You don’t have to buy brand new A3 printers if you need one. There are some models on the market that will do just as good at lower prices. The HP LaserJet 5100 Printer is one of those printers that are kept on the market despite being discontinued by the manufacturer. You can’t buy them as brand new items but you can buy them as refurbished items.
A refurbished HP LaserJet 5100TN Printer only costs around $400. You can’t buy brand new A3 laser printers for anything like this amount. If you plan on buying a brand new A3 laser printer, you will need to have at least a thousand dollars.
Old Workhorse
A thing is only a classic if it never gets old. The same can be said with the HP LaserJet 5100 Printer. It never gets old because it can still do the same job that it was meant to do. This is evident by the constant supply of refurbished LaserJet 5100 printers in the market. This only means that there is no more need to look for a better printer since this one can do just as good.
This is not to say that all models that are released today are good for nothing. In fact, they are actually better than the LaserJet 5100 Printer is. They even have more features like network connectivity and wireless interfacing.
The LaserJet 5100 printer on the other hand only has parallel interface. It doesn’t even use USB, which is by now, the most popular mode in connecting with peripheral devices.
Let’s face it. The only thing this printer can do is print in wide format and it has 100 sheet, 250 sheet, and 500 sheet trays. It’s more than enough for any office need, unless of course if the office is meant to produce a thousand pages in a day then this printer would really fall short for the task.
Hard Working Bargain
But for many this printer was a godsend. It was designed for CAD, financing, geographical business environments and desktop publishing and other general office applications.
This old soldier has always managed to keep up with a moderately heavy workload. It’s a monochrome laser printer that can print in wide format pages as fast as 21 pages per minute.
Even if the printers now are sold as refurbished printers, this is not to say that they have fallen short from their primary purpose. They still are able to print in wide formats up to A3 sizes. They still print at a maximum resolution of 1200 x 1200dpi.
However, don’t be fooled by all the media hype. Why exactly do you purchase a printer? It’s because you need it to print. The HP LaserJet 5100 Printer was meant to do wide format printing jobs and do it like all other laser printers do, at a fast pace. For many, 21ppm is plenty fast enough. You can connect multiple workstations to this printer at the same time.
This resolution is more than enough for laser printers. Publishing companies only use 600dpi resolution and it has never received any complaints of legibility.
The HP LaserJet 5100 is one of the most useful and dependable A3 laser printers in the market. That is the main reason why this printer will never get old, thus remaining a classic.
To put some perspective on it, its replacement can be found new. The HP Laserjet 5200TN Printer can be found new for just under $2000. It has the same resolution but can print at a faster rate, 35ppm. It has an interface Parallel, USB, Ethernet 10/100Base-TX. It also prints a larger size of tabloid extra (12 x 18) inches.
Many of us don’t want to have to pay that much out if it can be avoided but this later model has a fair few improvements on the 5100. The good news is that refurbished models are also available for this model at under $900. So now here is another refurbished suggestion that may be a better find than the original idea with a 5100. Either way you have a great workhorse at an affordable price.
Higher Ideals
If we haven’t convinced you in the virtues of an older refurbished model, then here are some ideas for printers that may meet your higher expectations. The Dell 7330dn has a lot more going for it.
This monochrome laser printer would out box the HP 5100 and 5200 any day in many departments but at a hefty price tag of over $2400. Yes, it’s totally worth it with same resolution of 1200 x 1200 dpi and a super fast speed of 50ppm.
It has auto duplex, Ethernet, USB, Parallel – 256MB RAM – CPU 500 MHz – PostScript, PCL, and PDF. It has a massive monthly Duty Cycle of 300,000, is a Network printer, and yes, it has it all.
But question is, do many of us need all that function and speed? Do we want to pay out so much extra for function we may not even be benefitting us? For many of us, the answer is, I don’t need all that. If you fall into that bracket then consider a dependable old refurbished A3 printer.
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About James Wikkee