HP 2100 Toner
LaserJet 2100 Toner Cartridges

HP 2100 Printer Review

The HP LaserJet 2100 laser printer is designed for the home or small office user. It features excellent print quality and economical printing, but its slow speeds and low memory will have limited appeal in a multi-user environment.

The HP 2100 laser printer is fairly compact, measuring 9 inches by 15.9 inches by 16.5 inches and weighing 25 pounds with the HP toner. It could work in a home office or small office environment, but is not small enough to share a desk with. It also tends to be a bit loud when printing, meaning you may want to put some distance between it and the user. The unit comes in a somewhat confusing array of configurations, such as the 2100, 2100tn, 2100m, 2100se,2100xi, which may overwhelm some buyers.

The unit comes with a 250 sheet main paper tray, and a 100 sheet multipurpose tray, which handles media types and sizes that can't be put in the main tray. Optional add-on trays can expand its paper capacity at any time. The processor in the 2100 is a little underpowered, at 66 MHz, which means the host computer will be doing some of the processing work. This is not much or a problem for an individual, but in a multi-user environment, this can seriously degrade printing speed. Also, the 2100's paltry 4MB of memory means it will have to further rely on the host computer. Its 15,100 page monthly duty cycle allows it to handle a small office of users.

The HP LaserJet 2100 toner cartridges have moderate page yield of 5,100 pages per laser toner cartridge. The ink toner is quite sufficient capacity for a home or small office user, and make it a more economical choice, as the HP 2100 toner cartridges are very affordable, especially when using compatible printer toner cartridges from third-party resellers.

There is also an EconoMode available, which can conserve toner by using less ink per page. Print speeds are a bit slow, at 10 pages per minute, but adequate for many home and small office users. Print quality is excellent, due to the unit's 1200 dpi printing engine.

Overall, the HP LaserJet 2100 provides great print quality, but its slow speeds and slow processor will become a problem with too many users sharing the printer. Home users may find a lot to like, especially its economical printing.