Art-ology

Taking the measure of the HP LaserJet 4050 printer is a fairly pleasant exercise, it has to be said. One of the most pleasant aspects of this printer is its price tag, with it listing at only $130. For a networked workgroup printer, this is a quite-impressive figure. In addition, it delivers 1,200 dpi print resolution with the C4127A toner, making this a hard printer to pass over when considering such units for a workgroup.

The LaserJet 4050 is what’s called a monochrome laser printer. This means that it’s basically a black-and-white printer. That it’s also a black-and-white printer that can put out product at 17 pages per minute is doubly impressive. For the price, one would expect to see, at most, 12 pages per minute but this particular Hewlett-Packard meets and beats that standard with ease.

Physically, the 4050 is considered a lightweight, literally. Weighing in at only 40 pounds, it occupies a physical space of only 15″ x 24″ x 13″, making this the little printer that could. Just about every IT specialist, given the task of joining this printer to a network, will remark upon its light weight and small size, both qualities that are valued when having to move a workgroup printer around.

When it comes to joining this particular printer to a networked workgroup, it actually won’t be very hard at all to do. It comes with wireless technology and with Ethernet 10/100 Base-TX, meaning that this little printer will be very easy to join to most any network. Truly, for the price, one would expect a printer that’s a bit more difficult to handle, but that isn’t the case with this Hewlett-Packard model.

Maximum print resolution when it comes to this printer comes in at a fine 1,200 x 1,200 dots per inch (dpi). This is a high level of print quality from a unit that’s considered to be budget-priced by most experts who assess such models. The quality of the product that will be put out by the printer, in other words, will be extremely clear, sharp and crisp.

Though most evaluators wouldn’t accuse the 4050 of being super-quick, it’s speedy enough for most needs. Hewlett-Packard includes a 133 MHz processor, which is quite fine, and sufficient to ensure that the workgroup won’t have any complaints about how long it takes the printer to handle tasks. It’ll all come out with very little trouble or fuss, in other words.

Hewlett-Packard has designed the printer with 16 MB of RAM, though that can be increased to 200 MB of RAM if needed. At the low end, most small workgroups will have no complaint while larger workgroups will also have little to complain about once the memory is upgraded. When it comes to paper storage, the 4050 also delivers, holding up to 600 sheets and printing out on a variety of media stock, by the way.

Taken altogether, the 4050 printer is an impressive unit, when one considers that it’s also an extremely inexpensive unit. Able to deliver 17 pages of printed product per minute at a 1,200 dpi resolution, the toners ensures each page is crisp and sharp.  This printer should be able to hold its own when it comes to the needs of many a workgroup and the C4127A toner cartridge will give great results.  The low cost of toner cartridges is sure to be an attractant to a business on a budget, it must be said.