When Hewlett-Packard introduced the HP 2000 series of business inkjets a couple of years ago, we were ambivalent. We liked their speed, networkability, and economical individual ink cartridges. But the print quality was poor, and the price was much more than consumer inkjets. The new HP Business Inkjet 2250tn has almost all of what we liked about the first generation of business inkjets, plus one big improvement: impressive output quality. Still, the 2250tn's speed claims are tenuous at best.
By all appearances, the AU$2,050 2250tn means business. You'll never mistake its hulking form (51.3x29.2x51.8 cms and 14.5 kgs) for a home inkjet, and it comes with two stacked paper trays for a total capacity of 500 sheets (input) and 150 (sheets) output. The 2250tn also includes the HP JetDirect 600N EIO internal print-server card, so you can hook it up to Ethernet, Token Ring, and LocalTalk networks.
Setting up the 2250tn via the parallel port was completely straightforward. The user guide (on CD-ROM and paper) includes all of the usual setup and troubleshooting instructions, and there's also a JetDirect Guide (on CD-ROM) that gives detailed instructions for connecting the printer to various types of networks. The printer automatically installs both PCL 5c and PostScript Level 2 drivers. However, both drivers offered only a bare minimum of configuration options, such as paper type and number of copies. The PostScript driver included some more advanced settings, such as negative and mirror-image printing, but those are oriented toward graphics pros. Nowhere did we find useful options for business users, such as booklet or photo printing.
The 2250tn's box has the word speed in big letters, right next to a picture of a stopwatch, for emphasis. On another panel, you can see such claims as "11ppm (pages per minute) black/7.5ppm colour on Normal Mode." We always take such numbers with a grain of salt, but because the 2250tn's documentation makes such a point of its speed, the printer's failure to come even close to its claims is all the more egregious. The printer's standard 24MB of RAM and two 96MHz RISC processors apparently didn't help its performance in our lab speed tests.
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Via its parallel port connection (there is no USB port), the 2250tn printed plain black text at 4.1ppm in Normal Mode--far slower than considerably cheaper consumer inkjets, such as the Canon S600 and the Epson Stylus Colour 980. The 2250tn also fell short in colour speed tests: It printed our Adobe Illustrator test document at a sluggish 1.2ppm in Normal Mode. The 2250tn's photo-printing speeds were also slow, at 6.4 minutes per 8x10-inch colour test photo printed in Best Mode. HP's response to our query about the slow speeds was sadly typical for the industry: The company claims that its speeds were achieved under artificial conditions, which would be difficult to reproduce in normal circumstances.
If it's any consolation, the 2250tn's languor was offset by mostly excellent print quality. Printed in Normal Mode, text looked good, although letters were oversaturated and slightly blurry. However, on HP Premium Inkjet paper, text looked excellent. The 2250tn also excelled in colour printing, producing some of the best plain-paper graphics we've seen. Colour matching was excellent, shading was subtle, and the printer accurately reproduced the skin tones in the photographic elements of our test document. Graphics on HP Premium Inkjet paper also looked excellent, though we did notice a few flaws, such as dithering and horizontal banding.
The HP's photo print quality, however, left something to be desired. Printed in Best Mode, using HP's Photo REt III print technology (a software-enhanced interpolation), our test photograph's colours were too bright, and the skin tones were mediocre; we also noticed some horizontal banding. Our advice: Save the expensive paper for important text documents, and if you need a business photo printer, try the Epson Stylus Photo 2000P instead.
While the 2250tn may shortchange you in speed, at least it gives you something back in ink savings. Thanks in part to HP's modular ink-delivery system, in which the four ink cartridges and the four printheads are individually replaced, the 2250tn is one of the most frugal ink consumers we've tested. Our drain tests showed an average cost per page of US2.3 cents for black and US18 cents for colour.
The HP Web site offers a helpful product-support page, where you can find FAQs, manuals, drivers, and a searchable database of troubleshooting tips.
For businesses that aren't willing to spend AU$5,000 or more on a colour laser, the HP 2250tn's great graphics print quality and low operating costs certainly make it worth considering. But given that we've seen far cheaper inkjets that offer similar quality and much faster print speeds, it's hard for us to recommend it. If speed is your No. 1 priority in a business inkjet, check out the Lexmark J110--or consider buying four or five cheaper inkjets, such as the Canon S600, and hooking them up to individual PCs.
InkJet 2250TN
Company:HP Australia
Ph: 13 13 47
Price: AU$2,050
