Laser Printers

HP, the well known brand name for documentation service has simply designed LaserJet CP2025n keeping in mind small business work groups. HP has given importance to the network connection while designing this laser printer, so that the user can have reliable response from the multiple host computers. You can also expect some competitive print speed and print quality at the cost of accepting this printer as a space consuming unit that weighs around 50 pound.

When compared to its close contenders, this printer does have slow black print speed but produces high quality colour prints. HP has made this printer more user friendly by providing easy to understand instructions with comprehensive settings and features for user, which put together in an accessible tool box software. It is an efficient colour laser printer specially made for office usage.

Sluggish Design:

Being a 50 pound weighed laser printer, it does not have attractive design but holds the credit for well managed control panel and tucked in drawers. It has a standard colour combination with grey and black mix. With large working space on the printer, it is easy for paper handling on both feed tray and output tray and the space are well distributed between the panels. This laser printer has wide dimension and requires pair of hands to move around in your office desk. If you are looking for smaller sized colour laser printer then you need to sacrifice the quality of print. At the bottom of this printer you can find 250 sheet main paper output tray with fold down mechanism and has the capacity to hold 20 pound paper.

Additionally 50 sheet manual input tray is found at the bottom, which is equipped with adjustable paper guides suitable for various media. With added cost you can opt for additional 250 sheet tray to accommodate extra volume of papers and can be regularly used for particular paper media like letterhead. The control button is placed at the corner in front of the printer. All the connective ports are located at the back of the printer and this includes a USB port, power plug and an Ethernet jack for establishing simple network connection with the router.

Features:

Front Control Panel:
This CP2025n network laser printer has simple and useful control panel that is placed at the corner and it is difficult to have better visibility of the display. It would have been better if the panel is placed at the top for easy viewing like in Canon colour laser printers. This control panel has totally five buttons that helps you to locate the menu system and make quick changes to the printing process. These includes cancel button & directional pads and all the information would be seen on two line backlit LCD display, which also gives you alerts and details on toner level graphics. Additionally two alert LEDs indicates print error and low toner details.

Driver Software:
This HP CP2025n (CB494A) Colour Laser Printer comes with driver software and has comprehensive set of features that enables the user to know the status of the printing process. You can control the feeds in the input tray manually and ToolboxFX software gives you details on present toner level, shows no of pages remaining and usage trends. When the printer faces any malfunction you can also opt for email alert message. HP offers step by step video instructions through installation CD that instruct you on driver settings and tells how to optimise the print quality. This driver software is compatible with all Windows from 2000 that includes Vista and 64-bit XP, it also works well with Mac OSX 10.2.8 and newer version.

Lack of Important Features:
This HP laser printer does not have mechanical duplexer and automatic double sided printing facility is missing. Generally at this price range the duplex printing facility is an extra cost and normally available at higher end laser printer models. You cannot directly connect digital camera or other portable digital device like pen drive with this printer for taking instant prints due to the absence of PictBridge facility. All these drawbacks can be well compromised by its ability to connect with multiple computers using quick wired networking system without complex connection. The connection junction is strategically placed at the back of the printer, so you can easily access CP2025n from several PC without any hassle.

Installation of Toner Cartridge in CP2025n:
The toner cartridges can be easily replaced by opening the top front door of the printer, which show horizontally stacked four toner cartridges on the rack. It is easy to install the cartridge using single push to release mechanism for hassle free installation. This installation method is better than bucket style toner cartridge installation found in OKI laser printers. The cost per page for standard black prints comes in an average and for colour print not expensive. HP has given details on life cycle and cost of both colour and black cartridges but not mentioned about availability of high capacity cartridge. This laser printer has monthly duty cycle of about 40,000 pages, which is much suitable for large work groups and small office.

Printing Speed:
HP Colour LaserJet CP2025n Printer is good in output speed for colour prints and churns out 20 ppm but 20 ppm cannot be achieved when you run the print for 5 or 20 prints. The print speed does not even come close for shorter prints but when you print for long document CP2025n come close to 20 ppm. Similar case is applies to black text prints and it gives less than 10 ppm for five page colour graphics documents and black text prints. The print speed would be normally achieves for long print run. The black text print speed is not up to the mark and comparatively lesser then its rival products. HP CP2025n is mainly applied for business printing purpose where it requires to perform for longer print run, so obviously the quoted printing speed is automatically been achieved without any doubt.

Printing performance:
Black print produce more appealing look with sharp and crisp text edges. It has solid look and performs well for both colour prints as well as black prints. HP mainly speaks about the quality of the output rather then printing speed of the device. The black cartridge delivers clean and sharp edge for smaller fonts and produce better visibility even in graphical representations along with text. With total 600 dpi of resolution the quality is well maintained through out the printing cycle when compared to its close rival OKI C3600n.

Warranty:

This HP Colour laser printer comes with 1 year warranty with comprehensive online support.

Verdict:

Though this HP Colour LaserJet CP2025n priced at a little higher end it is well built for small work groups and business owners. You cannot expect double sided printing, since this printer does not have the facility for auto-duplexer. If you are more keen for mechanical duplexer and want a favourable environment for double sided printing to favour quick printing process then you can try for the another version HP Colour LaserJet CP2025dn with extra £40 cost. If you feel the cost of duplex version is higher then you can try Canon i-SENSYS LBP7200C that cost less than £40 in its duplex version. The lower black print speed is only minimal and it is not a major concern for small business printing purpose.

HP Colour LaserJet CP2025n Printer (CB494A) – Specification Details

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