Laserjet Review

I’m printing far too much in my small office for an inkjet printer. Looking for the best laserjet printer in a reasonable price range. Must do colour as well, with a quick print turnaround.
I’ve been looking around on the web, but it seems a bit of a mine field!
Under £180 would be very helpful.

You say you are doing far too much printing as to be economical on an inket but have you really done your homework in comparing consumables of inkjets and lasers. There is no doubt that laser printers have come way down in price and you can certainly get an Epson colour laser for under £180. However, when you compare the costs of replacement colour toners to inkjet cartridges and then also the inevitable drum replacement which you do not have with an inkjet, you may find that it is false economy.

I personally would always recommend Epson as a make whatever the type, and being an office have you also considered that if you print envelopes and labels, an inkjet really is much more flexible.

This printer has a really beautiful print quality, and is pretty quick to print too.

After about six months of use, there have been no problems.

Installing the printer is reasonably simple. It comes with a CD with all necessary drivers, but it does not come with a USB cable, so you have to supply your own, which is a bit stingy. You can also connect it with a bi-directional parallel cable, and this model also takes a RJ45 network plug, and can work as a network printer if so desired. (ie you can configure it with it’s own IP address)

Four colour cartridges are supplied with the printer: a black cartridge and the 3 primary colours viz. cyan, red and yellow. They appear to be full size cartridges, not the half full “introductory” cartridges that you get when the manufacturer feels like ripping you off. According to the literature, these cartridges are good for 2500 pages at 5% coverage, which equates to text, so if you intend to print a lot of graphics (pictures) you would have to reduce that number by about 25% Cartridges are expensive, with all four together costing more than the printer itself, so one has to start saving immediately for the next lot of cartridges. Remember though that you have 4 cartridges, so it actually means that you can print 2500 x 4 = roughly 10,000 pages before you have to replace all four cartridges.

The paper tray is quite big and can take about 250 sheets at a time (about half of a normal pack of paper) and works with A4, letter size and smaller. Also does envelopes and so on, as is the norm. Stated printing speed is 8 pages per minute, and in practice the speed seems to be pretty close to this.

The printer is quite large, so it takes up quite a bit of space on your desk. Since the paper comes out the top, it would work better having it on the floor or on a low stool next to your desk. It’s fairly heavy too, so don’t put it on the top shelf of one of those flimsy computer desks: if it falls on you it could be nasty.

The printer has a smallish LCD display to show progress, and 2 LEDs that indicate power and problem! The printer goes into a fairly lengthy self calibration process by default, every time you switch it on, but this function can be switched off by going into the (supplied ) software called “HP color laserjet Toolbox” , which will only work, of course, if the printer is switched on and connected to the PC.

Overall, this is a very satisfying printer. The prints are perfect and very professional looking, the mechanics give no trouble, and the printing is fast, with a very short initial warm up time of just a few seconds. If you want quality, then this is a good printer to go for.

Duncan Kelly

I have a HP laserjet printer 4250N and I have the usb cord plugged into the printer and computer. I have even downloaded the driver from the HP website, however, I do not know what to do now that the driver is saved onto my desktop. Please help!

Go to start>control panel and click systems. Go to the hardware tab and click device manager. Look for the device you want to update the driver for and double click it. Go to the driver tab and click on update driver.

-A screen will pop up like in the automatic install. Select "install for a list or specific location" this time and click next. Uncheck "search removable media" and check "include this location in search". Click the browse button and go to the directory where you saved your new driver. (if its on CD just search removable media and it will find it).

-Click next and it will attempt to install the driver. Once done click next and your new driver is install. A reboot might be required for the device to work properly

This printer has a really beautiful print quality, and is pretty quick to print too.

After about six months of use, there have been no problems.

Installing the printer is reasonably simple. It comes with a CD with all necessary drivers, but it does not come with a USB cable, so you have to supply your own, which is a bit stingy. You can also connect it with a bi-directional parallel cable, and this model also takes a RJ45 network plug, and can work as a network printer if so desired. (ie you can configure it with it’s own IP address)

Four colour cartridges are supplied with the printer: a black cartridge and the 3 primary colours viz. cyan, red and yellow. They appear to be full size cartridges, not the half full “introductory” cartridges that you get when the manufacturer feels like ripping you off. According to the literature, these cartridges are good for 2500 pages at 5% coverage, which equates to text, so if you intend to print a lot of graphics (pictures) you would have to reduce that number by about 25% Cartridges are expensive, with all four together costing more than the printer itself, so one has to start saving immediately for the next lot of cartridges. Remember though that you have 4 cartridges, so it actually means that you can print 2500 x 4 = roughly 10,000 pages before you have to replace all four cartridges.

The paper tray is quite big and can take about 250 sheets at a time (about half of a normal pack of paper) and works with A4, letter size and smaller. Also does envelopes and so on, as is the norm. Stated printing speed is 8 pages per minute, and in practice the speed seems to be pretty close to this.

The printer is quite large, so it takes up quite a bit of space on your desk. Since the paper comes out the top, it would work better having it on the floor or on a low stool next to your desk. It’s fairly heavy too, so don’t put it on the top shelf of one of those flimsy computer desks: if it falls on you it could be nasty.

The printer has a smallish LCD display to show progress, and 2 LEDs that indicate power and problem! The printer goes into a fairly lengthy self calibration process by default, every time you switch it on, but this function can be switched off by going into the (supplied ) software called “HP color laserjet Toolbox” , which will only work, of course, if the printer is switched on and connected to the PC.

Overall, this is a very satisfying printer. The prints are perfect and very professional looking, the mechanics give no trouble, and the printing is fast, with a very short initial warm up time of just a few seconds. If you want quality, then this is a good printer to go for.

Duncan Kelly

I’m printing far too much in my small office for an inkjet printer. Looking for the best laserjet printer in a reasonable price range. Must do colour as well, with a quick print turnaround.
I’ve been looking around on the web, but it seems a bit of a mine field!
Under £180 would be very helpful.

You say you are doing far too much printing as to be economical on an inket but have you really done your homework in comparing consumables of inkjets and lasers. There is no doubt that laser printers have come way down in price and you can certainly get an Epson colour laser for under £180. However, when you compare the costs of replacement colour toners to inkjet cartridges and then also the inevitable drum replacement which you do not have with an inkjet, you may find that it is false economy.

I personally would always recommend Epson as a make whatever the type, and being an office have you also considered that if you print envelopes and labels, an inkjet really is much more flexible.

I have a HP laserjet printer 4250N and I have the usb cord plugged into the printer and computer. I have even downloaded the driver from the HP website, however, I do not know what to do now that the driver is saved onto my desktop. Please help!

Go to start>control panel and click systems. Go to the hardware tab and click device manager. Look for the device you want to update the driver for and double click it. Go to the driver tab and click on update driver.

-A screen will pop up like in the automatic install. Select "install for a list or specific location" this time and click next. Uncheck "search removable media" and check "include this location in search". Click the browse button and go to the directory where you saved your new driver. (if its on CD just search removable media and it will find it).

-Click next and it will attempt to install the driver. Once done click next and your new driver is install. A reboot might be required for the device to work properly

This printer has a really beautiful print quality, and is pretty quick to print too.

After about six months of use, there have been no problems.

Installing the printer is reasonably simple. It comes with a CD with all necessary drivers, but it does not come with a USB cable, so you have to supply your own, which is a bit stingy. You can also connect it with a bi-directional parallel cable, and this model also takes a RJ45 network plug, and can work as a network printer if so desired. (ie you can configure it with it’s own IP address)

Four colour cartridges are supplied with the printer: a black cartridge and the 3 primary colours viz. cyan, red and yellow. They appear to be full size cartridges, not the half full “introductory” cartridges that you get when the manufacturer feels like ripping you off. According to the literature, these cartridges are good for 2500 pages at 5% coverage, which equates to text, so if you intend to print a lot of graphics (pictures) you would have to reduce that number by about 25% Cartridges are expensive, with all four together costing more than the printer itself, so one has to start saving immediately for the next lot of cartridges. Remember though that you have 4 cartridges, so it actually means that you can print 2500 x 4 = roughly 10,000 pages before you have to replace all four cartridges.

The paper tray is quite big and can take about 250 sheets at a time (about half of a normal pack of paper) and works with A4, letter size and smaller. Also does envelopes and so on, as is the norm. Stated printing speed is 8 pages per minute, and in practice the speed seems to be pretty close to this.

The printer is quite large, so it takes up quite a bit of space on your desk. Since the paper comes out the top, it would work better having it on the floor or on a low stool next to your desk. It’s fairly heavy too, so don’t put it on the top shelf of one of those flimsy computer desks: if it falls on you it could be nasty.

The printer has a smallish LCD display to show progress, and 2 LEDs that indicate power and problem! The printer goes into a fairly lengthy self calibration process by default, every time you switch it on, but this function can be switched off by going into the (supplied ) software called “HP color laserjet Toolbox” , which will only work, of course, if the printer is switched on and connected to the PC.

Overall, this is a very satisfying printer. The prints are perfect and very professional looking, the mechanics give no trouble, and the printing is fast, with a very short initial warm up time of just a few seconds. If you want quality, then this is a good printer to go for.

Duncan Kelly

I have a HP laserjet printer 4250N and I have the usb cord plugged into the printer and computer. I have even downloaded the driver from the HP website, however, I do not know what to do now that the driver is saved onto my desktop. Please help!

Go to start>control panel and click systems. Go to the hardware tab and click device manager. Look for the device you want to update the driver for and double click it. Go to the driver tab and click on update driver.

-A screen will pop up like in the automatic install. Select "install for a list or specific location" this time and click next. Uncheck "search removable media" and check "include this location in search". Click the browse button and go to the directory where you saved your new driver. (if its on CD just search removable media and it will find it).

-Click next and it will attempt to install the driver. Once done click next and your new driver is install. A reboot might be required for the device to work properly

This printer has a really beautiful print quality, and is pretty quick to print too.

After about six months of use, there have been no problems.

Installing the printer is reasonably simple. It comes with a CD with all necessary drivers, but it does not come with a USB cable, so you have to supply your own, which is a bit stingy. You can also connect it with a bi-directional parallel cable, and this model also takes a RJ45 network plug, and can work as a network printer if so desired. (ie you can configure it with it’s own IP address)

Four colour cartridges are supplied with the printer: a black cartridge and the 3 primary colours viz. cyan, red and yellow. They appear to be full size cartridges, not the half full “introductory” cartridges that you get when the manufacturer feels like ripping you off. According to the literature, these cartridges are good for 2500 pages at 5% coverage, which equates to text, so if you intend to print a lot of graphics (pictures) you would have to reduce that number by about 25% Cartridges are expensive, with all four together costing more than the printer itself, so one has to start saving immediately for the next lot of cartridges. Remember though that you have 4 cartridges, so it actually means that you can print 2500 x 4 = roughly 10,000 pages before you have to replace all four cartridges.

The paper tray is quite big and can take about 250 sheets at a time (about half of a normal pack of paper) and works with A4, letter size and smaller. Also does envelopes and so on, as is the norm. Stated printing speed is 8 pages per minute, and in practice the speed seems to be pretty close to this.

The printer is quite large, so it takes up quite a bit of space on your desk. Since the paper comes out the top, it would work better having it on the floor or on a low stool next to your desk. It’s fairly heavy too, so don’t put it on the top shelf of one of those flimsy computer desks: if it falls on you it could be nasty.

The printer has a smallish LCD display to show progress, and 2 LEDs that indicate power and problem! The printer goes into a fairly lengthy self calibration process by default, every time you switch it on, but this function can be switched off by going into the (supplied ) software called “HP color laserjet Toolbox” , which will only work, of course, if the printer is switched on and connected to the PC.

Overall, this is a very satisfying printer. The prints are perfect and very professional looking, the mechanics give no trouble, and the printing is fast, with a very short initial warm up time of just a few seconds. If you want quality, then this is a good printer to go for.

Duncan Kelly

I’m printing far too much in my small office for an inkjet printer. Looking for the best laserjet printer in a reasonable price range. Must do colour as well, with a quick print turnaround.
I’ve been looking around on the web, but it seems a bit of a mine field!
Under £180 would be very helpful.

You say you are doing far too much printing as to be economical on an inket but have you really done your homework in comparing consumables of inkjets and lasers. There is no doubt that laser printers have come way down in price and you can certainly get an Epson colour laser for under £180. However, when you compare the costs of replacement colour toners to inkjet cartridges and then also the inevitable drum replacement which you do not have with an inkjet, you may find that it is false economy.

I personally would always recommend Epson as a make whatever the type, and being an office have you also considered that if you print envelopes and labels, an inkjet really is much more flexible.