Pros: Fast and high quality text, easy network connection
Cons: none
The Bottom Line: This is a great quality laser printer, as far as speed and text quality I would rate it superior for its size. I have not seen anything better.
opinionated3's Full Review: Hewlett Packard LaserJet 4050tn Printer
I was searching for a laser printer a couple of months ago to recommend to a client of mine. I was looking for a laser printer that is fast and easy to use. I went to the brand I have always trusted, Hewlett Packard or HP for short.
I found what I think is the perfect laser printer for a small office, it has plenty of speed and it is easy to operate. The HP Laserjet 4050TN is the laser printer I found, it is small enough to place on a desk and quiet enough to use in your office.
My client was searching for a fast printer, that would also print high quality documents and also that would connect to their network. The HP 4050TN Laserjet was the perfect choice.The documents that I saw being printed while I was setting it up, were very crisp and clear and were being printed very fast. This was due to the printing resolution of 1200x1200 dpi (dots per inch) and the 17 pages per minute print speed. The connection to the network is handled by an internal print server card, it connects into an EIO slot on back of the printer. The internal print server card this printer uses is a HP JetDirect 600N.
Since I am not a network guru I did not handle any of the network connections, I simply set it up as a local printer and using a parallel cable connected to a workstation. The drivers loaded very easy through Windows98 and within minutes they were printing documents. I am told by one of the network technicians in our office that he has set up many of these printers on Windows NT servers and they are very easy to set up.
The HP 4050TN comes with many standard and optional features that are available which makes it a very versatile printer. The standard features include a second 250 sheet paper tray and the HP JetDirect 600N internal print server. Some of the optional features that are available are a 500 sheet multipurpose tray that will allow you to print on 8 1/2 x 14 " legal paper, 75 envelope power feeder and also a duplex unit, which will allow you to print on both sides of the paper without having to reload it.
This printer is classified by HP as a small to medium sized workgroup printer, this means that if you have a small group of people that are on your network and need to share a printer, this would be a good choice with its print speed and the amount of memory installed (16 MB), they would be able to print efficiently without a lot of headaches. I have seen this printer used by a clients accounting department.
The HP 4050TN LaserJet Printer uses a toner cartridge to create the image on a piece of paper. There are two different toner cartridges available from HP for this printer one is a 6,000-page UltraPrecise cartridge and a 10,000-page UltraPrecise cartridge. I recommend you always use manufactured toner cartridges, this will in the long run be more economical. Remanufactured toner cartridges almost never print as many pages and also have a tendency to leak toner inside the printer, which of course will find it's way all over your paper.
The last thing I would like to talk about this printer is something I feel is very important. The amount of workload this printer and any printer for that matter is classified by duty cycle, this means simply the amount of pages that can safely be printed in a month without cause abnormal wear and tear on the mechanical components. A laser printer uses rubber rollers to pickup the paper out of the paper trays and move it through the printer, as the paper is moved through the printer tiny particle of paper and toner is accumulated on the rollers. If you try to over use the printer and put to many pieces of paper through printer you will cause the rollers to wear to fast and you will start to develop annoying paper jams.
The HP 4050TN has a duty cycle of 65,000 pages per month, this may seem like a high number, but I am here to tell you that means 2200 pages per day. I have seen businesses exceed that number easily and it tore up their printers, because they didn't bother to check on the duty cycle rating of the printer they were buying, they were more interested in the price.
In conclusion, I would recommend this printer to a small business that had a need for a quick printer and also were looking for a very nice quality print.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1600.00 Operating System: Windows and Macintosh
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