 "Caveat Emptor" | 2008-08-10 |
| - Reviewed By bpolhem |
First, in general this has been a great printer, worthy of the venerable HP name.
Now, on to the caveats.
First, this printer is essentially "Windows only." I do not have a Mac but I can tell you that there is no way in the world to get Linux to print to this machine. For the majority of people that's not an issue, but if you're browsing for a low-cost reputable color laser and you DO use Linux, be aware that this one isn't for you.
Second, and worst of all: I have fried the fuser roller on mine recently because I - stupidly, perhaps, but understandably - tried to use HP photo-glossy paper in the printer. It melted the glossy layer of the paper onto the roller, and I now have a very large doorstop instead of a printer.
I hope these remarks will be helpful to someone. |
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 "Excellent, affordable color laserjet (4+ stars)" | 2008-08-01 |
| - Reviewed By strandline |
Sometimes it amazes me at how affordable color laser printers have become, and this HP printer is an excellent example of such a printer. Perfect for home or small business use, it prints professional-looking, crisp color sheets at a decent rate, although not as fast as a higher end model should. (It takes about 30 seconds from turning the power on to printing the first, full-color page; a ten page job takes approximately 2 1/2 minutes.) The resolution of the printed pages was even better than I had expected.
This particular model comes with full-size color toner cartridges. Given the price of replacing them, it adds real value since most printers come with 1/2 full toner. The display on the front shows how much of each toner remains, a helpful feature if you're about to print a big job. Drivers are available for Mac OS X and different versions of Windows. This is a non-PostScript printer.
The only problem I had was printing from a Adobe PDF document on my Mac. I can print the same flier from a Word document, but once I convert it to PDF, it loses the font graphics. The same PDF document prints fine from a Windows machine, so it has something to do with the Adobe Reader for Mac. If you use a Mac and expect to print a lot of PDF files, you should be aware of this potential problem. Because I can print using Word, I deducted only a half star for this.
I don't recommend this as a solo printer if you print a lot in black-and-white since the cost of toner and the slower speed makes it inefficient for simpler tasks. Use this as a supplement for times when you need high resolution color that is more colorfast and glossy than an inkjet. For a good quality, low cost black-and-white laser printer, I recommend Brother HL-2040 Monochrome Laser Printer. |
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| "Slow and not great at printing envelopes" | 2008-07-15 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1DWOTG6ROY3YL |
| I have had a hard time printing envelopes - this is after three weeks of daily use of the printer. This is my fourth HP printer in 20 years and I have never had any problems before with envelopes. |
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 "Perfect for the Mac and Small Biz!!" | 2008-07-15 |
| - Reviewed By info39092 |
| We have owned this printer for close to 3 years now. We switched from inkjet to laser with this machine. Our office is 100% Mac based. From day one this printer has been great. Super easy to network with multiple Mac machines through standard 10/100/1000 ethernet router and the reliability has been superb! No complaints at all. We don't print a lot since most of our documents are converted to PDF and just after 3 years we are shopping around to replace the original toner that came with the printer. If you are expecting for this printer to give you professional looking graphic and photo prints, then look somewhere else like the Minoltas; but if you are looking for an awesome document and good looking graphics printer then this is it. Don't forget that even though is HP it works great with any Mac. |
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 "HP 2600n" | 2008-06-17 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2F4HPVAFW9W57 |
| This printer is a primary network printer. It has issues when connected directly to one PC. If using Windows Vista, a Printer Spooler Error occurs. HP has no supporting drivers to fix this. Microsoft has no Windows patches to fix this. This error is famous as several forums exist to attempt and hack both the Windows spooler and the HP 2600n. Fought this problem for two solid days with Tech calls, internet chats and promises of return calls with a solution. I have yet to hear from either group. However, the pages that managed to print were of the finest quality I've ever seen from a home office printer. I'm sure it will be the best printer I'll ever own once it works. |
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| "Worth it - Ships with full tanks of toner (vs 1600)" | 2008-05-15 |
| - Reviewed By rfheat |
I have had this for over a year, and am very fairly with it. I have yet to buy any toner/ink for it, and would have spent perhaps $100 on inkjet cartridges with my old printer.
Note that this printer comes with FULL tanks of toner. When I was comparing it with the HP 1600n, I found that the 1600 came with HALF-FULL tanks of toner, so the 2600 gives you the equivalent of 2 more tanks of toner, so it was clearly worth it to go with the 2600n. It also came with an Ethernet port, which allowed me to put the printer anywhere in my house.
One downside is that the original black cartridge (still going) makes makes a faint line across every page :( so I am almost tempted to replace it. |
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| "HP 2605dn vs HP 2600n - Features vs Toner Consumption" | 2008-05-05 |
| - Reviewed By ultraj1004 |
When it comes to purchasing a printer, I look for three things: reliability, features and toner consumption. I have had both 2605dn and 2600n for a year now and I can say that when it comes down to features and memory, the 2605dn comes out shining, but in toner consumption, the 2600n is the king. Both printers have Toner Limit Override, which allows you to keep printing after the cartridge reaches its "limit" giving you hundreds of extra prints. But only the 2600n has the option of printing color in 600dpi and true black without using some color in the prints. The 2605dn prints color only in 2400dpi and always uses a bit of color on its black prints even for you set it for 600dpi (600dpi applies only for black prints in the 2605n). I can honestly tell you that the difference in toner consumption is INSANE. I can print FOUR TIMES more color prints with the 2600n than with the 2605dn, and you cannot tell the deference in quality between the two. Yes the 2605dn is faster, has more memory, can print both sides of the paper automatically and handle heavy paper better, but for me toner consumption is too much of a deference to not notice it. Oh, and my 2605dn burned down on its first birthday. Here are some more details if you are interested:
2605dn -
Pros: Fast, excellent quality. The automatic two-side printing feature is awesome and saves you a lot of time. Can print on transparencies, and cardboard paper. Easy to load toners. Can upgrade memory. It is HP Solution Center compatible, which gives you a run down on how many prints are left, etc. without the need of accessing the internet.
Cons - Costs $200 more that its 2600n sister. No low quality color printing option available. Black prints will always use color. When printing pictures this printer will burn even the HP Photo Color Laser quality papers, believe me, it's a mess.
2600n -
Pros - Cheaper than the 2605dn. Excellent quality. Fast and reliable. Over the top toner consumption when using the low quality color option, which in fact prints as good as the higher quality option. This option has given me over two thousand more prints per cartridge which is incredible. Can also print on transparencies and cardboard. Just be sure to set the printer correctly or it will smudge. It can print both sides of the paper manually.
Cons - A bit slower than its sister and less memory. After using the automatic two-side printing feature this printer seems outdated. It's not HP Solution Center compatible, so you get no nice software with it. Will also burn photo quality paper even if it is made from HP.
Bottom line - The features on 2605dn may be cool but when it comes to saving 75% more toner on the 2600n, I go with the underdog. Too bad the 2605dn does not have the option to print low res in color. Both are bad for photo printing. Well there it is; the table is set and you as the customer must make your move.
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| "Nice, but expensive in the long run" | 2008-04-17 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1O3AM1W8HSG7V |
First, the good news. The HP 2600n works well. Setup over the network was simple and it produces nice looking documents.
But, there's not so nice news.
First of all, it's slow. Really really slow, slowest laser printer I've ever owned.
Second, it has problems with handling stiff cardstock. It appears to bump the paper against some internal mechanism so that a horizontal line of text will appear smeared. Not every card, but about half of them.
Finally, it's expensive. Not the printer itself, I caught it at 50% off one day, so I only paid two hundred. The toner costs look like they'll be hefty. So far, my printing with very little "color" is using all four toners cartriges evenly, which works out to 10 cents per page (about five times the cost of my normal lasers).
According to HP's documentation, the printer uses all four toners even when producing black (to control a color cast in the black toner?). I've been told that the "grayscale only" option only affects the color rendering, not the toner use. There is another "neutrals greys, black only" option, I'm going to try that and see if it effects usage.
I've also been told that the other three toner carts spin no matter if they're being used or not, so there's wear from wiping the drums and the printer counts pages evenly across all four toners.
I only use it for limited items that need color, for the speed issue alone I'd prefer using my other lasers instead. It's great for occasional use, but I can't imagine having it as my primary printer. |
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| "Nice, but sssslllllooooowwwwwww" | 2008-04-17 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1O3AM1W8HSG7V |
update: After owning the printer for several months, I'm happy to report that toner usage is nowhere near as bad as I had initially feared. I've removed those comments. Make sure you find the "black only" option for printing grays. I would update the rating to a four, but Amazon won't let me change it.
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First, the good news. The HP 2600n works well. Setup over the network was simple and it produces nice looking documents.
But, there's not so nice news.
First of all, it's slow. Really really slow, slowest laser printer I've ever owned.
Second, it has problems with handling stiff cardstock. It appears to bump the paper against some internal mechanism so that a horizontal line of text will appear smeared. Not every card, but about half of them.
Overall, pretty happy. Especially since I caught it during a 50% off sale.
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| "good value for the price" | 2008-04-12 |
| - Reviewed By User: A25EPPLGXV9P1G |
| This is probably the cheapest color laser jet you can find. and it does its job well! |
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