HP’s mammoth CP3505dn is a mid-priced colour LaserJet, with a quality level more than adequate for businesses wanting to produce in-house marketing resources.
At $2599, the dn is the most expensive model in the local CP3505 LaserJet series. The standard CP3505 is $1699 and the n is $1999.
For the extra outlay on the dn, users get 128 MB more memory than the 3505’s 256 MB, courtesy of the dual in-line memory module (DIMM) slot, automatic duplex print, network-ready as a standard feature, HP’s Jetdirect Fast Ethernet embedded print server and energy star certification.
Also in the box are the power cable and software CD.
Print speed, of course, depends on what you’re printing, but the first page of any job always appeared in less than 12 seconds. This is what HP was aiming for with its InstantOn technology.
However, as you lower the quality settings and if you switch off the PhotoREt enhancement technology, the print time speeds up.
HP rates the machine, which runs on a 450 MHz processor, at 21 pages per minute (ppm) for both black and white and colour printing in normal and best-quality modes. This is slower than some recently-released printers in its class, which rate at 40 ppm or more.
There were no problems with image output quality using either default settings, different driver settings and photo enhancements, even on plain paper. Colour reproduction was also accurate.
Black and white detail was clear in text, greys and shadow.
The maximum quality in both black and white and colour is 1200x600 dpi.
You won’t want to shift this beast around the office too often – it weighs 28kg and has dimensions of 410 by 510 by 430 mm. You’ll also want to put it somewhere away from where the work gets done, due to the noise it generates when in use.
The input tray’s capacity is 250 sheets, which is limited compared to similar models.
The build is robust with a good-looking design and the placement of the trays, the front door and the top cover make it easy to clear paper jams (not that there were any) and replace toner cartridges.
HP says the cartridges will yield 6000 pages before they run out. Each original cartridge should cost about $230 for black and $270 for colour to replace.
Connectivity-wise, there’s a USB port along with the JetDirect Ethernet print server, so the machine can be shared on other networks. There are also PCL and PostScript level three emulations and direct PDF printing is supported.
The CP3505dn will print to a wide range of media, including bond, colour, glossy, prepunched and rough paper up to letter size, labels, envelopes, card-weight stock and transparencies. However, you can only feed 10 envelopes into the manual feeder at a time.
The unit can be a little slow to power up from a cold start, but does offer sleep (power saving) mode if you leave it switched on.
The menu and controls are easy to use and include a help guide.
