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03-17-08
Duration of ownership: 9 Months
Strengths: Good Quality At first and then...
Weaknesses:After 9-11 Months these printers colors start to fade. I work in a school and we have a few of these.
Overall Evaluation: If I would have known that the Printers colors fade after the mirrors get full of dust than i would not have bought them. This is a known problem with these printers and can be pain if you have to have these mirrors cleaned every 9-11 months. Bad Engineering. this is going to happen to all of these printers overtime just wait and see... Invest your money in something better.
02-22-08
Duration of ownership: 16 Months
Strengths: The printer is much smaller than my last HP Printer.
Weaknesses:The last HP printer held 1,000 sheets of paper, was extremely fast and the all black toner lasted for a long time. The 2605dn that I currently have only holds 250 sheets and the toner does not last at all. In fact, back to Office Depot with this one, only 300 pages printed and it is telling me I have 256 pages left. This is the second or third toner that has done this. I might have a defective printer and will call HP. Since I have a tax business I only use the printer periodically, I love HP products and have been buying them for years but this is not something I am proud of or would recommend to anyone. They know what they are doing when they sell the machine cheap because the toner will break you.
Overall Evaluation: The printer is fair. I feel it does not hold a sufficient supply of paper and the toner is past crazy. It cost over $300 for all colors and for just the black I pay $74.99, plus tax. This particular toner has given me three hundred printed sheets and tells me I have 256 left .. order now.
03-25-08
Duration of ownership: 3 Months
Strengths: Duplex, quiet
Weaknesses:Small LCD
Overall Evaluation: I switched from inkjet to the 2605dn to save on color printing. Although the HP toner cartridges are pricey, they are good for 2000 pages. My ink/toner costs have been cut in half, compared to my inkjet costs. All around good bargain. Shop around, as prices vary widely. Just be wary of some internet sellers offering great pricing - the fine print reveals they are offering refurbished printers.
02-07-08
Duration of ownership: 2 Weeks
Strengths: price, ease of use, ease of setting up
Weaknesses:heavy, small LCD
Overall Evaluation: I must say, this has been the best printer purchase I've made in a long time. Forget inkjet, laser is the way to go if you wish to save money in the long run. For my purposes, it does extremely well.-I bought this printer because I wanted to have the option to print massive pages and not have to worry about buying an ink cartridge every week. This printer prints beautifully in black and color for the common user. I'm such a user, and have no complaints about the quality. If you want to be picky like some reviewers, you're selling yourself short; be happy for once. It's sadly simplistic in setting up on a network as well.-The only complaints I have, in which one is unwarranted, are weight and the LCD. Weight is something that can't be helped, but this thing is heavy. Disregarding that, the LCD is something that should have been worked on further. I had to bend over the machine to properly read the LCD because it's so small. Besides these two points, nothing is wrong with this printer. For the small price difference between color and monochrome, just buy a color laser and save yourself from regretting it later.-Sure, the four cartridges may be individually expensive, but I've barely printed a dozen pages and I still have 2000+ pages left in black and 1900+ in color. Buying new cartridges should last even longer. One more thing: the drivers that come with the printer take FOREVER to load. This shouldn't be a problem if you just walk away and have lunch. I hope this has helped.
01-12-08
Duration of ownership: 2 Weeks
Strengths: -Does a surprisingly nice job with photos, not as good as an inkjet, but still usable for cards, etc.-USB & Ethernet interface-duplexing-quiet (comparitively)
Weaknesses:-can't handle as heavy of paper as is specified (see comments)-sometimes a bit slow to print PhotoShop files (faster if I saved files first)
Overall Evaluation: Hi,This printer is nice in a lot of ways, and when I researched different printers (Ricoh, Xerox, Dell, Samsung, Minolta), some did a better job with photos but worse with text (Minolta, Xerox), some were supposed to be very noisy (even when on, but not in use- the printers auto calibrate periodically), the HP2605 seemed to be the best overall.-***HOWEVER****, I returned the printer because when using one of the heavier HP papers (Photo Paper, Q6608A) listed as compatible with this printer, it left a mottled gray background in areas of the print that should have been white and without toner. I had only printed about 40 pages on standard weight paper before printing a couple times on the heavier paper. Even the paper samples included with the printer, "Brochure Paper" (44lb), had the gray background, though it was subtle. This problem was not reported in any of the professional reviews of the printer that I'd read before purchase (about half a dozen).-I've since read more user comments and learned that this is not unheard of for this printer (see HP.com's business support forum, link at end of these comments). -It seems to do fine with standard 24 or 28lb paper (it might be the gray background is very faint). -HP tech support said it could be any of a number of factors and that I should return it to the vendor as I was still within the 30 day return period, otherwise HP said they would replace it.-I haven't given up all hope and returned the printer for exchange, maybe I just got a lemon. This printer line (2600) has been out for a while and you'd think there'd be more comments about the gray background problem, but then if you're printing on standard weight paper it *may* never be an issue.-None of the star ratings is really appropriate for this review, but I guess two stars sort of makes sense.-Here's a link to one of the forum threads regarding the gray background problem (do searches for hp2600, 2605, etc to find more threads about the 2600 series):-http://forums12.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/bizsupport/questionanswer.do;HP-FORUMS-S-WPA-IDX=HLzFgRlG1w0pmsSGPrGLxRmFvnKH1GpMF2DkyKs8f3p97HThdkMT!2097855336!-1746225306?threadId=1081404&admit=109447627+1200157573344+28353475I received my replacement printer today and will set up at some point and post back my experiences (e.g. the gray background or not) here with any luck.-Mac Tip: Though it's not supposed to suport Mac OS9 or Classic (HPMacGuide.pdf, pg 22, Mac OS Driver Matrix for HP Peripherals) it might. I tried with a Classic app, the options are under different place (e.g. paper type is under the paper feed option) in the printer dialog box, and it SEEMED to work if you use the USB interface. However, I don't know what it's actually doing (e.g. will act as if you are printing on default paper type (which you set with the printer's control panel) no matter what type of paper you indicate in the printer dialog box?I've only tried it with "plain paper", which I noticed afterward to be the default setting on my printer.So I guess it might be risky.
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