HP Colour LaserJet CP2025dn
HP Colour LaserJet CP2025dn
Features: Installed memory: 128 MB RAM
Maximum resolution (Colour): 1200dpi x 600dpi
Print media supported: A4, Plain paper
Total media capacity: 300 sheets
Compatibility: Mac OS, Windows
Wired terminals / ports: RJ45, USB 2.0
Pros: ImageREt 3600 half-toning technology, USB and Ethernet connectivity, small size, decent print speeds, USB-based administration interface.
Cons: Reds aren’t accurate, banding issues, can’t print reliably on glossy material, LCD panel won’t display IP address.
The final word: There are a number of good and bad points about HP’s Colour LaserJet CP2025dn. It isn’t the best colour printer around but it can produce professional-looking documents.
HP’s Colour LaserJet CP2025dn is a mid-range printer with a small stature and fast print speeds. Photos won’t dry properly when printed on glossy media, but for in-house printing of matte marketing materials the printer is a viable choice.
The CP2025dn has USB and Ethernet connectivity, ImageREt 3600 half-toning technology and a 540MHz processor. The printer also boasts 128 megabytes (MB) of memory, which is user-upgradeable to 384MB through an easily accessible panel on the side of the unit.
The Colour LaserJet CP2025dn has a maximum paper input capacity of 300 sheets and an output capacity of 150 sheets. The maximum monthly duty cycle is quoted at 40,000 pages, though HP recommends printing 750-2000 pages; the printer is designed for low-volume use but can handle larger print jobs if necessary.
It has a three-way navigation panel and a 2-line LCD that provides users with access to basic network settings and reports. Disappointingly, the printer refuses to show the IP address on the LCD itself: users have to waste paper by printing a network configuration report.
Once connected to a network, users are able to access the printer’s Web interface, which will be familiar to users of other HP laser printers released in recent years. The Colour LaserJet CP2025dn doesn’t boast the most comprehensive options, lacking HTTPS and 802.1X security standards found in the higher end LaserJet P4515x. Still, it offers detailed statistics, reports, settings and e-mail alerts.
The quality of documents is quite good, largely due to the printer’s use of the ImageREt 3600 technology, which allows the CP2025dn to print in halftones to produce a higher quality image. Mono text documents are very accurate, though characters are noticeably thin and light. Colour graphical documents lack the gloss of higher-end colour laser printers, and colours are lighter than they should be. Nevertheless, these results actually proved to be more readable when combining text with graphics and coloured highlights.
HP offers a Photo Fix setting designed to enhance photo quality, but it still doesn’t make it the CP2025dn an ideal choice as a photo printer. Though colour accuracy with yellows and blues is acceptable, reds aren’t vibrant, resulting in inaccurate combination colours such as purple. Rampant banding is also apparent on darker images. Printing more than one photo at a time on glossy material and allowing them to rest upon each other leads to the toner material easily rubbing off, damaging the photos. The printer will be able to print professional-looking documents on higher density matte paper, but using glossy media with the CP2025dn will cause problems.
The Colour LaserJet CP2025dn is expensive to run, and this is its biggest drawback. The three colour laser toners produce an average page yield of 2800 pages each, while the black toner produces 3500 pages. This is a reasonable figure but once the price of consumables is factored in each page will cost the user an average of 31.5c – an extremely high figure for laser printers. Given that the printer and its consumables are relatively new, expect price cuts soon – but for now this printer is an expensive machine to run.
