Perfect Home Office Workshorse!
Written: Nov 25 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Takes Abuse, Long-Lasting, Hassle-Free, PROFESSIONAL QUALITY.
Cons: A Bit Expensive for Average Consumer Use
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| unheimlich's Full Review: Hewlett Packard LaserJet 2100se Printer |
In this day and age -- when cheap, full-color inkjet printers dominate the market and relatively decent laser printers can be purchased on Ebay for under $200 -- why on Earth would you want to spend over $500 of your hard-earned cash for a high-end laser printer? Well, maybe you've got a home office and you could "write off" the printer for your taxes. Or maybe you edit a newsletter and need HIGH-QUALITY print. But if you're like me, you want a printer that can stand up to long-term HEAVY ABUSE (i.e., high volume printing) and is VERSATILE enough to adapt to your various needs. You want a printer with LASTING QUALITY to stand up to years of printing. And you want something of an UPGRADE from the old clunker that's been in your home office for years.
I'm a freelance writer and my printer is almost as important to me as my idea journal. I print A LOT when I'm composing books, especially. My trusty old printer -- the Epson Action Laser 1500 -- cost me $600 back in 1993, and it was up to the task of printing several drafts of my novels, numerous articles, tons of short stories, and endless academic papers. And it lasted a good seven years! But one day my old Epson stopped feeding paper, right when I was working on a deadline and needed to print out a 400-page document before the post office closed. Sure, like all good writers I had a "back-up" printer -- an Epson Stylus 250 -- which is a cute little color inkjet printer, but not capable of printing 400 pages professionally...especially considering my looming deadline. My old Epson Laser produced a paltry 6 pages per minute; the Epson Inkjet inverted that and seemed to take 6 minutes per page.
So my wife and I did a mad dash of research on the internet and "impulse shopped" around, patrolling all the local office warehouses and finally found our DREAM COME TRUE: the HP LaserJet 2100. This monster had the same look and feel of my old Epson, and promised 10 page-per-minute printing at a whopping 1200x1200 dpi! The price seemed out of my league, but I couldn't face the possibility of a slow or chintzy printer...this one is sturdy and sure to stand up to my high-volume torture. I printed out my 400-page manuscript in record time and met my deadline with time to spare.
This printer carries all sorts of valuable features (some of which might even make the price seem less steep, in the long run):
1) FOLLOWS THROUGH ON HP's PROMISES. Indeed, the HP 2100se does produce high-quality true 1200 dpi monochrome and the 10 ppm print speed is superb.
2) EASY, EASY, EASY -- HASSLE-FREE! Installation was super easy and it's a snap to use alternative forms of paper. I really find its "straight through paper path" a godsend because it prevents the printer from jamming on hard-edged card stock and envelopes...I haven't had a jam yet! The printer also seems relatively quiet and it has Energy-saving features that seamlessly power it down when you're not printing.
3) LASTING VALUE -- BETTER THAN THE CHEAPER MODEL. As I said, it will _last_. That means not having to buy a new one for a long time. Not only is the printer a rock-solid piece of machinery, but the TONER CARTRIDGE promises a whopping 5000 page capacity...which is DOUBLE that of HP's lesser laserjet, the personal 1100se! This was the thing that won us over when we were deciding which printer to buy. (That said, realize that toner costs about $79-99 ea...but we intend to recycle cartridges or use Ebay). There's also an ECONOMODE printing feature which can print up to 9 pages on a single sheet...realistically, you can't read type at that size, but I have regularly saved toner and paper by printing two pages on a single side, side by side...really handy! And the printer features other easy-to-perform "trick" printing jobs, like automatically watermarking pages.
4) HIGHLY UPGRADABLE. The HP Laserjet 2100se seems to be capable of transformation into its sister models, the 2100TN or the 2100M...so if you ever need it later to set up a network or something, this is the printer for you. It also has INFRARED CAPABILITY but I haven't used that yet because I have no devices to do so. But it makes those infrared PDAs look all the more attractive!
Well, I could probably go on and on about this printer. Not only have I met my deadlines but I can now print without worrying whether the thing will jam or whether the toner will smear or whether I'm overheating the thing. It's a great printer and I'm saving time and money already. If you're reading this review, you're probably in the market already...I say GET THIS ONE!
rvw by Unheimlich, 11/00
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
unheimlich
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Location: USA
Reviews written: 73
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Tattooed Everything.
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