of gray scales, or embedded PostScript and TIFF graphics, the HP Laserjet 4050TN's built-in RISC processor takes it right in stride. Even from a cold start, the printer warms up within seconds (12 seconds according to the manual, which seems about right). Pages print fast, and that means I'm more productive.
The print quality is outstanding at 1200dpi resolution. This kind of quality means that you're seeing documents that are almost as crisp as a professionally printed page. It really helps that initial drafts can approximate what the finals will look like when we send them to an imagesetter.
Flexibility
The HP 4050TN means business, that much is obvious. Besides the fact that these puppies cost over $1,000, and have performance specs that really cry out to be a network printer for a small to mid-sized workgroup, the printer is also equipped to be flexible enough to handle real-world computing environments.
Because the HP 4050TN includes both Adobe PostScript Level 2 and its own PCL page description language, the printer is a great choice for a lot of applications on a lot of different platforms. There's also drivers and administration software on an included CD-ROM. The only nit I see with the CD-ROM is that it only supports Windows, Macintosh, and Novell networks -- the software itself is also available for most popular Unix platforms, but you'll have to retrieve that off the Internet if you want it (a minor pain in the old tookus).
Hooking up to those different platforms is a snap too, since the printer has a lot of popular network interfaces, including Ethernet and AppleTalk. Of course there's also parallel and serial connection ports too so you can just hook the printer up to your PC, and away you go!
The HP 4050TN is also a printer that can grow as your business grows. There are expansion slots in the back that can take additional network interface cards, hard disks (great for storing font libraries), or additional memory (which means even faster processing of layout intensive jobs). There are also other add-ons, like an envelope feeder and larger paper trays.
Durability
I find that jams occur very rarely. In fact, the only times I can recall the printer jamming is when it refused to cancel long print jams so I resorted to turning off the power switch (I hate printers that don't have power switches -- review of one those ugly beasts to come, I promise!)
Unlike some of those low-cost printers that eat consumables faster than Rikki Lake in an all-you-can-eat taco buffet, the HP 4050TN is pretty economical to operate. While the cartridges aren't cheap, they do last either 6,000 or 10,000 pages, depending on which type you order. This is also a popular type of printer (based on a Canon 52X engine) and it is very easy to find remanufactured cartridges at substantial savings. The company I work for has been ordering a lot of the remanufactured cartridges lately (the boxes are marked "GRC, Chatsworth CA"), and we haven't seen any problems from them.
Speaking of economical, the printer is stingey on power too. If it's been idle for more than a few minutes, it goes into a dormant Powersave mode. When you send the next print job to it, the printer will take a few seconds to wake back up, but in the mean time, you've saved a few pennies worth of electricity, and maybe another tree leaf -- you old conservationist, you!
Documentation
The printer comes with a very nice User Guide that easily explains how to do almost everything you can imagine doing with a printer, including manually feeding odd size pages and heavy stock or transparencies, printing multiple reduced-size pages on a single sheet of paper (it only does duplex if you buy an optional attachment), and of course, clearing the inevitable paper jams.
The manual is very well illustrated with clearly labeled drawings that accurately show where controls are located and how things work (like the path that paper takes through the printer). There are also excellent references to panel messages that can be used for doing hardware configuration or for troubleshooting. Appendixes provide all the technical specs a bit-head would want to be in true printer nirvana, right down to pin out charts for those sick puppies who like building their own RS232 cables.
Don't fret if you think all that info is overkill for your needs. HP also provides a little short 20-page Getting Started Guide that just shows you how to hook up the unit and load up enough software to get rolling along the road to great, reliable, easy printing.
Bottom Line
This is a good solid printer with lots of power and flexibility for a busy and growing office or workgroup. With a variety of network interfaces and available software and drivers for a wide range of platforms, plus excellent documentation, it should also be a snap for professional system administrators to set this up as a network printer. This printer is a solid performer!
The workhorse, LaserJet 4050TN is fully loaded with all of the options that make this such a great printer. 17 pages per minute, 1200 dpi, two 250 she...More at GreatPrinterDeals.com
HP LaserJet 4050tn Laser Printer Refurbished with warranty. The HP LaserJet 4050tn c4254a printer is both versatile and expandable. It also comes equi...More at PrinterStop
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.