Exceptional quality from HP once again for big business! (HP Laserjet 4000tn)

Member Name: UKRushbrook

Product:	HP Laserjet 4000tn
Date:	18/02/06 (193 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent copies, duplex printing available, relatively inexpensive consummables

Disadvantages: No longer available to purchase brand new!

Ok, this is to review my huge printer for the big office jobs that I like to do namely involving manuscript printing and my papers for graduate work. This beast is the Hewlett Packard HP 4000TN!

In one of my first reviews, I mentioned the Brother HL-1230 which is great for just doing small business stuff or for general home use. But this HP 4000tn has been definitely designed for medium to large office use. It is designed for use by a network of computer users and some might find it to be a little too much for home-based businesses. However, I have owned and run several HP printers, and have never been disappointed. This beauty was obtained from an individual who ran their own consultancy out of their home, so I knew what o expect when I purchased it, namely, reams of paper being sucked up and thrown out the top with excellent quality printing.

Ok, to give a few particulars:

1. As already mentioned, it's really designed for medium to large office (probably more towards large office) use as it is definitely a high volume office machine. It has a max resolution of 1200dpi, and will spit out approximately 17-18 ppm.

2. When it is in its energy-saver modus operandi, it will come back to life and print the first page within less than 15 seconds. One downfall is that it only prints in black or grey-scale, but the quality that is produced in transferring photo images to black/white format is precise and does not blur. The machine is very flexible and comes with 8MB RAM as standard and has a 100MHZ processor.

3. Unfortunately, this machine is not being produced by HP any more, so I do not believe you would be able to obtain any tech support from Hewlett Packard. However, I have learned that some companies who specialize in big office equipment and work with HP Laser Printers can offer some type of assistance.

4. I have personally never had any problems with the machine and if I could ever find another one for a good price would get it just so that I could have a backup! The only problems I have ever known about with this machine is that one person told me that they had a few print difficulties in trying to get a particular page to print and it only printed the top part of the document. To be fair though, this may have been due to an error on the person working the machine as I never found such a problem.

5. Another issue that some may have is that it is a much older type of machine and so runs off of a parallel port only. The front of the machine includes a tray that folds down allowing easy access for sheets or labels or envelopes to be fed in with up to 100 sheets or 10 envelopes.

6. The regular paper tray holds 500 sheets of standard 80 gram paper and conveniently supports both A4 and legal size. A third paper option is the additional tray that holds up to 250 sheets.

7. With all trays being internal, unlike my Brother HL-1230, the worktop space needed is approximately 18 inches deep. This would include the space for the parallel cable out the back and 16 inches wide.

8. Toner cartridges as a general rule are not cheap, but when you take into account what you get for a cartridge for this machine, it is not really expensive. The cartridge used is either an HP4127A or HP4127X. However, I am also aware that off-brand cartridges are available which are fully compatible. Costs for these will be anywhere from £35 for a compatible producing 6000+ copies to approximately £70 for an HP4127X that produces 10,000+ copies.

In conclusion, I love this machine. It is really a combination of beauty and beast. Having done some background checks, I have noticed you can still find these anywhere from from £250-400 on the open market and that should be fully refurbished. Saying that, I believe that this machine will last you for years and you will not regret the purchase. Again, with what they offer and the quality of print, I will be happy to purchase more of these workhorses given the opportunity.

It is just a disappointment that they never continued with this model.

Summary: Beauty & the Beast in one HP Laser Printer!

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