HP LaserJet 8100N

While most of the top printer manufacturers have been ploughing ahead with high-end workgroup laser printers, Hewlett-Packard seems to have been caught napping. Kyocera launched its 28ppm FS-3700 (reviewed issue 42, p163) at the beginning of this year, while Xerox streaked ahead of the competition with its 40ppm PC Pro Excellence award-winning DocuPrint N40 (reviewed issue 50, p169). Up against such opposition, HP's top-of-the-range LaserJet 8000 (reviewed issue 45, p156), which was little more than a slightly modified version of the ageing 24ppm LaserJet 5Si, has been looking somewhat underpowered.

With the introduction of the LaserJet 8100N, HP hopes to regain lost ground, taking speed up to a more respectable 32ppm with the maximum resolution holding steady at 600dpi. As with the Color LaserJet 4500 range, there are three models to choose from: the basic 8100 (£2,250) offering local connection over a Type C parallel port, the 8100N (reviewed here) including HP's JetDirect network printer card, and the 8100DN (£2,860) which adds automatic duplexing.

The 8100N uses the same outer shell as the 8000, which, in turn, harks back to the LaserJet 5Si. It's the same chunky cube with a small protruding LCD at the front, along with two main paper drawers underneath. These are capable of storing up to 1,000 sheets of paper between them, with a side-mounted multipurpose tray adding another 100 sheets to the total. Capacity can be increased further with an optional 2,000-sheet base unit or, alternatively, you can opt for the twin 500-sheet lower tray. All the trays handle media up to 11 « 17in in size. HP offers plenty of optional extras for handling output, too, such as the five-bin version with automatic stapler and duplex unit that can also be fitted underneath the main chassis. The toner cartridge is accessed from the top panel and this lasts for 20,000 pages at five per cent coverage, giving an impressively low 0.81p per page print cost - a price that's bettered only by Kyocera's FS-3700.

Processing power is provided by a 166MHz RISC processor, but this is only supported by a meagre 16Mb of on-board memory. Three spare sockets allow this to be increased to 192Mb using industry-standard DIMM modules but you'll be charged a hefty £522 per 64Mb module if you choose HP as your memory supplier.

In the performance stakes the 8100N delivers the quoted speeds with ease. A simple, 60-page Word document dropped into the output bin in 113 seconds for a near-perfect 32ppm print rate. Expect a slight drop in speed for documents containing graphics, however. A 23-page test containing mainly text, along with a liberal sprinkling of charts and graphics, took 48 seconds using the standard 600dpi driver settings. Using the simulated 1,200dpi FastRes setting, speed dropped further, with the same test taking 57 seconds for an average speed of 24ppm. As expected, text quality is pin-sharp across a wide range of font sizes. Graphics quality, although good for such a fast printer, isn't quite up to the standards set by the DocuPrint N40 though. The 8100N produced finer detail, but slight banding marred the overall effect. Occasionally, randomly scattered blobs of toner spoiled the print quality further, causing smearing and spotting on some graphics.

The 8100N offers busy departments some useful functions to help them reduce photocopying activities. Coined MOPying (multiple original prints) by HP, the printer can accept a command requesting multiple copies of a single print. It processes this internally to reduce network traffic and print queues. Users will also find plenty of useful tools in the driver settings, although many of these are also available with the DocuPrint N40. A useful feature for the paranoid is the secure printing option. Using this, confidential documents can be sent to the printer, which will only output them when the appropriate PIN number has been keyed into the printer's control panel.