HP 5000 Toner
LaserJet 5000 Toner Cartridges

HP 5000 Printer Review

The HP LaserJet 5000 is a monochrome laser printer designed for the home or small office user. It features high-quality printing and decent speeds, and many expansion options for the future.

The design of the HP 5000 is larger than some small office printers, but still small enough to fit into some tight spaces if necessary. The printer measures 19 inches by 12 inches by 13 inches, and weighs 50 pounds with the toner cartridge, so it is a little too heavy to be moved by one person. Many aspects of the HP 5000 are built with expandability in mind, making it an excellent choice for a small office expecting to grow in the near future. Initial paper capacity is 350 sheets, with 250 sheets in its main tray and 100 sheets in its multipurpose tray. The paper capacity can be expanded with either 250-sheet or 500-sheet drawers to add more capacity, up to a maximum of 1,100 sheets. The monthly duty cycle of 65,000 pages allows room to grow.

The printer does not include an ethernet port, but a JetDirect print server can be added either internally or externally for connecting the printer directly to a network. A 2 GB hard drive is another possible upgrade option, and allows documents to be saved directly to the printer for archiving or later printing. Memory can be expanded from the initial 4 MB to a maximum of 100 MB, which will likely be necessary as the printer is shared among a larger number of users, to avoid slowdowns.

Like many toners, print speed is quite good, at 16 pages per minute. First page out time is 13 seconds, so there is very little waiting for a print job to start. Print quality is excellent. The LaserJet 5000 has a 1200 dpi printing engine which also incorporates HP's ImageREt enhancement technology, improving image quality.

Overall, the HP LaserJet 5000 is an impressive choice for the small office, and has nearly unlimited expansion possibilities for the future. Another benefit of purchasing an HP printer is the wide availability of affordable compatible HP toner cartridges.