HP Laserjet Pro P1606dn Printer - Old Version, (CE749A)

I have been the proud (and well-satisfied) owner of one of these beautiful little laser printers for almost two years now and I LOVE IT! This is without a doubt the best printer I have ever owned and I have owned a bunch, believe me.My HP LaserJet Pro P1606dn printer suits my particular needs to a tee in two critical areas of my business.First, I am constantly writing a number of different types of my own text-based materials (eBooks, manuals, video scripts) and quite often I need printed copies. Folks, after owning this printer for almost two years I still get a kick out of this one particular feature my little "HP Mule" has called duplex printing. I love to watch things print in this mode.For these materials, it prints on both sides of the paper (duplex printing). This saves paper and storage space and it entertains me to boot! Well worth the investment required (IMNSHO) for this feature alone. ;-)Secondly, I am in a field that is very graphics intensive. The graphics we produce must be top-shelf. When I need B&W camera ready art printed out, my little "HP Mule" (You DID see "Romancing the Stone", right?) steps up to the plate and smacks it outta the park once again.It's graphics capabilities are superb and since I believe in the Mercedes-Benz motto "Das Beste oder nichts", my expectations and requirements are very high and they are met quite nicely by the HP LaserJet Pro P1606dn.Five Stars are not enough. HP printers ROCK and this little gem is no exception to the rule.If you are in need of a fast laser printer with a great resolution and the ability to go into duplex-printing mode, this is the printer you want!Just my $0.025 worth. Thanks for reading my review. I hoped it helps some folks make an informed decision.

When I decided to go back to school for my Master's degree (all online) I knew it was time to drop some cash on a new printer. I had to find one that is compatible with my Mac, printed on 2 sides, and printed quickly. This one does that and more. I love this printer. I can power it up and in less than 30 seconds its spitting out printed pages. I've had this printer for over 6 months now and can honestly say I've had no issues - no paper jams, low quality printing, etc. The toner claims are true - I probably got 1500+ pages out of mine before I had to replace it. The design is simple enough that even I can change them out with no problems. The entire printer is easy to setup and use. If you are looking for an affordable printer, this is your best bet!

I've owned two HP LaserJet printers over the last 22 years. A LaserJet IIP and a LaserJet 5L. Bought the IIP in 1989, and it was great. When the 5L came out in 1995, I chose to upgrade. That 5L lasted until 2 days ago -- a bit more than 15 years! I figure 15+ years out of any piece of computing equipment means I got way more than my money's worth, thus I chose to purchase another HP LaserJet.The good stuff:This new LaserJet P1606dn Pro printer is so amazingly FAST! I've been used to 4 pages-per-minute (PPM) for so long, that this printer's 26-PPM speed just blows me away! And the fact that it's got a built-in duplexer (prints on both sides automatically, if you tell it to) is just icing on the cake -- no more printing every other page, then flipping the stack of paper and re-feeding it through to get the back sides of the pages. Fantastic! (I printed a 12-page document with duplex-printing enabled, and it did the job in about 35 seconds from start to finish. Very impressive! Turn duplex off, and it will print a bit faster -- but you're not saving money on paper that way.)Setup of the P1606dn Pro was incredibly easy. I simply plugged it into my computer's USB port, turned on the printer, and got a pop-up-window from the printer's built-in software saying that it wanted to install the driver. Boom. Done. Easy. (I'm running Windows 7 Professional 64-bit, but I'd imagine your experience would be the same with any version of Windows 7 or Vista or XP.)The paper try holds about 3 times what the paper tray on my old LaserJet 5L held -- re-loading a lot less often is a nice thing as well. And the "auxiliary" feed (where you feed envelopes, for example) can hold about 10 of 'em, instead of the one-at-a-time thing that I had on the 5L -- another very nice feature.I did not try to enable the printer's built-in network features. I plugged it into a computer and then shared the printer with my network that way. So I cannot comment at all on the ease (or lack thereof) of the Ethernet setup on this printer.Now the bad stuff:They didn't include ANY cables to attach this to the computer! Are you kidding me?! Just the power cable. So you absolutely MUST buy yourself a USB cable or an Ethernet cable if you don't want it to be a $200 paperweight. It *does* say on the outside of the box that there isn't a USB cable included, but it's not immediately clear on Amazon's web-site. So here's your warning: BUY A USB CABLE OR AN ETHERNET CABLE WITH THIS PRINTER BECAUSE IT DOESN'T INCLUDE EITHER IN THE BOX!The toner-cartridge that is included with the printer is only about half-full. (Maybe a little less). It's designed to print about 1,000 pages, whereas a new toner-cartridge is designed to print around 2,100 pages. Please... I'd be willing to pay a few $$ extra to have a full toner-cartridge included with the printer... That's just ridiculous... So, you'll probably want to buy a new toner cartridge when you buy this printer. And, yes, new toner cartridges are expensive -- but HP toner cartridges have *always* been expensive for every HP LaserJet I've owned. It's the price you pay for the high-quality printing you get out of these printers. And it still beats the cost-per-page of an InkJet.Summary:I would've given this printer a 5-star rating, if they'd included a USB cable and a full toner-cartridge. Instead I bumped it down to 4 stars. The printer itself gets 5-stars -- fantastic speed, reliability, quality of the printed document, etc -- everything I've come to expect from an HP LaserJet over the many years that I've owned them. But not including a USB cable or a full toner-cartridge -- that means you don't get a perfect score. Sorry, HP. Love the printer itself, dislike the fact that you cut a couple of corners with the accessories that *should* have come with the printer.

I previously owned a LaserJet 6L which was a reliable printer in its day. Since then, I've purchased several color printers from other manufacturers. I went back to HP for their reliability.This printer quickly prints documents, especially with the built-in duplexer. I can send a print job to it and the first page (one sided) is coming out of the printer in two seconds.The down side is the cost of toner. Normally, I have the print density set at 2 out of 5, which is on the light side. Using Econo mode does save toner, but the text is more difficult to read in low light conditions, so I rarely use that mode.The sample toner (allegedly 1000 pages) included with the printer printed less than 400 pages before white streaks in the text began appearing. After installing a new cartridge (78A) just 4 days ago and printing 760 pages, the printer is reporting that 30% (or 300 pages) is left. At over $83 per cartridge, including tax, that comes out to 8 cents per page. I just purchased 2 toners at $49 to help save money.But to call this a "green" printer, when one has to replace the toner cartridge after only 1060 pages, is silly.