HP products review


HP Color LaserJet CM1017

With prices dropping into the sub-$500 arena,Using HP's Solution Center software, you get
laser printers--even multifunctionmore options, including the ability to scan
lasers--are moving into the home, but the HPinto a selected program such Word,
Color LaserJet CM1017 MFP is too expensivePowerPoint, and Photoshop. You can also scan
for the average home user. It is, however, aa document using the bundled third-party
good choice for the small or home office useroptical character-recognition software, which
who needs high-quality laserwill  produce  a  text-editable  scan.
prints--particularly graphics--but not
necessarily fast prints. For $700, you get aThe CM1017's copy features are basic. When
network-ready color laser multifunctionscanning documents, you can adjust darkness
printer that prints, scans, and copies, andand scale the size from 25 percent to 400
includes built-in media card readers, apercent; when scanning photos, you can also
rarity for laser printers. We think thecolor balance and sharpen the image. One
CM1017 is a good choice for small officescommon feature we didn't find is the ability
that need great image quality from a laser,to make N-up copies, which prints two or more
such  as  realtors  and  insurance  agents.originals on one sheet of paper. You can,
however, make N-up prints from your PC (you
Designcan find it under the Finishing tab in
Printer  Properties).
The HP Color LaserJet CM1017 MFP is a large
printer better suited for an office than forAs we mentioned before, the ability to print
a home. It sits 17.3 inches wide, 20 inchesstraight from a memory card is an uncommon
deep, and 21.3 inches tall, and it weighsfeature on laser printers. With the CM1017,
nearly 50 pounds. The top-mounted flatbednot only do you get the ability to print
scanner and control panel sit atop the bodyphotos, but you get a decent range of
like a flat hat. The flatbed scanner can holdfeatures to boot. You can preview the
up to A4-size originals, but the unit lackscontents of your card on the color LCD via a
an automatic document feeder, so it can'tslide show or by manually clicking through
scan  legal-sized  documents.the range of images. When it comes time to
print, you can choose among a range of print
Below the scanner unit is the output tray,sizes, paper sizes, and paper types,
which juts out from the front of the printer.including HP's laser photo paper. You can
The input tray pulls out from the bottom ofeven choose to print a range of photos (by
the printer's front and can hold up to 250photo number, not date). And best of all, you
sheets of plain paper. You can adjust thecan print an index sheet of all the images on
paper tray to hold legal-size sheets. Theyour card or a proof sheet. The index sheet
front panel of the paper tray houses aincludes the photo number, the file name, and
single-sheet manual feed slot for one-offthe date it was taken-- all great references.
prints. Adjustable paper guides let youThe proof sheet lets you bubble in the images
smoothly feed anything from envelopes to fullyou want printed, select your paper type
sheets of paper. If you need increased paper(plain or glossy), and a select a layout
capacity, you can purchase a second 250-sheet(from one image per page up to six images per
tray.page). Then you simply scan the proof sheet,
and the printer takes care of printing the
The CM1017 serves up four media card slots onimages for you. These aren't photos you'll
the right side of the printer. The slotsnecessarily want to frame and hang, but the
accept most major types of cards. Theability to print good-quality photos on a
printer's control panel resides next to thelaser printer is a very useful tool for some
scanner bed. A 2.4-inch color LCD flips upoffices.
and can be tilted to optimize the viewing
angle. Constantly displayed on the LCD areReplacing spent toner cartridges is a simple
icons that indicate the toner levels, so youtask on the CM1017. Simply flip open the
can avoid a last-minute dash to the officefront panel and pull out the used cartridges
supplies store to finish a print job. A bevyindividually. A new 2,500-page black
of buttons let you initiate photo print,cartridge costs about $75, while each
scan, and copy tasks without touching your2,000-page color cartridge (cyan, magenta,
PC, as well as navigate the printer's variousand yellow) costs about $83. This puts black
menus.prints at around 3 cents per page and color
prints at about 15.4 cents per page. These
Featuresnumbers are a bit high when compared to
nonmultifunction color laser printers and are
Although multifunction laser printers arealso higher than the per-page costs for the
generally office-oriented, the Color LaserJetEpson AcuLaser CX11NF. Clearly, HP should
CM1017 MFP lacks fax functionality, which maywork on high-capacity cartridges for this
be a deal breaker for some offices. On themodel.
other hand, it does provide a feature that's
relatively uncommon among laser printers:Performance
media card readers for printing photographs.
You can print decent-quality photos on plainIt's difficult to make direct performance
paper or on HP's laser photo paper, a featurecomparisons for the HP Color LaserJet CM1017
that can be useful in certain industries suchMFP, as we haven't reviewed a color laser
as  real  estate  or  insurance.multifunction in quite some time. The last
one we reviewed was the above-mentioned Epson
The CM1017 comes with a 300MHz processor andAcuLaser CX11NF. Still, the numbers speak for
94MB of RAM standard (upgradeable to 224MB).themselves and what they say is, if you do a
It sports an Ethernet port for networking, orlot of printing and print speed matters, this
you can attach it directly to a PC via USBis not the machine for you. HP rates this
2.0. Duplex, or two-sided, printing is amachine to print eight pages per minute in
manual operation, as the CM1017 lacks aboth mono and color, so it's not intended to
built-in  duplexer.be a speed demon. In our Labs' tests, it
printed black text at 6.81ppm, black graphics
When scanning from the printer's controlat 6.31ppm, color text at 5.91ppm, and color
panel you have a couple of options: You cangraphics at 6.16ppm. It scanned a grayscale
save the file to your PC in a number ofdocument at a rate of 3.39ppm and a color
different formats, including TIFF, JPEG, anddocument at 2.61ppm. To compare, the Epson
PDF, or you can attach the file to an e-mail.CX11NF churned out black text at 18.44ppm.



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