The Budget Friendly HP Color LaserJet 3600dn Printer

by garrett on April 28, 2010

For less than $1,000, the HP Color LaserJet 3600dn printer is an affordable printing package. It is especially designed to cater to the needs of offices and power users alike. The printer also performs well in terms of speed and quality, with the Q6470a toner offering just what an office needs. Ever since its initial release in 2006, it has been a constant top seller in its class. Let us find out what makes this printer a cut above the rest.

The HP LaserJet 3600dn has a processor clock speed of 360 MHz and 128 SDRAM. The RAM is not expandable, but the default 128 MB is powerful enough to handle large file types. Both the processor and the RAM are among the fastest in its class. One thing that you would notice about the HP 3600dn is seamless printing regardless the size of the image or document. HP made sure that this printer would not choke under pressure.

The HP LaserJet can print resolutions up to 600 x 600 dpi. If you been around laser printers, you know that 600 x 600 dpi is not much. However, HP added its award winning ImageREt 3600 to give it a little boost. HP ImageREt 3600 is an image optimization software that corrects any issues with pixilation, color depth, and contrast. Take note that this is the same software used by professional-level color laser printers.

One of the most common problems with laser printers is their size. Some of them simply take too much space. However, the HP LaserJet uses only around 17.7 x 15.7 inches, therefore making it one of the smallest color laser printers in its class. This is great news for people who have very limited space.

In the front of the HP, a simple LCD tells you what it is doing. It can also indicate specific errors like toner cartridge problems or paper jams. It also has two paper feeders with adjustable paper guides. Both paper feeders can take a combined total of 350 sheets. The adjustable paper guides are very useful smaller media types, such as a 3.5 x 5 photo paper.

The HP Color LaserJet 3600dn printer has a monthly cycle of 50,000 pages, which is among the highest in its class. This kind of printing power is enough for any heavy loads of printing. In addition, HP added a pre-installed duplexer, which would hundreds of dollars extra if did not come with the package. The LaserJet 3600dn is one of the very few sub $1,000 laser printers that has a built-in duplexer. It also has an Ethernet port in the back, which makes sharing the printer with a workgroup a cinch. If it is connected to the router, it will automatically configure itself within a few seconds.

Printing speed and quality are two of the most essential elements in choosing a printer. As for speed, the 3600dn is slightly faster than most of its counterparts. It was able to print up to 17 pages in a minute for both color and monochrome. The print quality was good. There are some traces of inconsistency, but they are barely visible to the naked eye. HP added ImageREt, which drastically improved the printer’s overall color depth and contrast for graphics and photos. It also supports operating systems like Mac OSX, Linux, Windows XP or higher.

There are only a handful of duplex ready laser printers available in the market and this offering from HP is definitely one of the best. It performs very well, the LaserJet 3600dn toner offers sharp results, and the printer does not crack under heavy printing loads. The quality of HP Q6473a toner is certainly well known and having enough laser toner on hand to allow those unexpected big jobs is a smart move.

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