A look at HP’s LaserJet 3380 all-in-one printer
HP has two new printer families worth checking out. And since the two I’m testing – the HP LaserJet 3380 and the 9130 – are combo printer/scanner copiers, you can use the color scanners to move some of your paper files onto your hard disk.
Got money? Got a rapidly closing business expense tax window? Wanna printer?
HP has two new printer families worth checking out. And since the two I’m testing – the HP LaserJet 3380 and the 9130 – are combo printer/scanner copiers, you can use the color scanners to move some of your paper files onto your hard disk.
Combo printers like these are computers with paper trays. You’ll marvel at the feature list, but might balk at the learning curve. In this competitive market, many vendors are trying to push HP off the top of the hill with interesting features and aggressive pricing.
This week we’ll focus on the 3380. Output for the monochrome LaserJet-based unit is black and white for both copies and printouts. Next week, we’ll look at the 9130, the OfficeJet-based unit for color copies and printouts.
These devices save space when replacing separate printers, copiers, scanners and fax machines, but if you envision a normal small office printer, you’ll be surprised at the size.
The larger 9130 comes in a box so big it will be commandeered by small kids as a playhouse. Flattened, the 3380’s box will make a nice toboggan if you have snow and a hill.
The HP LaserJet 3380 is aimed at homes and small businesses, but at $700 I don’t expect many home users to step up. Spreading the cost over a small business or department makes more sense. Since stand-alone copiers that take legal-size paper cost between $150 and $300, the value of bundling features starts to appear. Replacement toner cartridges cost $65 and $82.
The 3380 works well, but all the extra features bloat the amount of client software and add several running processes to your system. Even cold, the pages spit out quickly (8 seconds) and keep coming (20 pages per minute). The 1200 by 1200 DPI resolution makes for outstanding quality pages, including clear black and white pictures.
As a copier, you can enlarge, reduce and adjust copy details easily. The scanner goes to 600 by 600 DPI optically, up to 9600 by 9600 DPI with software enhancement. One-button copies are a snap, and you can stack about 50 pages into the document feeder for automatic copies.
The scanner requires you to connect to the PC via a USB connector. You can print over the network, but not scan through a print server. If you do regular scanning, dedicate a connected PC to be your scanner station and network print server, or look at one of HP’s bigger printers (like the 9130).
You can, however, configure scans to save to any network directory, or define a dozen different network folders and choose your location directly from the 3380. Files are numbered sequentially, and sets of pages going through the feeder get combined into a single file, handy for later retrieval. HP includes ReadIris Pro OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software, which we’ll discuss in a couple of weeks when we dig deeper into improving document management.
Hating faxes, I couldn’t bear opening the 96-page fax manual. You can scan pages directly into your e-mail application, which eliminates the need for faxing — that is, unless you need to send legal documents (and in that case you already have a fax machine). E-mailing works better than faxing because recipients can save the attached scanner file on their hard disks.
Design dings: For its bulk, the printer’s sides and compartment doors are flimsy. Opening the side door to access connections and phone line pushes open the cartridge compartment door, stopping the printer from functioning. But the scanner lid has enough heft to flatten sheets.
Many vendors have all-in-one units to compete with this HP device, starting in some cases as low as $99 for inkjets (flatbed laser competitors start around $200). But HP still rules the laser printer market; the browser-based software gives you full control over the device; and the rest of the features make buying a 3380 worth consideration for most small businesses.
