HP Business Inkjet 2300

The 2300's graphics speeds were impressive, but its print quality was less so. The printer churned out graphics at 2.2 pages per minute--significantly faster than the average speed of 1.2 ppm posted by recently tested inkjets. In addition, it printed text at an above-average 5.4 pages per minute, but the Canon i350 Color Bubble Jet Printer was just as fast at text and costs only $60. In the Business Inkjet 2300's price range, the $799 Oki Data Oki C5100n color laser printer produced text at 9.9 ppm and color graphics at 4.9 ppm. The 2300 printed blacker, cleaner letterforms than most other inkjets, but so do the comparably priced color lasers we've tested.

The 2300 printed our test document of narrow parallel lines better than most inkjets, though it did leave some random specks among the lines. But the quality of its photos on both plain and glossy paper was disappointing (and on a par with the output of sub-$100 inkjets): Color photos on plain paper had noticeable banding and a dotty texture--though on better-quality inkjet paper, detail improved and there was no banding--while color glossies came out so dark that much of their detail was lost.

The 2300 has two paper trays, so you can keep two sizes or types of paper loaded; the internal tray holds 150 sheets, and the second tray holds 250. The ink tanks are specified to print 1750 pages and cost $34 each, so ink costs per page are almost certainly less than with most inkjets, but they probably add up faster than toner costs for most color lasers. In our page yield tests, the 2300 turned in the lowest cost per page for black alone (2.1 cents per page) and for color plus black (7.7 cents per page).

A control panel with a backlit LCD provides status messages and the kinds of menus your IT staff would use to manage a network device: You can print a configuration page or a list of installed PCL fonts, for example, as well as a map of the printer's menus.

Like many HP inkjets, the 2300 has an internal paper tray that the user must either hold up with one hand (while inserting paper with the other) or remove altogether. The second tray uses a normal slide-out drawer design. Though HP's printed documentation is cursory, the on-screen help files are thorough. The watermark feature prints only in a few basic colors, though you can set the font to any size you want, unlike with some other HP printers.

Upshot: HP's Business Inkjet 2300 is speedy, can handle high-volume use, and has low ink costs, but its print quality didn't impress us.

Dan Littman