HP LaserJet P2055dn laser printer

If you need to print good quality monochrome documents quickly, HP's LaserJet P2055dn laser printer is certainly up to the job. It also has some security features that suit small networks and a "quiet mode".

The $899 LaserJet P2055dn mono laser printer adds automatic duplexing and a $100 premium to the HP P2055n base model. It has a 250-sheet paper tray and an additional multi-purpose tray; the HP LaserJet P2055x offers a paper capacity of 800 sheets. The printer comes standard with 128MB of memory, which is user-upgradeable to 384MB through a removable side panel. USB and Ethernet connections are both available.

It has a two-line, monochrome LCD and default print density settings can be changed from the printer itself. You can also access a cleaning mode that helps to eradicate dust build-up in the printer's movable parts, separately reset firewall and security settings to factory defaults, and choose whether the printer's Web server uses the HTTP or HTTPS (secure HTTP) protocol. Unfortunately, a network configuration report must be printed to determine the initial IP address it has been assigned.

The Web-based interface is sparse, with statistics and the consumables status being the most useful aspects. Using the interface, default print settings can be configured, and administrators can set up the LaserJet P2055dn mono laser printer's firewall policy. 802.1X authentication security is also included; this can also be found on competing printers like the Fuji Xerox Phaser 3435DN.

Print quality settings are separated into 600dpi, 1200dpi FastRes and 1200dpi ProRes modes. Though both the FastRes and ProRes resolutions are 1200dpi, the latter produces higher quality documents at a slower pace. At its fastest — using either the 600dpi or FastRes 1200dpi setting — the HP LaserJet P2055dn prints the first page of a document in an average 9.5sec and subsequent pages at a rate of 35 pages per minute (ppm).

It takes an average of 14.4sec for the first page to come out when using ProRes. The printer pauses on every second page. As a result the printer only takes 2.5sec to print a single page but the overall speed is closer to 14.7ppm; roughly four seconds per page.

HP has included a quiet mode on the LaserJet P2055dn mono laser printer. It does make it less noisy but it affects print speed, which slowed from 35ppm to 17.6ppm.

When using the ProRes setting you can also choose the preferred line density; a feature usually reserved for $2000+ mono laser printers like the HP LaserJet P4015n. When using these settings, the printer employs half-tones to increase the number of lines it prints in a given area, resulting in highly accurate documents.

Documents printed at the highest quality setting — ProRes 1200dpi at 180lpi line density — are very pleasing. Test characters are clean and have pinpoint accuracy.

With high yield cartridges installed, the LaserJet P2055dn mono laser printer costs an average of 4.8c per A4 page, which is certainly an appealing price for a mid-range printer.

Costlier printers offer more networking and security features, but the HP LaserJet P2055dn does offer fast print speeds. Its high line density settings make it a reasonably priced mid-range model for high quantity printing.

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