HP 5100 Toner
LaserJet 5100 Toner Cartridges

HP 5100 Printer Review

The HP LaserJet 5100 is a monochrome laser printer designed for the small or medium office environment. Print speeds are fast, and print quality is impressive, but it is bulkier than competing products, such as the Dell units which hold Dell 310-5808 toner.

The HP 5100 is not as compact as some small office printers, and its larger size could be attributed to its fast speeds and fairly large paper capacity. Unfortunately, similar competing products offer the same speeds and paper capacity in a smaller package, like the 4710 featuing HP Q5953A toner. This is not to say that the HP 5100 is overly bulky, but offices tight on space may want to look at other printers. The printer measures 18.6 inches by 18.7 inches by 22.8 inches and weighs 50 pounds.

Standard paper capacity is 350 sheets divided between its 250-sheet main drawer and 100-sheet multipurpose tray. Paper capacity can be expanded to a maximum of 1,100 sheets, if needed, by adding additional trays. These upgrades are a little expensive, but allow it to grow with the needs of a changing office. The LaserJet 5100 has a 300 MHz processor and 16 MB of RAM installed as standard, enabling it to do almost all processing of print jobs by itself without slowing down the host computer. RAM can be upgraded to a maximum of 192 MB. One drawback of the LaserJet 5100 is that its only connection type is a parallel port. While an adapter can be purchased, competing models offer built-in USB and even ethernet ports for the same price range.

Print speed is quite fast, at around 22 pages per minute. Print quality is also impressive, as the HP 5100 uses a 1200 dpi printing engine, allowing for much sharper prints. Text is dark and detailed at small fonts, and graphics prints are about average for a laser printer. For more intricate graphics printing, Xerox 106R01218 toner will provide more crisp results.

Overall, the HP LaserJet 5100 has fast speeds and great print quality to offer, and its expansion options broaden its appeal. Lack of USB or ethernet connections and a bulkier frame than competing printers are potential drawbacks.