A modern laser printer with color printing is far from a luxury. Indeed, almost every buyer who decides to acquire office equipment can afford a device worth up to 10,000 rubles. The focus of this article is one of the best representatives of the market - HP Color LaserJet 1600. In the budget price category, this device has almost no competitors. Overview, specifications, photos and owner reviews will allow a potential buyer to learn a lot about the technology.
Understandable reasons
Better to start with the fact that the line between inkjet and laser printing is reduced day by day. Moreover, this applies to both print quality and the price of the device itself, as well as consumables. Yes, laser technology, including the HP Color LaserJet 1600 printer, is still far in quality to inkjet printing, but manufacturers are constantly looking for solutions and introduce new technologies to achieve realistic images on the storage medium.
The cost issue for many buyers is no longer as relevant as it was a decade ago - on the shelves of stores almost all office equipment is located on one shelf and is positioned in the same price category. Separation for such devices now affects multifunctionality, fault tolerance, and maintenance costs.
First meeting
Any product launched on the market under the HP logo will be of absolute quality, the buyer should not even doubt it. Therefore, it doesn’t make sense to waste the reader’s time looking for any physical flaws in the HP Color LaserJet 1600 printer. It’s better to start with the declared technical characteristics, which are provided by the manufacturer in the media.
The basic parameter for this office equipment is color, and it is implemented, as in middle-class inkjet printers - 4 containers with paints (toner). The printer supports printing on any paper with a density of up to 200 g / m 2 . The manufacturer set the same maximum resolution for both color prints and monochrome printing - 600x600 dpi. Unchanged when printing and speed - 8 pages per minute.
Ergonomics
When it comes to usability, many manufacturers of laser technology try to quickly turn the attention of potential buyers to other characteristics. This is understandable, because ergonomics in such a technique is always a weak link. Almost a half-meter cube takes up a lot of space on any table - there is no getting around it. Plus, the device buzzes loudly during operation.
As practice shows, the user just needs to get used to the HP Color LaserJet 1600 printer. The instruction supplied with the office equipment pays attention to the ergonomics of the device, and the manufacturer immediately describes all the advantages of a large-sized printer. Yes, we are talking about easy access to all internal components of the printer, and the positive aspects associated with the cooling of heating elements inside the equipment are also considered.
Office equipment resources
Users who already had experience with similar equipment know that the declared basic characteristics are not as important as the physical capabilities of the device itself and its components. Indeed, it is the resource intensity that determines the full value of laser technology, such as the HP Color LaserJet 1600 printer. The characteristics here primarily affect the cartridge life. In color, the starter kit will allow the user to print about 2,000 pages. But for transferring monochrome images, the resource is limited to 2500 pages. Naturally, we are talking about 5% coverage of A4 pages.
Another parameter that many buyers pay attention to is the “monthly load”. The printer is limited to 20,000 pages per month. For a home user, this may seem like a huge number, but office users have something to think about if they plan to print more than 2 packs of paper daily.
Platform weak link
It would seem that such a wonderful device (we are talking about the HP Color LaserJet 1600 printer) with color laser printing simply should not have significant shortcomings, but they do exist, and if you believe the reviews of the owners in the media, there are real shortcomings associated with printing graphics.
The problem lies in the hardware of the printer. The manufacturer equipped its product with a morally obsolete RISC processor operating at a frequency of 260 MHz, and also installed only 16 megabytes of RAM. Neither the processor nor the memory modules can be replaced or improved, hence all the problems associated with printing.
When sending a print job, the user must make sure that the transferred file does not exceed the maximum memory size (16 MB). If this happens, the printer will give an error and refuse to print. Users quickly found a way to solve this problem - the graphic image needs to be reduced in resolution (because the printer will still not be able to print better than 600 dpi).
The software part of the device
But the user will definitely not have any problems with the operating systems if he prefers the HP Color LaserJet 1600 printer. The Windows XP driver, which is present on the supplied disk, will not be needed by the owner - any platform will detect this printer without problems and write it under him the right drivers. The problem can only occur with owners of Unix systems. But here everything is simple - only one command in the console will solve the task posed to the user.
Nevertheless, the manufacturer made a mistake in the implementation of the software part. The printer is detected by any platform and provides the ability to print, but the functionality of fine-tuning the print quality is not available to users, hence the negative reviews in the media from some owners of this office equipment.
Convenience in work and availability of the device
The HP Color LaserJet 1600 color laser device has just one USB 2.0 interface. It is this factor that causes a lot of negativity from potential buyers who plan to use this technique for office work. Although Wi-Fi wireless technology is irrelevant among most owners, the usual Ethernet network adapter is clearly not enough. By the way, the problem with connecting the device to the local network is solved, however, for this you need a hardware print server. But this is a completely different story.
As for ease of use, here the user will not have negative emotions. The printer is equipped not only with convenient control buttons, but also has a large and informative LCD screen that is able to constantly display the status of the device to the owner. Naturally, the user will see errors with recommendations for correcting them. Here, the manufacturer still managed to surprise even the most demanding customers.
Feedback
For many people who have looked at the HP Color LaserJet 1600 device for their tasks, the feedback from the actual owners of the printing equipment is much more important than some reviews of enthusiasts. Therefore, the reader is invited to receive feedback from customers.
To the negative, many users attributed the high cost of refueling a color cartridge. Yes, in the service center, such a service is simply priceless, but no one forbids the owner to fill the toner into the hopper on their own. This procedure is complex and requires attention, but it is also able to reduce the financial costs of the user.
But, in comparison with other similar devices, the printer consumes electricity quite economically (only 190 watts). Yes, and it does not make noise as loudly as laser network devices do. Do not forget about the loads that laser technology can withstand, as well as the ability to print at any convenient time - there is no ink in the device, which means there is nothing to dry out.
Finally
Not an ordinary, but quite interesting HP Color LaserJet 1600 laser printer, capable of printing in color, can be safely recommended to all users who have 10,000 rubles in the budget for the purchase of office equipment. The device is really worthy and will surely appeal to any owner. Yes, there are flaws, but they are more organizational in nature and solvable.