The HP 2600n Color Laser Printer is just one in a long line of personal and professional color laser printer products from Hewlett Packard. The 2600n stands out primarily because of its low price and built in Ethernet networking, but just because it prints in color does not necessarily mean that it is a good replacement for your traditional ink-jet printer when printing photos or high resolution color graphics. As with all good deals you may have to give up a little quality for the benefits of the lower price tag. In the end you have to decide if saving an extra hundred dollars is worth it for the trade-offs.
Basic Specs for the HP 2600n Color Laser Printer:
- 600x600 resolution in black and white and color
- Up to eight pages per minute in color or in black and white
- Optional second paper drawer
- 16MB built in memory
- Four toner cartridges
- USB or Ethernet connectivity
- Mac and PC compatible
- Retail price $299.00
Drawbacks To The HP 2600n Color Laser:
Many people who consider the 2600n are individual users that would like to have the print quality of a laser printer while still being able to print in color when needed. The 2600n does these things, but with only 600dpi resolution and 16MB of memory this printer is not intended for printing archival quality photos of your family. While the black and white print output of this printer is very good, photographs often come out darker than expected and not finely detailed. The use of special paper helps out a lot in this respect, but good luck finding a good selection of glossy laser photo papers at your local retailer. It should be noted that while photos suffer on the 2600n, standard color graphics and solid color logos come out stunning in most cases.
Another down side to the HP2600n is the relatively slow print speed and the high price of replacement cartridges. On the realistic side, eight pages a minute really isn't that bad for most home users, but a small business or office situation would be better served with the 2600n's big brother the HP 2605 or HP 3600 color laser printers. In regard to the cost of replacement toners, expect to pay as much as $90 for a single cartridge. The good news is that in normal household printing the cartridges last a very long time and are easily monitored via the LCD display on the front of the unit.
Can The Price Outweigh The Cons on the 2600n:
In a word, yes! While the photo printing on the 2600n is not perfect, the overall print quality of the machine is very good and for only $299 you can't beat it. Just remember the stipulation that this machine works great as a home printer but corporate or very busy home users may want to stay away. For $299 you get a very sturdy, networked color printer that is backed by a long line of HP success stories. If you are worried about the cost of toners consider that in our testing, the black cartridge would last nearly a year in most typical households.
The Final Word on the 2600n:
If you are an avid digital photographer and want to replace your old ink-jet photo printer then stay away. If photos are not a big deal to you but you still want the flexibility and high quality printing of a laser printer then consider the Hewlett Packard HP 2600n color laser printer as an option.
Chad Criswell - Chad Criswell is a professional educator and freelance technology writer for numerous online and print publications throughout the United ...
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