The small business king of printing

4050 - A PERFECT CHOICE FOR SMALL BUSINESSES

Although I work for a large company and I am in charge of managing technology and networking, I think everybody else pretty much covered the benefits of this printer in a large enterprise. I will instead concentrate on what this model can do for the small business environment.

The 4050 does not come network ready although it can be easily upgraded by adding a network module. If you are interested in the network abilities of this printer see the reviews for the 4050N model.

WHY THE 4050

I've been working with tens of printer models since 1993, ranging from dot matrix, inkjet, to color laser. I have tried many brands (Epson, Okidata, Canon, et.) and in 1995 I made the decision to stick with Hewlett Packard, after purchasing a bunch of LaserJet 4 printers and falling in love with the machine (and the revolutionary concept - at that time - of having all the consumables sealed into one easy to replace toner cartridge). Then we upgraded to LaserJet 4 Plus, then LaserJet 5, now LaserJet 4050.

The 4050 is based on the LaserJet 4 concept and technology, with many improvements added to the initial concept, all based on customer surveys and thorough research performed at the HP labs (by being in charge of technology at my company I do read a lot about these things).

Although geared more towards the small to medium network based business communities, I find this printer to be the perfect choice for a small business. I'll skip the specs (133MHz processor, etc.) which you can find in other reviews and just stick to the facts as seen from a user's point of view.

PROS:

Classic robust cube design. No elements that you have to open or "unfold" for the printer to feed paper or for the final prints.

Fast printing speed. A combination of a fast engine and intelligent software drivers make this printer very fast. I just printed a stack of reports (a lot of numbers plus some graphics) at the rate of 18 pages per minute. Of course, plain text prints faster, photos print slower (although the differences are not as significant as with other printers) and I'm not taking into consideration the time your software needs to format and send the document to the printer.

Easy to replace toner cartridges. Just open the cover, pull the old cartridge out, throw - literally, they perfected the guided system to the point that there is no special position to put the cartridge in, certain ways the cartridge has to snap in, etc. Close the cover and you are ready to print again.

Toner cartridge does not leak. The older a laser printer gets, the more chances you have for your prints to be smudged or for dark lines to appear on your prints. Why? Because toner powder falls from the cartridge inside the machine, gets into the guiding mechanism, etc. Unless you shake the printer or use recycled toner cartridges from very shady companies, this will not happen with the 4050.

Handles well envelopes. If you are running a small business one of the things you probably do is mail merging and printing labels and envelopes. This printer excels at that. The envelopes are fed through a special tray and compared to many other designs the feeder has two guides that move symmetrically, allowing you to feed envelopes and cards through the center of the feeder (most printers don't do that). The infamous rubber wheel that grabs the envelope is in the center and documents are guided almost perfectly.

Easy to upgrade memory. You can do it yourself, just slide a small cover, unscrew one screw and insert a 100 pin DIMM memory module. The printer knows automatically how much memory it has.

TonerGauge technology. You can monitor toner usage from the control panel and save yourself the "out of toner" aggravation.

Solid warranties and good tech support. Of course you still have to deal with being put on hold for hours, but overall, HP people are quite responsive.

Expandable. Add a larger capacity tray, a 75 envelope feeder, etc.

Fast wake-up. Isn't it annoying when you need to print something really fast for a client and you have to wait for your laser printer to "Warm Up"? The 4050 is very fast.

CONS

None.

CONCLUSION

If you are running a small business, want your documents to reflect a professional image and can afford the price, don't consider cheaper models, get the 4050 from HP and you will save yourself hours of aggravations. Do not go with a combo machine. Get the 4050 for black and white and mail merge intensive jobs, get a regular inexpensive fax machine, get an HP 932C inkjet for your color needs and a $100 scanner. At $1000 street price, the 4050 is worth every penny.

Andrei Achim