Product Reviews

With the continual advances in inkjet technology, it's becoming increasingly important for new models to deliver higher quality for less money to be competitive. HP is currently one of the market leaders, with the DeskJet 990Cxi (reviewed issue 74, p176) going straight on our A List last month. HP's latest business inkjet, the 2250TN, aims to back up its position even further, claiming 11ppm black text print speeds and PostScript Level 2 support. However, with Epson and Lexmark also in the running, HP is still facing some serious competition for the top slot.

The 2250TN rounds off a three-strong new range of business inkjets, featuring a built-in JetDirect 600N 10/100BaseTX print server, with HP's Web JetAdmin software for remote installation and management, as well as 24Mb of memory, which is expandable to 88Mb using a standard 64Mb SODIMM. Out of the box, the 2250TN looks fittingly serious and professional, although the juxtaposition of angular edges and smooth curves with the stylised HP insignia above the LCD gives it an air of style as well.

The 2250TN also boasts some impressive specifications, featuring a standard 250-sheet in-tray and an additional 250-sheet tray in the form of a substantial docking station. However, this level of paper capacity isn't remarkable for a workgroup printer, especially considering that Samsung's new personal laser, the ML-6060 (reviewed issue 74, p177) handles 550-sheets without any additional trays.

Connectivity is handled exclusively through the parallel interface, which is a little disappointing considering most printers now offer USB support. The only other connectors are for the two EIO (Enhanced Input/Output) interfaces to the JetDirect print server, which are neatly tucked away at the side. However, the features list becomes far more impressive once you move inside the case to the operating hardware. One of the most impressive additions is HP's JetDirect EIO 600N print server, which handles network traffic with ease thanks to the wide 33MHz 32-bit bus of EIO devices.

The printing hardware is also quite impressive. Unlike many four-colour inkjets that use a single black cartridge and a combined three-colour cartridge, the 2250TN uses individual cartridges and print heads for each colour. This is advantageous for a workgroup printer, where the demand for certain colours is particularly high. It also means that you don't have to replace the entire colour cartridge just

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because one colour has run dry. Usefully, the LCD panel on the printer's fascia helps you to gauge cartridge lifetime as well, giving you a view of ink reserves in each cartridge.

This economical solution, coupled with the tiny four-picolitre ink-drop size and intelligent colour management of HP's ColourSmart III technology, gives the 2250TN an excellent 6.5p per page colour printing cost at 20 per cent combined colour coverage. The 2250TN is also one of the first printers from HP to use distributed processing. This is where the printer splits the tasks of image processing and system operation between its two 32-bit, 96MHz Motorola RISC processors. The approach is intended to boost printing speeds, although I found the 2250TN to perform well below HP's quoted figures in terms of print performance.

Performance tests started off with a 25-page plain text document, which was returned in just four minutes, 32 seconds at 5.5ppm with the PostScript 2 drivers, and 33 seconds when using PCL5. While quick enough for an inkjet, it's still significantly slower than HP's quoted 11ppm for standard quality black text printing, and is similar to the 4.9ppm offered by the HP 990Cxi, which lacks the sophisticated dual processor engine. Text quality was also comparable to the 990Cxi, which is sharp and clear, although the Lexmark Z52 Color Jetprinter (reviewed issue 70, p170) still leads the pack in this field with its pigmented black ink. However, considering the 2250TN costs £577 more than the 990Cxi, I expected better quality and faster print speeds.

The effects of the advanced print engine were better seen when it came to colour reproduction. The 2250TN managed to successfully distinguish a 0.1pt white line in our colour performance test, which isn't often achieved. The colour fades and fills were also dealt with superbly, with minimal stepping. Photo printing was also handled well, showing good contrast and colour reproduction, although this was marred by slight graininess, and an occasional banding effect. Taking just five minutes, 33 seconds to print an A4-sized photo under PCL5, it's also fairly quick.

As a business inkjet printer, the 2250TN should be able to cope with a wide variety of print requests, and it copes remarkably well. The combinations of text and graphics in DTP documents were printed crisply and accurately, although again speed was an issue. It managed only 0.51ppm at the maximum print quality, though this was slightly faster than the 0.46ppm from the 990Cxi.

As a workgroup printer the 2250TN has all the features you need, although realistically it needs a larger paper tray. The print quality is superb, especially with regards to colour reproduction, and the new technology in the print engine and bundled network server all add to its appeal. Unfortunately, speed is a major criterion for workgroup printing, and this is the Achilles heel of the 2250TN. However, if you do a lot of specific colour printing, and don't mind waiting for the results, the 2250TN is worth considering.