Product Reviews

Hewlett-Packard has been busy with its LaserJet monochrome printers, as virtually every existing range has been mothballed and superseded by new models. The last ones to get this treatment were the LaserJet 4M and 4MV, and now it's the turn of the venerable 5Si family.

Taking over from this 24ppm (pages per minute) departmental workhorse is the LaserJet 8000DN. Physically, it's identical to its predecessor measuring a mighty 566 x 570 x 540mm (W x D x H). Considering the external cosmetic work that's been applied to the latest LaserJet 4000 and 5000 printers this is a big disappointment. The operator panel has been re-designed, making it even easier to use, but otherwise it's the same cube of plastic. Internally, however, there are some important differences.

The controller board is much smaller, equipped with a faster 133MHz processor and has Adobe PostScript 2 emulation integrated on board. Three 32-bit expansion slots allow any combination of network cards or local interfaces to be added which have also been substantially reduced in size. An optional internal 1.4Gb hard disk (£424) can be fitted for storing fonts and firmware upgrades locally.

It's also JetSend-enabled. Developed by HP, this allows direct device-to-device communication over TCP/IP and aims to do away with the need for printer drivers. For example, a JetSend-enabled scanner can scan an image and send it directly over the network to the printer. HP expects to have an external JetSend unit for parallel-port scanners available soon, and fully JetSend-enabled scanners are likely to be available towards the end of 1998.

The 8000DN uses the same print engine as the 5Si. The 4000 and 5000 ranges both get the benefit of true 1,200 x 1,200dpi resolution and yet the LaserJet 8000DN is still stuck with only 600dpi. Print speed hasn't been improved either, with it delivering 24ppm.

Standard paper capacity is 1,100 sheets spread over two 500-sheet lower drawers and a 100-sheet multipurpose tray which can all handle sizes up to 11 x 17in. Extra base units can be fitted, and you've a choice of a 2,000-sheet bin (£895) or two extra 500-sheet trays (£tba) instead. Other options include an envelope feeder (£402) and three types of output mailboxes.

Printing

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costs are good, with the toner cartridge (£141.20) delivering 15,000 sheets at five per cent coverage for 0.9p per page. This is slightly cheaper than the LaserJet 5000GN (reviewed issue 44, p165).

The 8000 is available in three versions, with the basic model fitted with 16Mb of RAM. The 8000DN reviewed here comes as standard with 24Mb of memory, a duplex unit and a dual-speed 10/100BaseTX JetDirect print server card. A local parallel port is provided, although this is now a Type C connector that allows longer cable lengths than the larger Type B port.

Network installation has never been simpler. With HP's JetAdmin software to light the way, I had the printer installed and running on a NetWare 4.1 network in under ten minutes. JetAdmin automatically searches for any JetDirect cards, displays them for configuration and provides a host of remote management features. HP also provides a Resources Manager utility for collecting font and macro files, saving them together in project files and downloading them to the optional hard disk. WebJetAdmin is HP's answer to Internet administration, although this needs to be installed on a Windows NT, OS/2 Warp, HP-UX or a Sun Solaris system - effectively giving NetWare-only networks the cold shoulder.

Usually, when HP claims a certain print speed then that's exactly what you get and, sure enough, a 24-page Word document dropped into the output tray in precisely one minute. A FastRes option produces a simulated 1,200dpi resolution, although for text I could see no difference between the two modes. Running the same document through the duplex unit for double-sided printing reduced speed to 16ppm. A3 printing was commendably fast with a 28-page document completed in 127 seconds for an overall speed of 13ppm.

Graphic output was reasonable, but not as good as that from Rank Xerox's DocuPrint N32 (reviewed issue 40, p165). Charts and graphs were reproduced with minimal cross-hatching on different shades of grey, but large photographic images using the PCL6 driver suffered from noticeable banding. The PostScript 2 driver produced sharper images with less banding but took over twice as long to process.

When I looked at the LaserJet 5Si MX I found it represented good value and this still holds true with the 8000DN. The main competition comes from printers such as Kyocera's FS-7000 (reviewed issue 42, p163) and Rank Xerox's DocuPrint N32. Both printers also have 600dpi engines, but while the former offers very low printing costs its graphics quality is poor and will cost at least £600 more for a similar specification. The DocuPrint N32 scores higher as it's a 32ppm printer, handles graphics better and costs almost the same. It's a pity HP couldn't offer higher printing speeds and a true 1,200dpi resolution, as it would have made a good departmental laser printer unbeatable.