HP Color Laserjet 2500 Review
One step above the HP Color LaserJet 1500L the HP Color LaserJet 2500 has the same print engine but offers Ethernet and 64 MB memory that is expandable to 256 MB.
HP Color Laserjet 2500
The HP 2500 looks identical to the HP 1500L
If you share a printer on a network and have many different people sending print jobs to the printer at once then this is really the entry level printer for you. The Laserjet 1500L cannot be expanded to include an Ethernet port so if you need this feature then the $1500 HP laserjet 2500n is your cheapest option (in the HP range that is).
This HP color laser takes cyan, magenta, yellow, and black toner cartridges which are supplied. HP rates the black toner cartridge ($83) at about 5,000 pages and the color cartridges ($100 each) for about 4,500. The imaging drum ($174) can last for as many as 20,000 black pages or as few as 5,000 color ones, with HP predicting most users will see 6,000 to 8,000 pages' use.
Here are the specifications:
- black: up to 16 ppm
- color: up to 4 ppm
- Total Media Capacity 375 sheets
- 600 dpi x 600 dpi for both black and color
- 2 optional input paper trays for expansion
HP Color Laserjet 2500
If you need large paper capacities
then this the Laserjet 2500 is a good option.
HP says the Color LaserJet's 600 by 600 dpi engine can blend colors within pixels to perform 2,400 dpi-class image printing; this seems a bold claim, photo prints are not as vivid as the best color inkjet prints (to be fair, this was still on plain copier paper; the LaserJet can't use coated or glossy photo stock). Also in areas of solid color you can get faint, widely spaced banding, performing the printer's cleaning/maintenance routine cleared up all but the largest color areas.
The 2500 is meant for business correspondence and presentation printing, not consumer photo projects, and earns high marks in that sphere. Laser printed text is always super crisp. Banner headlines were smooth and black, not jagged and gray, and charts and images popped off the page. For mostly-black office printing with a dash of spot color or spreadsheet charts, the Color LaserJet is a capable choice.
The major criticism of this printer is price. For a few hundred bucks less you can get a comparable Minolta-QMS with network capabilities. However the Minolta cannot be expanded to large paper capacities and also has limited memory expandability.
This sets the HP Color Laserjet squarely in the busy office segment. Places where the larger memory and paper capacities actually mean something. If you need these kinds of features and your willing to pay for the HP brand then the HP Color Laserjet is a choice that will serve you well.