Value for money. Review on HP LaserJet 4050

The Hewlett Packard Laserjet 4050 series was launched sometime in 1999 and has proved to be an able successor to the more commonly found 4000 series. Designed pre-dominantly for DTP and office use, the printer delivers goods on all fronts, be it features or performance or reliability.

Features/Specifications

 Instant-on fuser prints the first page in 15 seconds

 Prints letter-size paper 17 pages per minute (ppm) or A4-size paper 16 ppm

 “RIP ONCE” capability with 16 MB or hard disk option

 FastRes 1200 for faster printing

 ProRes 1200 for better graphics

 Up to 220 levels of gray for smooth, photo-like images

 HP precision toner for clear, sharp output

 Handles up to 600 sheets of paper (base) and expandable to handle up to 1100 sheets of paper with accessories

 Scalable typefaces: 110 fonts for MS Windows, plus HP FontSmart

 500-sheet universal paper tray, 75-envelope power feeder, and duplex printing accessory available

 Flash storage for forms, fonts, and signatures

 133 MHz powered processor, memory can be expanded upto a maximum of 200 MB (!!!)

 Two EIO slots for connecting to networks or additional devices like HP Fast InfraRed Receiver, Envelope Feeder, Optional 500 sheet tray, Duplex printing accessory (for 2 sided printing).

Setup/Installation

The installation is a relatively simple process without any glitches. However, installing on a Win 98 PC (may be in SE too) will be problematic because the automatic hardware detection option will not install the drivers automatically and this will have to be done separately. No problems with installing on a Windows 2000 or later editions PC. In case of any problem, the users manual is very helpful and exhaustive and should be able to take care of all installation related and other queries. The printer does not include any connection cables because it supports both USB and parallel port connections.

Performance

We’ve been using this printer for the last 11 months without any problems so far. Technically speaking, its like any other piece of hardware, you take good care of it and it keeps giving a good performance. It is used as the network printer in our department and is connected to about 15 user terminals. We use it mostly for taking prints of files created in the MS Office Applications, IE and a few other software like Prowess and our Banking software.

As far as the quality of print is concerned, it gives an excellent output. No smudges, no faint characters, no blanking out of fonts due to lack of support. We don’t have a colour cartridge installed and I therefore could not try out its quality of images printing. On the other hand, we use it regularly to take prints of stock charts using Metastock. Nothing much to complain there...the charts are crystal clear.

As for speed of printing, the first page fired from a PC takes about 20 seconds for the output to emanate from the printer. This as against a time of 15 seconds as claimed in the users manual. But I guess that’s a small issue and one dependent more on the network speed. While the company claims that the printer can spew out 17 Pages Per Minute (PPM), I’ve tried firing 20-25 pages on about 4-5 occasions and ended up getting 15 PPM on 3 occasions and 16 PPM once.

I’ve also tried printing documents at various font sizes. While it is highly unlikely that anyone will ever use a font size of less than 8-9 points ever, I was able to get very clear print out even when I tried printing a word document using the Verdana Font (6 points).

Other Features and Ease of use

There are a whole lot of other features to this printer. Apart from the standard 2 trays that come pre-fitted, there is the option of adding another tray with a capacity of 400-500 A-4 size sheets. The Tray 2 also has a “level indicator” that serves in warning of the need for paper when it runs out of it. The installed memory is 8 MB powered by a 133 Mhz processor and the user has the option of increasing the memory upto 200 MB which is a major improvement over its earlier versions. Though it has the option of adding many additional components (as mentioned in the specifications), we haven’t done that and I therefore cannot comment on the same.

The Control Panel from where the user can change/manage the printer settings is thankfully not too complicated and comprises 5 buttons – “Go”, “Cancel Job”, “Menu”, “Item”, “Values” and “Select” and has a fairly big two-line digital display panel. There are three lights on the Control Panel, Ready - indicates that the printer is ready to print, Data – indicates that the printer has received data from the PC and is processing the same, Attention – blinks in cases of errors demanding the user’s attention. Once the user gets used to the operational aspects, maneuvering through the control panel is a child’s play.

Should you go for it?

I’ve already mentioned it in the beginning and I reiterate that this is a heavy duty printer and it certainly does not make sense for a home PC user to buy it. It would be more like a family of two buying a Tata Sumo...if you know what I mean. I would highly recommend it to corporate users and people in the DTP business where the stress is on quantity of prints as well as on their quality. I don’t have an exact idea of the cost because the company purchased it, not me, but it does infinite sense for these people to go for it as it offers excellent economies of scale in the long term.