HP CP3525DN Color LaserJet Printer

Let me begin by stating that I am a long term HP user. My first HP laser printer was the HP LaserJet II+ - a printer that was over-built and virtually indestructible. I have tended to buy replacement printers that are HP. Unfortunately, the experiences with this printer have turned me off of HP products. This printer was purchased on September 25 2009. The reason that it was purchased could be found in the specifications - high speed, color, and duplex. Plus, it could work in a work environment consisting of both Windows and Macs (my home office). Upon delivery, setup was relatively painless. BTW, if you are using this printer as a network printer, you will find the amount of control and information given you when you enter the Printer's IP as amazing. I have a Xerox and its home page gives you about half of the information. Initially, the printer worked well. Then the problems began. The Magenta color was no longer being transferred. I searched the HP site for troubleshooting hints -- not much there. Consequently, I went on-line and used the on-line chat. It became very evident that the people working the chat line, while friendly, were simply reading a script. I had gone through a number of steps to identify the potential problems and to rule out other problems. When I noted this, I was told to go back through the steps again. Next after three trips to the chat line, and over 4 hours of my time, I asked to have the printer repaired. The person informed me that he would send me the information for repair and authorization next day. This has not happened. Customer support with this product is downright poor. If you buy this printer, hope that you do not have any problems.

Other issues to be aware of:

1. Consumables are expensive - expect to pay about $224 per cartridge. Each cartridge lasts between 4k-7k. This means that the first time that you replace all of the cartridges, you are spend more in cartridges than the printer cost you. Something is not right here.
2. Accessories for this printer are difficult to get and relatively expensive.
3. The printer is relatively picky about the quality of the paper that it gets.
4. The printer does not feel as solid as past HPs. What I mean by this is that the plastic being used is thinner. It is disconcerting to see some of the plastic covers flex when you close them.

At this stage, given my experiences, there are better printers out there for the money -- the Dell 3130 and the Lexmark C734dn come to mind. These are printers with equivalent monthly print cycles but more reasonable consumables (note that with the Dell, you will have to pay more for the duplex).

As a final thought, I am disappointed in the product quality and customer support that has coming out of HP for the last couple of years. These are no longer as durable nor as well supported. As an example, I have an HP 2840 MCP. This is a great machine. When I upgraded to Vista-64 bit, the only drivers that HP would provide are universal drivers. What this means is that I have a unit that can print, scan, copy, and fax in color. However, this driver only allows me to print in B&W. My Xerox unit received drivers for Vista-64; the same with the Minolta-Konica. Furthermore, HP has indicated that they have no interest in supporting the 2840 beyond providing universal drivers. This situation is equivalent to have a hyper-sports car with a governor that prevents it from going over 50 mph. Being a university professor at a research oriented school, I print a lot and I have found printers like the Xerox and Minolta-Konica up to the challenge. I am afraid that I cannot say the same about the HP.

Again, a good product hindered by poor customer service.

I love this printer. It set up easily on my network in my home office. I have had this printer about 6 months and I have printed on paper, light card stock and have run lots of envelopes (regular #10 size down to 4.5 inch X 5.5 inch size). It feeds them all! I love the color and find that the duplex works well. I have other B&W laser printers for general text printing that are cheaper to run, but when I wanted to print 1000 invitations to an event with a B&W photo on the front I used this printer because the quality was amazing. I find I can print a two sided full color page on regular paper and the output is better looking than most prints that I have gotten from color prints at Copy Stores at $1.00 a page for two sided color laser.

This thing is so fast, the prints are usually done by the time I walk down the hall to the office to pick them up. I love this printer! It's super fast, does a fantastic job of printing, and the ink cartridges last forever around here. We will get 3 YEARS of home office use with the Xtra large black cartridge! It was easy to set up and works great on our mixed Mac and PC network. Love it. The printing engine is made by Canon as was our last HP Printer (4500N) and it was rock solid. I finally gave it away, just because it was so OLD. It still works and never once failed us. I highly recommend this printer if you are looking for something that "just works".

The 3525dn is a great printer with excellent image quality and speed. The only drawback so far is the cost of toner. To replace all of the toner cartridges you are looking at $800 to $900 and for the color toner they only sell the "A" or low yield cartridges. Hopefully someone will come out with some aftermarket cartridges or at least HP will produce the more economical "X" cartridges.

I got the printer about 3 weeks ago. I print training manuals with a lot of graphics in them. I have just printed my first set of manuals which consisted of about 4000 total pages and I can not get over the amazing image quality.

My old printer ( 6 months ) was the Brother 4070. I upgraded because I was looking for better image quality. The HP 3525 has much better color and image quality.

Now I just need to find some cheaper tonor cartridges for it. Any leads?