HP Color LaserJet CP2025N review

HP's Color LaserJet CP2025 is compact, if not particularly lightweight.

Like Epson's Aculaser C2800N, it has native PCL support, so doesn't have to rely on a host-based printer driver. If you connect the printer to your network, you'll have access to HP's excellent web interface, which provides full control over the printer's settings, including paper handling, colour density and networking. It also lets you view the printer's logs, so you can see if any user is using too much expensive colour toner, but you can't restrict access.

In addition to the 250-sheet paper tray, a flap on the printer's face can be pulled down to reveal a multipurpose tray that can handle 50 sheets of standard A4, special media such as envelopes, or light card stock of up to 163gsm. Envelopes printed perfectly, without curling.

Standard prints curled down slightly at the edges, but soon flattened. Print quality was stunning. HP's ImageRET3600 resolution enhancement is permanently enabled, and gave the CP2025N the edge over most others here in our small font size test. 5pt lettering was just as legible as the well-defined black text we printed at larger sizes. Fine detail in diagrams was also rendered accurately. Charts and illustrations in our mixed-colour document were clear and vivid. We were impressed by the accurate colours in our photo-quality images, which only suffered from a slight grain. Greyscale image prints were generally good, but very pale shades were rendered as white.

The CP2025N isn't particularly fast, with mono and colour speeds of 14.2ppm and 11.2ppm respectively. We were annoyed by the frequency of the printer's unannounced self-cleaning cycles, which often occurred in the middle of a print run, and its time to first page was slow at 32 seconds. Its main advantages are its size and print quality, but the Aculaser C2800N is faster, more economical and has only a slightly larger footprint.