HP 4050 Lil powerhouse

In the line of work I am in, I have worked with and have seen quite a large range of printers. I was working in a doctor's office the other day and I saw this printer in action. The quality of print and the speed was really impressive. The text print that comes out of this printer is amazing, now I haven't seen any graphic's it has printed, but what I know about HP laser printers if the text looks that good, the graphic's will look awesome also.

The HP 4050 LaserJet printer has several features that make it perfect for a small office or a workgroup printer, it is very fast for it's size and it also has a 600 sheet paper capacity. It also has optional features which will expand its capability such as extra 500 sheet paper trays and envelope feeder.

The HP 4050 can be purchased with the extra paper trays as a standard feature, you would just select the HP 4050 T model. Which just simply means the printer has a network card and the paper capacity has been increased to 1100 sheets of paper for the real large print jobs.

Other optional features of this printer is the duplexing feature. This option allows you to print on both sides of the paper without having to reload the paper into the printer. This is very useful for printing statements. Also has the option for printing barcode (optional barcode SIMM). Another neat optional feature of this printer is a fast infrared receiver, this is a wireless way to send information to the printer from a variety of sources. This printer also has a optional internal print server which will allow you to connect this printer directly to your network instead of connecting it to the parallel port of a PC that is connected to your network.

Important features of the printer are the 133 MHz RISC processor, which increases the speed at which it receives data and puts it on the paper. The memory capacity ranges between 8 MB and 200 MB, the expanded memory will allow for larger files to be transferred and printed, instead of having to wait for the host to continue transferring the files.

What I like about this printer.

The thing I like about this printer the most is it durability. This is a very rugged workhorse, this printer very rarely jams and if it does it generally means it is approaching it's scheduled maintenance period. This is a preset time designated by the manufacturer and a little noticed is shown in the LCD display. This notice says maintenance service, in the case of this printer it is set at 150,000 images.

What I dislike about this printer.

The only thing I can say that I dislike about this printer is that it doesn't have color capability. This printer is very versatile and the lack of color printing is about the only thing I can think of that it can't do.

I would like to discuss a subject which I feel is important when deciding if this laser printer is right printer for your specific job. Laser printer's are classified by the workload they can handle, whether it be a personal laser printer printing letters in a home office or a law office. A workgroup laser printer, a busy doctor's office or small business or a large department printer. The reason laser printer's are categorized in this way is so they are not over loaded. They are given a duty cycle rating by the manufacturer and this rating is measured in pages per month. This means that this printer will print this many pages per month without causing any abnormal wear on the internal parts.

A laser printer uses rubber rollers to move the paper through the printer so the image can be created on the paper. As the paper is pulled through the rollers, the rollers will pick up tiny bits of paper dust and eventually will lead to the roller needing to be replaced or reconditioned. The biggest problem I have run across is a company purchased a laser printer that is not designed to handle the job they are trying to print with it. When this happens this can cause the rollers to be damaged or worn to quickly which will lead to paper jams and printer down time.

The duty cycle of the HP 4050 is 65,000 pages per month, this will put it in the small to medium size work group.

With the all the standard features and the optional features I feel HP has created a great small office or a workgroup printer. I hope this review had enough information to help someone make an informed decision on purchasing this printer. If I had a small office I would purchase one for myself. Look for future reviews on the HP laser printers.


*******************Update 8-12-01*************************

Unfortunately due to HP discontinuing this specific model of laser printers. The only way to buy this great little workhorse is to buy a factory refurbish model. You can easily locate companies that sell these refurbished printers by looking in you local phone book under used computer equipment or online. The good thing I am happy to report HP has decided to redesign the HP 4050 series printers and increased it speed and workload capability. The redesigned series printers are be sold under the model name HP Laserjet 4100 printer. You can check out the reviews written on the HP Laserjet 4100 printers here on Epinions.