The HP Color LaserJet 1600 family is a basic color laser printer designed for home users or very small workgroups with light printing needs. The 2600n and the 1600 both feature 264MHz processors and 16MB of memory (the memory cannot be expanded). Both ship with a single 250-sheet input tray and a 125-sheet output tray; a second 250-sheet input tray is optional. Both printers have a rated output of 8ppm for black or color.
Intro:
The HP Color Laserjet 1600 is an 8 ppm, color laser printer.Compared to other color lasers on the market, it is very inexpensive at around $260.This unit prints at 600dpi.
Noteworthy Features:
This printer supports color at a resolution of 600 dpi x 600 dpi.At 250 sheets, without optional media trays, the HP Color Laserjet 1600 can handle more printouts without refilling than would many comparable printers.
Weaker Features:
Only prints at 8 ppm speed, which is somewhat slower than some similarly priced lasers.For example, the Ricoh Aficio SP C210, at around $290, prints at 31 ppm speed.This laser printer does not support duplex printing.
Suitability:
Built for those who need high volume color printing.This printer can handle A4 (8.25 in x 11.7 in) documents.
Value:
Overall, this laser printer's features are in line with its price.
3 out of 10 - Poor Returned it
Knowing quality inkjets are usually a better choice than color lasers, I was in Staples the other day, saw the ...
Knowing quality inkjets are usually a better choice than color lasers, I was in Staples the other day, saw the 1600 at a discounted price, so got it. The first 50 or so pages looked great, but as I kept printing (using the correct color laser paper), I began seeing the same gray page background many others have complained about that makes the pages appear dirty. I used the cleaning utility as well as the fuser clean utility, tried changing some Print Quality settings at the suggestion of HP, but nothing helped. I also tried a different laser paper. I ended up printing about 100 pages and compared the first to the last printed page. The last one simply looks dirty in comparison. I also began noticing a faint vertical line on each side of the pages, positioned about 1/8" in from the edges, with the very edge of the pages a little "dirtier" than the rest. I could really see the difference when placing a clean, unprinted page beside one that's been printed. I feel I did everything I could do....or at least willing to do but couldn't get it to print a clean page after the first 50.
Bottom line is it was returned. And it's a shame because overall print quality is quite good. Had it not been for this dirty page problem, I'd have kept it and given it a much higher rating.
Updated I'd like to add that I've been to three local stores that have the 1600, 2600n, and 3600n on display, printed the sample pages from each one in all three stores, and every one printed the same dirty-looking page backgrounds without fail. Some were so bad, it appeared as a marble effect. I ran 15 cleaning cycles on a couple of them and the darkness of the gray backgrounds improved, but still looked dirty. This is an ongoing complaint from owners on the HP color laser forum. It seems if you have one that doesn't print these dirty backgrounds, you're very lucky.
18 out of 18 users found this user opinion helpful.
9 out of 10 - Spectacular Reasonably priced color LASER printer
For the price, this printer is a winner. Office Depot had a special on them about a week or so ...
For the price, this printer is a winner. Office Depot had a special on them about a week or so ago. They discounted the printer by $100 US and there was a $50 rebate on top - effectively cutting the net price to $149.99.
The output is simply stunning for a 600x600 dpi printer. It blows the doors off my HP Laserjet 5L which is also 600x600 dpi - and it's in color!
The only downside to this printer is the cost of toner. At about $45 per color, the price adds up quickly unless you can find a reasonably cheap source.
At this point, the printer doesn't have any drivers that work with Windows Vista 100% properly. Of course, this is the case with most all other HP printers.
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by Wolfie2k5 (see profile) -
July 21, 2006
9 out of 10 - Spectacular Great home office printer
I'm a Realtor who got tired of paying Kinko's 95 cents a copy for color flyers, and this ...
I'm a Realtor who got tired of paying Kinko's 95 cents a copy for color flyers, and this is definitely filling the bill (I've had it for about two months).
My flyers are full of color photos, so it doesn't do anywhere near the 8 ppm claimed...I just timed my current flyer and it is 1.2 ppm.
At this time I don't see much discounting of the toner cartridges (currently $82 at the big office supply chains) but as it gets more users I assume that will come. For years I bought remanufactured inkjet cartridges from 123InkJets but they do not yet have anything for this printer.
One handy feature for me is the (manual) duplex (two-sided) printing. I assume it will handle multiple page duplex, but I haven't needed that yet.
My only problem was some bad streaking and spotting, but after 45 minutes of on-line chat with HP tech support, and four aligning and three cleaning cycles, it's fine. Now I'll clean it before it needs it. BTW the cleaning cycle you originate from the "toolbox" (s/b on the desktop after you install the software)is different and better than the clean cycle you originate from the machine itself.
One last complaint. The status LCD is so small and such lousy contrast (and yes it's adjustable but not to anything that really improves readability) that I have to get a flashlight to read it.
10 out of 10 - Perfect Great color laser for the home!
I always have my doubts about people who leave totally negative comments. I see the same thing in their reviews ...
I always have my doubts about people who leave totally negative comments. I see the same thing in their reviews and they all seem to expect professional grade quality for the price of a six-pack of Carlings.
I was expecting fairly good print and color quality for the price I was paying and feel that I got way more than I bargained for.
In my case, I found this printer to be MORE than acceptable for home use. We have a larger HP color LaserJet in my office and this one could never meet the demand, but the quality is equivalent. If you are looking for a nice reliable color laser printer for home use, look no further.
The footprint is larger than some, but the print quality is fantastic. I compared the sample sheets to sample sheets of other color laser printers of the same class and the brightness, sharpness, and clarity blows the competition away. I purchased my printer for a full $85.00 less than the Samsung CLP-300 and the Samsung doesn't even compare.
With regard to the expense of toner, deal with it. It's no big secret that printer supplies cost more than the printers themselves. Anyone who thinks otherwise or feels the need to complain ad nauseam about it needs to either seek professional help or forget about it and move along.
The toner cartridges total approximately $295.00, the retail price of the printer. That's about average these days and it's a whole lot cheaper than replacing half-used inkjet cartridges that have dried out at sixty-bucks a pop. At least toner doesn't go bad.
So, in my opinion, the HP Color LaserJet 1600 deserves serious consideration for a nice home or small business color printer.
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by anchorsaweigh (see profile) -
January 19, 2007
3 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
1 out of 10 - Abysmal An unbelievable ripoff - totally dishonest
This is the most dishonest cartridge replacement policy I have ever seen. These last two cartridges costing $82 each WERE ...
This is the most dishonest cartridge replacement policy I have ever seen. These last two cartridges costing $82 each WERE NOWHERE NEAR EMPTY. They have put over as fast one on the unwitting customer. I am going to file a consumer class action lawsuit against these thieves! HP FOR SHAME! I thought you were better than that!
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by Douglas R. White (see profile) -
January 5, 2008
3 out of 5 users found this user opinion helpful.
6 out of 10 - Good For the money!
Ok, I hate reviews about this printer. I work with this printer on a REGULAR basis and let me tell ...
Ok, I hate reviews about this printer. I work with this printer on a REGULAR basis and let me tell you, it's not half as bad as people make it out to be. Yes, it's cheap, and no the print quality isn't there all the time. Some people may or may not experience the same issues with this printer as others do. What I want ALL the people who've complained about this printer to do is ask themselves this one question, for what I paid for this LASER printer, is it worth what I paid for it. The answer, if you compare a few prices here or there, is yes. Look at it this way, everyone here is comparing this printer to their inkjet. How much do you pay for an inkjet, as low as 100$ in some cases. What type of page yeild do you get with an inkjet, no 2000 pages I'll tell you that. You pay $300 for a cheap laser printer and you expect it to work the same as a $800 to $1000 printer, well you're fooling yourself. You all should know by now that you don't get something for nothing. You pay $300 for a color laserjet printer, you get $300 worth of quality out of it. Seriously, you complain about getting ripped off, even if I paid for this printer I wouldn't feel ripped off, I wouldn't buy it cause I'd know that cheap means cheap. You buy a $600 car, don't be surprised if it runs like a $600 car. Granted sometimes you get deals, and Hp is a great brand, and you would expect better from them, but keep in mind, how much does $300 buy you these days? Not much. Don't expect much, it's a $300 printer; less even.
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by Damius16 (see profile) -
October 3, 2007
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
2 out of 10 - Terrible Piece of JUNK!
I have a Lexmark X-8350 all in one printer. It prints, scans, copies, and faxes. It works perfectly. It prints ...
I have a Lexmark X-8350 all in one printer. It prints, scans, copies, and faxes. It works perfectly. It prints beautiful pictures, which is something I do frequently.
I work from home, so I use my printer a lot. Yesterday, my boss bought everyone in the office brand new HP Color LaserJet 1600 printers. He even gave me one to take home, and use while I work from home. I was pretty excited, because I could save wear and tear on my Lexmark printer.
Well, this HP Color LaserJet 1600 just turned out to be a piece of junk. It will not print pictures at all......you can forget that. It doesn't matter if I use regular paper, glossy photo paper, semi glossy photo paper......it just won't print pictures without smearing the ink to the point that the pictures arent legible. And it doesn't do much better on anything in color. If you type a letter and use color fonts, it will turn out okay, with only the occasional letter word being slightly smeared.
The one thing it will do well is print black and white typed letters. When I say well, I mean that the finished quality will be good. But even this one high point is tainted by the fact that this printer does it slower than any printer that I have ever used. It prints nowher close to the advertised speed.
If you are thinking about buying this printer, I would advise you not to waste your money. For less than half the price of this HP junk, I bought a Lexmark X-8350 that prints better, faster, and more consistently than the HP. It prints beautiful pictures, it scans, it copies, and it faxes.....all for half the price of the HP.
The quality of this printer is so bad, that I will be hesitant to ever buy another HP product.
Updated I called customer support about this printer. They said that there was no fix to the problems, other than using the cleaning utility, which I had already done four or five times. They said that these problems were common in the Color LaserJet 1600 printer, and that this was the reason for bringing the 2600 series to market.
There you have it.....the people at HP customer support even admitted that this printer is a piece of junk. UNBELIEVABLE!
This printer was free, as my employer bought it for me. But I still feel like I got ripped off for having wasted so much time with it.
3 out of 10 - Poor Great when it works
I bought this from an Office Depot about 1 week ago. my task was to print out 150 xmas cards, ...
I bought this from an Office Depot about 1 week ago. my task was to print out 150 xmas cards, no graphics, just 236 words in three colors, the main one being black.
The product was often smudged and if it was you had to burn several sheets to clean it up.
The sales person told us the cartridges were good for 5000 prints (5% coverage) at $249 for 4 of them to replace. No no, the printer comes with "Introductory" cartridges(1000 prints)- that we already need to replace. We made 150 freakin cards with about 30 waste pages for all the smudges! Come on HP!
Between bad output and extravagant ink use, this is not the deal it's cracked up to be.
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by ictoos (see profile) -
December 25, 2006
3 out of 10 - Poor You Get What You Pay For
We have 2 of these units where I work. Both unit were purchased within 3 months of each other and ...
We have 2 of these units where I work. Both unit were purchased within 3 months of each other and both units have failed with <1 year of light use. The warranty for these units is diffuclt to locate on HP.com and even after entering the serial number on HP's website, they offer an exchange of the printer for an additional $50 while it is under warranty! I would not recommend this unit to anyone wanting reliable printing. The first printer needed a fuser assembly to repair, the second is not completed. On a positive note, when it does work, it does a nice job. HP has been on a trend for the last 10 years or so of making lower & lower quality printers in an effort to reduce costs.
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by dewey1384 (see profile) -
April 17, 2008
10 out of 10 - Perfect Printer cost 150 with full toner, just toner costs 372
I bought these through price matching at office max - I got 4 of them. Office Depot had them at ...
I bought these through price matching at office max - I got 4 of them. Office Depot had them at 150 each - they were around 300 at office max. Office max sold them to me at 150 each. The HP rep happened to be there when I made the purchase and confirmed that they sell with FULL toner cartridges in this model. Rated to 2000 copies per cartridge. The color is vivacious - photos with photo laser paper is wonderful. So what if it isn't as fast or networked like the 2600 (which uses the same processor and has the same memory) For the price I can afford to buy 3 of these compared to 1 2600 - and I get THREE TIMES the copies out of them. Sure, I will eventually run out of toner. Then I will simply sell these back to HP empty for the upgrade program, and get a 2600 or better on a break even deal for my 4 printers - so I will get 10000 copies out of my investment on 4 printers! (slightly higher than the cost of buying a 2600 and getting only 2000 copies out of it - at the same quality.)
What do you think that did to my cost per page?
Oh, by the way, toner for the HP is much higher quality than that of other laser printers. (I cracked open an empty case and scoped it.) Each granule is perfectly spherical, compared to other toners with random shaped granules. Even so, they produce as many copies as similarly priced printers by epson and cannon. (300-600 NOT 150 like I actually paid) Given they cost about the same, even if I had paid 300 for the 1600 printer - I would have been satisfied.
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by rednecksavant (see profile) -
March 9, 2008
up to 8 pages/min - Color best - A4 (8.25 in x 11.7 in),
up to 8 pages/min - Black best - A4 (8.25 in x 11.7 in),
up to 8 pages/min - Color draft - A4 (8.25 in x 11.7 in),
up to 8 pages/min - Black normal - A4 (8.25 in x 11.7 in),
up to 8 pages/min - Color normal - A4 (8.25 in x 11.7 in),
up to 8 pages/min - Black draft - A4 (8.25 in x 11.7 in)
JIS B5 (7.17 in x 10.12 in),
B5 (6.93 in x 9.83 in),
A5 (5.83 in x 8.25 in),
A4 (8.25 in x 11.7 in)
Media Weight
60 g/m2 - 220 g/m2
Total Media Capacity
250 sheets
Media Feeder(s)
1 x Manual load - 1 sheets - 8.5 in x 14 in weight: 60 g/m2 - 220 g/m2,
1 x Autoload - 250 sheets - 8.5 in x 14 in weight: 60 g/m2 - 220 g/m2
Max Media Capacity
500 sheets
Duty Cycle
Monthly Duty Cycle
20000 pages
Telecom
Modem
None
Scanner
Type
None
Copier
Copier Type
None
Expansion / Connectivity
Expansion Bays Total (Free)
None
Connections
1 x Hi-Speed USB - 4 pin USB Type B
Compatible Slots
None
Miscellaneous
Consumables Included
1 x Toner cartridge ( Yellow ) - up to 1000 pages,
1 x Toner cartridge ( Magenta ) - up to 1000 pages,
1 x Toner cartridge ( Black ) - up to 1000 pages,
1 x Toner cartridge ( Cyan ) - up to 1000 pages
Compliant Standards
EN 61000-3-3,
EN55022,
UL 60950,
EN55024,
CSA 22.2 No. 60950,
IEC 60950,
ICES-003,
UL,
EN 61000-3-2,
EN 60950,
CISPR 22 Class B,
FCC Part 15 B
Power
Power Device
Power supply - Internal
Voltage Required
AC 120/230 V
Power Consumption Operational
190 Watt
Power Consumption Stand by / Sleep
13 Watt
Battery
Type
None
Software / System Requirements
Software Included
Drivers & Utilities
OS Required
Microsoft Windows 2000 / XP,
Microsoft Windows Server 2003
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