HP LaserJet 2420n review

Gallery

Verdict:

The 2420n is a swift and capable workgroup printer that is easy to install and maintain, but we have reservations about its running costs and limited upgrade potential. Kyocera's FS-1920N, which costs less, is better in both respects.

Review Date: 21 Nov 2005

Price when reviewed: inc VAT

Our Rating 4 stars out of 5

Review
Specs

HP's square, grey LaserJet 2420n looks exactly as you'd expect a business printer to look.

We prefer its appearance to the predominantly beige competition, but it hardly sets the pulse racing. It only has a 250-sheet paper input cassette, so it sits lower to the desk than all the other printers bar the Lexmark's 342n.

It's possible to upgrade the 2420n with a 500-sheet paper cassette. However, this gives it a maximum input of only 750 sheets plus a 100-sheet multipurpose feed. The 2420dn model costs around £150 more and has automatic duplex printing, but this facility can't be fitted to the 2420n as an after-sales option.

Like most of this month's printers, the 2420n uses a single consumable that combines toner and an imaging drum. The supplied item is rated for 6,000 pages, but you can buy replacements with twice the capacity. This gives acceptable costs of a penny per page, but many printers here should prove cheaper to own.

Compared to some manufacturers' efforts, HP's user-friendly installer is a delight. It made quick work of discovering and installing the printer on our network, and was the only program that made it easy to install PCL and PostScript drivers at the same time. It prompted us to assign optional location and description information to the LaserJet, which could help demystify large networks with many printers.

We were impressed by the quality and speed of this printer's output in all our tests. It was particularly quick to start printing after long periods of inactivity and was one of the few devices that could print envelopes perfectly.

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