HP LASERJET P3005 TONER CARTRIDGE

HP laserJet P3005 Review

Overview:

Many times I’m called to a classroom to fix a down printer only to realize the printer in question has simply worn out from the demands it was never designed for.  While consumer-electronic stores offer a wide variety of laser printers, most of the models on the floor aren’t durable enough to handle the constant daily demands of a classroom or a small business. For a robust desktop laser printer, one that delivers 1200 dpi at speeds up to 33 ppm, Hewlett-Packard offers the network-ready LaserJet P3005 printer.

Pros:

Before we discuss the specs, you need to know that the P3005 comes in five different models: The basic P3005, the network-ready P3005n, the P3005d with two-sided printing, the P3005dn with duplexing and networking, and the P3005x with “the Workx”: network, duplexer, and a second 500-sheet tray. The network, duplex unit and extra paper tray are available as optional accessories and can be easily added to any printer with no more than a screwdriver.

The 45-pound, cube-like LaserJet has a 17” x 18” footprint for easy placement in any corner or credenza -- just leave enough ventilation space around the vents.  Paper trays and toner are all easily accessed from the front, reducing the need of moving the printer for refilling.

The 2-line LCD display, LEDs and 5-button controls are relatively intuitive, taking up little space on the printer’s surface. Through the panel, a user can make adjustments from default paper sizes all the way to fuser power adjustments. On P3005’s with the network option, these controls can be accessed through a web-based application.

Right from the start the P3005 comes with some serious paper capacity. A 500-sheet cassette tray that can support paperweights from 16# to 36# paper, and sizes ranging from 5.5” x 8.5” up to 8.5” x 14”.  While most desktop laser printers have a multi-purpose tray that only holds from 25 to 50 sheets, the P3005’s multi-purpose flip-tray can support up to 100 sheets of papers and cardstock up to 53#, envelopes, and transparencies.

After 9.5 seconds for the first page, this laser starts printing letter-size prints at 33 ppm at 600 dpi, an impressive speed for laser printers in 2006. In monochrome using 1200 x 1200 dpi resolution, the P3005 keeps text sharp--even at 6-point font sizes--and does a decent job with printing graphics in B&W. With an instant-on fuser system, there are no more long restart times when the printer is in power save mode. Like all LaserJets, the P3005 comes with a toner save mode to conserve on ink.

The P3005 base unit starts out with 48MB of memory, which is fine for non-networking uses and can handle most jobs. To handle low-volume network demands, the P3005n comes with 80MB. All models can be expanded to a maximum of 320MB.  For a typical computer classroom, I recommend installing a minimum of 128MB in a HP printer.

Understanding the printing needs of today’s businesses in providing support for the major software applications, HP has installed a full set for print emulators that should satisfy the most diverse office. Emulators include PostScript3, HP PCL5e, PCL6 and PDF-direct.

Cons:

This is a noisy printer. While idling below 30 dB, the printer produces 51 dB of sound printing. To give you an idea of what that means: 60 decibels is the level of typical conversations and 30 decibels is the sound of a quiet night in a desert.  The noise while printing is barely discernable sitting in a classroom or computer lab, but you wouldn’t want to have it sitting next to your desk.