campbell@maynard.UUCP (03/01/87)
[This message also posted to mod.computers.laser-printers, since
I don't think you can cross-post to both moderated and non-moderated
newsgroups (correct me (by MAIL) if I'm wrong).]
We just bought a new laser printer, the HP LaserJet Series II.
Apparently it isn't quite announced yet -- the official announcement
date is Monday, March 2. However, we didn't have to sign anything
or promise to be quiet about it when we bought it, so here is a
review.
Synopsis: this printer is WONDERFUL. Run, don't walk, to your nearest
HP dealer and buy one before they get scarce.
The Series II is a replacement for the LaserJet and LaserJet+ printers.
It is completely compatible with the LaserJet+. HP has fixed just about
everything I didn't like about the LaserJet, made the printer smaller,
and made a host of additional improvements as well.
. Based on a new Canon print engine, the printer is much smaller,
and lighter by 25 lbs., than the LaserJet (although the footprint
is slightly larger). It's the smallest laser printer I've ever seen.
. The input and output trays hold about twice as much paper.
. The output is collated, not reversed. The output tray is on top,
as in the Ricoh engine. There is also a face-up output tray at
the rear, so a straight-through paper path is available for things
like envelopes and labels (although this tray reverses the pages).
. Comes standard with 512K of memory. Upgradeable to 1.5M, 2.5M,
or 4.5M.
. Two font cartridge slots. Yes, both cartridges are available
in a single page.
. Alphanumeric LCD display of about 20 characters through which all
options are selected.
. Serial and parallel interfaces, selectable by menu picks from the
LCD front panel.
. Baud rate settable from front panel display (no more disassembling
the back of the printer and flipping nearly inaccessible switches).
. Fonts are selectable from the front panel. No more sending little
magic files to the printer before using it as a dumb printer.
. Toner cartridge drops in from the top, so you don't have to leave
18 inches clearance on the right of the printer.
. Fan is significantly quieter than in the LaserJet.
. Manual feed is from the front. No more leaning over the back of
the printer.
Now comes the best part -- the price. List price is $500 LESS than the
basic LaserJet!! List price is $2495, and it's being discounted already.
We paid $1871 (plus tax and shipping), which is almost exactly $500 less
than we paid for a plain (not +) LaserJet just three months ago.
Drawbacks? I really can think of only one. The toner cartridge is not
the same as that used in the older Canon engine (LaserJet, Apple Laser
Writer, etc.) so availability MIGHT be a bit limited. But our dealer
assured us he has them available, and they cost about the same (maybe
$5 more).
One amusing note. When I first tried printing graphics I thought I
noticed a slight incompatibility (I later discovered that it was
essentially a user error). Slightly panicked, I called HP for help --
and was told "The Series II is not yet announced, and we're not allowed
to discuss future products." "But I just BOUGHT one!!" I exclaimed.
"Sorry, but that's our policy. You'll have to call back Monday [the
announcement date]". Actually they were quite courteous about it, and
Monday is only three days away -- but it was rather amusing.
Of course, I've only been using it for one day now, so I have no data
on reliability. But if it's anything like the LaserJet (or any other
HP product, for that matter) it'll never break.
Anyone want to buy a three month old plain LaserJet?
--
Larry Campbell The Boston Software Works, Inc.
Internet: campbell@maynard.uucp 120 Fulton Street, Boston MA 02109
uucp: {alliant,wjh12}!maynard!campbell +1 617 367 6846
ARPA: campbell%maynard.uucp@harvisr.harvard.edu MCI: LCAMPBELLjules@zen.UUCP (Julian Perry) (03/06/87)
I too saw the LaserJet II before official release and asked HP a few
questions about it. I was also impressed; however, I was also very
disappointed that what we found to be the most annoying features of the
LaserJet(+) had NOT been sorted out.
1. We use lots of soft fonts because it's not possible to get what we
want on a cartridge, so we download the fonts and then print out
documents, letters etc. This is all performed by our HP9040
multi-user mini through a spool queue. Now comes the annoying
bit......IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO FIND OUT WHICH FONTS ARE CURRENTLY
IN THE LASERJET MEMORY! This means that for each document we have
to download everything that it uses as we don't know what is
already in memory. We could keep track of what has been sent to
the LaserJet but if it gets switched off the computer doesn't
know.
2. The only interfaces are RS232 and Parallel, HP-IB (IEEE 488) would
have been very nice (especially from HP who have an HP-IB version
of everything) so that we can download graphics and fonts in a
reasonable time.
3. EPROMable font cartridges - PLEASE ?
Having said all that, the whole LaserJet series (and now the ScanJet
too) are truly wonderful, ours never stop printing.
Jules
--
IN-REAL-LIFE: Julian Perry
E-MAIL: jules@zen.co.uk || ...!mcvax!ukc!zen.co.uk!jules
PHONE: +44 532 489048 ext 217
ADDRESS: Zengrange Limited, Greenfield Road, Leeds, England, LS9 8DBbb@wjh12.UUCP (03/11/87)
In a follow-up to a review of the new LaserJet Series II,
Julian Perry (jules@zen.UUCP) comments:
......IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO FIND OUT WHICH FONTS ARE CURRENTLY
IN THE LASERJET MEMORY!
A while ago, I met with two engineers from HP's LaserJet group to
discuss LJ futures (*). The above issue was the first I raised. The
response was interesting, BUT, one must keep in mind the commendable
engineering philosophy associated with HP. Their response (paraphrased):
"Since the LaserJet family currently supports rs-232 (& rs-422) serial
and Centronics (8-bit parallel) interfaces, with additional ones
planned for future LJ printers, we feel it is important to maintain
a consistent software interface for the LJ family. Therefore,
since most printer interfaces (rs-232/422 is the exception) do
not support transmission of data from printer TO host computer,
there is no way to CONSISTENTLY provide this facility."
Such a response, from a lesser organization, might be construed as a
cop-out; from HP, I accepted it (begrudgingly!).
My second gripe about the LJ+ (and now LJ II) is the overly stingy
restriction on number of down-loaded fonts, and number of active (per-page)
fonts. Since no memory should be used until characters in the additional
font were loaded, why put an artificial restriction on this?
This is especially significant now that the LJ II can be expanded to 4.5 Mb.
[Hey, where did we put that dis-assembler and EPROM burner? :-) ]
(*) One of the other subjects of discussion was the recently-announced
LaserJet 2000 (300 dpi, 20 ppm, 11x17 max, duplex, $20k). During
development, this printer had a *great* "code name"; it was
dubbed the "JumboJet". Geez, they should have loosened their
ties and kept that name.
Julian's closing comment:
Having said all that, the whole LaserJet series (and now the ScanJet
too) are truly wonderful, ours never stop printing.
Hear, hear!
Brent Byer
Textware
--------
Usenet: def. "Free Speech!! (one each)"
credit: Roy Harperfrank@zen.UUCP (Frank Wales) (03/19/87)
In a follow-up to a review of the new LaserJet Series II, }Julian Perry (jules@zen.UUCP) comments: } } ......IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO FIND OUT WHICH FONTS ARE CURRENTLY } IN THE LASERJET MEMORY! In article <59@wjh12.UUCP> brent@textware.UUCP (brent byer) writes: >A while ago, I met with two engineers from HP's LaserJet group to >discuss LJ futures (*). The above issue was the first I raised. The >response was interesting, BUT, one must keep in mind the commendable >engineering philosophy associated with HP. Their response (paraphrased): > > "Since the LaserJet family currently supports rs-232 (& rs-422) serial > and Centronics (8-bit parallel) interfaces, with additional ones > planned for future LJ printers, we feel it is important to maintain > a consistent software interface for the LJ family. Therefore, > since most printer interfaces (rs-232/422 is the exception) do > not support transmission of data from printer TO host computer, > there is no way to CONSISTENTLY provide this facility." > >Such a response, from a lesser organization, might be construed as a >cop-out; from HP, I accepted it (begrudgingly!). Well, now; who is benefiting from this decision? Software developers? Well, yes, since their LaserJet driver software becomes simpler to maintain. And no, because they can't reliably discover the state of the printer, so it becomes harder to write. Customers? Yes, because all LaserJets work alike. And no, because the feature set is constrained by whatever interface is the most brain-damaged, not by the capabilities of the equipment the printer is to be connected to. HP? Yes, because marketing a single feature set is easier than marketing multiple sets for the "same" product. And no, because sophisticated customers who are aware of the potential of the equipment get frustrated by what they perceive to be petty oversights. Is there another solution? Yes. Provide a guaranteed base feature set, with enhancements which make best use of individual models' capabilities. Such a solution doesn't affect any of the yesses above, but does hit the noes. (Ow! :~() And HP have already followed such a path before for other HP product lines offering multiple communications options. The ThinkJets, for example. Now, suppose one of the planned interfaces is HP-IB. Virtually every HP-IB peripheral supports some kind of status interrogation. Are HP saying that the limitations of certain interfacing standards are to cripple all possible implementations? Worse, the same logic also precludes bringing out enhanced models in the same series with additional or expanded features ("...but this new feature makes the software interface inconsistent -- let's drop it..."). Yet the LaserJet family is growing and expanding all the time. It certainly never used to be HP engineering philosophy to work to the lowest standard available. I'm sure that is still the case. [:-) -ish] Julian's closing comment: } Having said all that, the whole LaserJet series (and now the ScanJet } too) are truly wonderful, ours never stop printing. >Hear, hear! > Brent Byer > Textware There, there! :-) Oh, and while I'm here, Jules missed a pet peeve of mine -- it would be *real* *nice* (yes it would) to be able to pop a message of some kind into that nice big LCD screen to say something about what is being printed. Why? Well, our LaserJets are on an HP-UX system with loads of Users, and when two send output to a LaserJet at the same time requiring manual sheet feeding, it would be nice to know whose is which *before* the paper gets fed in. Just a thought... Frank Wales [frank@zen.uucp<->..!mcvax!ukc!zen.co.uk!frank] Development Engineer, part-time Systems Administrator and full-time pest Zengrange Limited. [You think I'm paid to have opinions?!]