HP LaserJet Series - from monolaser to multifunctional professional

Where the HP LaserJets are coming from, what they can do and what the future holds.

HP LaserJet for the office, OfficeJet for the home: the old rule of thumb has long since been hard enough to rely on. Because the LaserJets of the manufacturer HP make also before the small Home Office no more stop. At least with the new compact laser models at Cebit 2016, HP has finally cleaned up with the stubborn prejudice that laser printers are only suitable for large office environments.

At first, the high-performance laser printing devices were actually designed for business. After all, there's a lot to be said for it: they need less maintenance, are often less prone to breakdown than inkjet printers and the ink cartridges last much longer than ink cartridges. Add to this the undisputed quality of the text: no fraying, no blurring! But above all, their speed makes the LaserJets popular business printers to this day.

Home or business printer? The boundaries are blurred

For some time now, the boundaries have been breaking down: since they have become more affordable and compact, HP LaserJets have also become a real alternative for home users and small home offices. At the same time, the OfficeJet series have evolved: they, which used to dominate private users as inkjet printers, have conquered their place in the ranks of business printers in recent years - and no longer have to compare with laser printers in terms of speed shy.

Review: How the HP Laserjets learned to print

It's worth looking back if you want to understand how fast the LaserJets have developed in recent years. The first LaserJet came on the market almost at the same time as the legendary HP ThinkJet. While thermal inkjet printing replaced dot matrix printing, a very different kind of printing technique was introduced in parallel: in 1984, the LaserJet made it possible for the first time to print in true print quality. They were comparatively sharp, did not stain and did not freak out. A milestone! For this HP LaserJet was also not to have less than $ 3,500.

1994: HP LaserJet conquers color printing

It should take ten years before a color LaserJet could be printed. But with the speed it still haperte: Only in 2002 printed the LaserJet in color as fast as in black and white. In the meantime, the HP LaserJet 3100 was also the first multi-function laser printer for the mass market. And slowly, the LaserJet was also affordable: In 2008, the HP Color LaserJet CP 1510 was sold for under $ 300. No bargain, but for the prices then a sensation!

2012: Smart HP Flow MFPs arrive at the office

With the introduction of the so-called HP Flow MFPs in 2012, another step was taken to make the applications even more efficient for companies. The A4 printers made it possible to further digitize workflows, for example through automatic double-sided scanning and integrated text recognition (OCR) software. Previously, only large and expensive A3 MFPs could afford a more compact device that was as cost effective as it was space efficient.

Since then, the manufacturer has been continuously working on LaserJet functions that are intended to network and facilitate business processes, especially when working with multiple user groups and in the area of ??security, data and document management. HP also equips its laser models with highly competitive mobile printing solutions today. The fact that 200 million LaserJet printers were sold in 2014 broke a magic barrier seems to have given the printer giant an extra boost.

2016: HP JetIntelligence speeds up

These days, the LaserJets are again launching an innovation that promises more than just a visual makeover: HP JetIntelligence is the name of the technology in the latest models - the LaserJets Pro M252 and MFP M277 and the LaserJets Enterprise M22 and M553. The stylistically designed new ones clearly show how much research the manufacturer obviously has in the development of smarter laser printers: They are full of sophisticated technical refinements and are not only more economical, but also considerably slimmer than their predecessors.

The new HP LaserJets - a mix of toner and technology innovation

The business printers with JetIntelligence technology combine new security programs with significantly more pages per minute and improved print quality. The previous weakness of the laser printer - the color quality - could be overcome: At least in the first tests, the LaserJets present a more than acceptable print image.

Also in the toner mixture has done a lot again. A new technology should ensure that from the first to the last print a consistently stable print quality is guaranteed, that the page range increases and the energy consumption decreases. This is made possible by changes to the individual toner particles - the shell is more robust, the melting point of the wax, which is located in its interior, lower.

Security is also the topic of the future when it comes to printing

In addition, the new LaserJets directly access the cloud and thus provide additional security: In the cloud, for example, documents can be stored and only printed out by identifying the user. HP JetAdvantage Private Print is the printing solution that preserves the confidentiality of print jobs and ensures that only the identified owner of a document can print it.

Here, too, HP deliberately focuses on the users of mobile devices: the print job is sent from the computer to the mobile device, kept in encrypted form in the cloud and only released when a PIN or ID badge is entered. In the meantime, the HP JetAdvantage software tool offers many more such workflow solutions - not only for LaserJets but also for OfficeJet printers.

And the HP LaserJets of tomorrow?

The new HP LaserJet printers will certainly find their fans among the private users, especially as the health risks have come a long way: The installation of fine dust filters through the manufacturer costs no more the world, and new mechanisms (plug and play) Replacing the toner cartridges without the user having to worry about getting in contact with toner particles. For many, the cooler, tidier design of the HP LaserJet models certainly plays a role.

Nevertheless, the development of new security and administration tools is especially interesting for professional users who juggle daily with large amounts of data and grant different user groups access to their printer fleet. It remains to be seen whether companies with professional demands for image and photo printouts on laser jets will turn heads - but for them there is still the OfficeJet.