Kyocera 2160 - page 11

requiring top-notch black-and-white performance. For

the money, they’re definitely excellent values, although

their limited features and high consumables costs may

lead potential buyers to consider slightly more expensive

models such as the OKI Printing Solutions C5800Ldn,

which sells for $799 (street) and prints at 24ppm in color

and 28 in black-and-white, or HP’s own Color LaserJet

3800, which also costs $799 (street) and prints at 22ppm

in color and black-and-white.

Still, the Color LaserJet 2605dn and 2605dtn models

represent a step in the right direction by HP of upping the

quality of lower-level color laser printers while keeping

costs low.

Chart entries — pages 74–75

Hewlett-Packard Color LaserJet 3600

Hewlett-Packard Color LaserJet 3600n

Hewlett-Packard Color LaserJet 3600dn

Hewlett-Packard Color LaserJet 3600dtn

17ppm full color

17ppm black & white

Sum-up: This small-workgroup printer series offers host-

based printing only but good color speed.

The Color LaserJet 3600 models are HP’s lowest-cost

printers that offer the same speed in black-and-white and

color. They start at $599. At 17ppm, they replace the

16ppm Color LaserJet 3550 printers,and they add a little

more in the way of standard paper input. The 360MHz

processor is quite good for a desktop/small workgroup

printer.These printers are reasonably priced,starting well

under the magic $1,000 level.

Note, however, that unlike the slower Color LaserJet

2550 models, these printers do not offer PostScript or

PCL. If you want PostScript, you’ll want to look at other

HP models.

Thereare four models in this family:

lThe base-level Color LaserJet 3600 ($599)

lThe network-capable Color LaserJet 3600n ($699)

lThe 3600dn, which has automatic duplexing ($999)

lThe Color LaserJet 3600dtn, whichadds more paper

capacity ($1,599)

The 3600 and 3600n machines have 64MB of memory,

while the 3600dn and 3600dtn come with 128MB. The

3600dtn also adds a 500-sheet tray.There is no option for

memory expansion. That’s no big issue, given the lack of

PostScript. HP calls its own printing language JetReady,

and it works basically like GDI. These machines are also

Mac- and Linux-compatible. HP rates them for a maxi-

mum monthly duty cycle of 50,000 pages, but recom-

mends a much lower volume,of up to 3,000 pages.

The models have a sleek curved design, simple and ele-

gant and suitable for desktop use. Connectivity is via

USB and Ethernet (optional on the 3600). Wi-Fi is avail-

able as an option on all four models.

Paper supplies include a 100-sheet bypass (which can

handle heavier stock, including envelopes and trans-

parencies). All of the models have a 250-sheet standard

paper tray.You can also add an optional 500-sheet paper

tray,for a total of 850 sheets.(That 500-sheet tray is stan-

dard on the dtn model.) On the output side, there’s a 250-

sheet standard output tray.

Like other recently rolled-out HP printer series,this one

comes with ColorSphere toner, which is designed to

show very good color gloss and consistency (useful in

printing photos or marketing materials). It also comes

with preinstalled cartridges, so the printer is ready to go

out of the box. These starter cartridges can print 5,000

black-and-white pages, 4,000 color pages. That’s a nice

head start before you have to worry about installing

supplies.

Consumables costs are at 2.2 cents for black-and-white

and 12 cents for color. These are moderate prices.

This is a formidable, speedy printer family at a low

price. It has the HP administrative tools and a good-look-

ing toner technology.The base model is far faster in color

Better Buys for Business

Hewlett-Packard Color LaserJet 3600/3800

Consumables costs at-a-glance

Price

Yield

Full-color cost per page

Black-and-whitecost per page

Black print cartridge $132.99 6,000 $ 0.022 $ 0.022

Cyan print cartridge $129.99 4,000 $ 0.032 N/A

Magenta print cartridge $129.99 4,000 $ 0.032 N/A

Yellow print cartridge $129.99 4,000 $ 0.032 N/A

TOTAL PER-PAGE COSTS

$0.120 $0.022

11.97 2.22