HP 3380 Toner
LaserJet 3380 Toner Cartridges

HP 3380 Printer Review

The HP LaserJet 3380 is a monochrome laser printer geared toward the small office user or small network environment. It is easy to use and has a low cost of ownership.

Multifunction printers are becoming more and more common these days, as users are looking to get more than just printing from their laser printer. The HP 3380 includes the ability to print, scan, copy, and fax, and manages to make all of them quick and easy to use for the user.

The HP LaserJet 3380 looks a little more appealing than many multifunction printers due to its curved edges and integrated design. With many multifunctions, the copying unit on top looks unnecessarily bulky and out of place. The curved lines make the entire unit look unified and the footprint stays relatively compact, but the paper tray sticks out from the front of the unit, taking up more space in the front. The tray does have a plastic dust cover to keep the paper from getting dusty.

The control panel of the HP 3380 is extremely well-designed. Buttons are grouped together based on their functions, making it easy to find the commands you need, despite a large array of buttons. Most provide easy access to common features, making the unit very easy to use.

Print speed is good, at around 20 pages per minute. Print quality, however, is a little disappointing. It is common for multifunction laser printers to have lower print quality than dedicated laser printers, but unfortunately the 3380 falls a little below expectations even for a multifunction device. Text quality is generally good, but loses its clarity as font sizes get smaller. Graphics quality has a number of issues including banding and disappearing lines.

HP LaserJet 3380 toner cartridges are meant for a small office user or a small network environment. Each black HP 3380 toner has a capacity of 3,500 pages. With the smaller page yield in the HP 3380 toner cartridge, an environment with high printing needs will have the user changing the HP LaserJet 3380 toner cartridges more often than they would like.

Overall, the HP LaserJet 3380 is a well-designed and easy to use multifunction device, but it is marred by below average print quality and frequent HP toner cartridge changing if any volume of regular printing occurs.