The LaserJet 2605dn is HP's up market model from the 2600 series, but with additional features. It looks identical to the LaserJet 2600dn, though under the hood it adds a duplexing unit.
The paper cassette holds up to 250 sheets, and you can manually feed in a single sheet at a time. The duplexing capability can be activated automatically via the driver, and is unchecked by default. Duplexing helps reduce paper usage and is useful when printing, say, an e-book.
Installation was child's play-and took no more than ten minutes. HPs toolkit allows a user to administer the printer and set various options such as paper type and size, toner density, etc. We had no problems setting it up on a network either--a network address is directly added using the onboard controls or via the toolkit. There is a plethora of options for managing the printer remotely--great for system administrators.
HP Claims a speed of 12 ppm for black, but it only managed 8 in our test. The six-page colour document took 2 minutes to complete--really slow. The Combi-document took 34 seconds to print, and the photo document took 48 seconds. Overall, the LaserJet 2605dn was a really slow printer.
What it lost in speed, it made up for in terms of quality. The text document printed flawlessly, and the Combi-document saw every element reproduced as displayed on our screens. This is also the first colour laser printer we've seen that matched an inkjet's ability to reproduce skin tone correctly.
Specifications
12 ppm (black and colour); 8 MB memory plus system memory used; 250-sheet paper cassette; USB 2.0; optional Ethernet
