We recently purchased the HP Color LaserJet 2605dn for a print job. So far, I'm pretty happy with it.

For $499 list ($374 on sale right now at HP), you get a four-color laser printer rated for 12ppm black and 10ppm color that includes USB and Ethernet connections, Postscript and PCL support, plus duplex (two-sided) printing. The print quality is pretty good, making this printer a great value.

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In the past, I had been skeptical about the quality and economy of color laser printers. Whenever we had an important print job I always took it to a commercial printer with the high-end digital four-color offset printing presses, with everything laid out in Quark.

We've used an HP All-in-One inkjet for some small jobs that weren't as critical, and knocked out a few trade show handouts or product info inserts with MS Publisher, and made the occasional envelopes, letterhead, and business cards when we let supplies run out.

This week we were doing a newsletter, and we were going to do it on the inkjet mostly for the sake of convenience, and to save a few bucks. We were also in a bit of a hurry to get it out, and I wasn't looking forward to multiple trips to the printer to get it submitted, proofed, and finished. But it was taking over a minute and a half per two-sided color page on the inkjet. For 300 newsletters, I figured it was going to take about 8 hours.

So I took another look at the latest crop of color laser printers. They have certainly come a long way in terms of quality and features, not to mention price.

We settled on the HP Color LaserJet 2605dn (after reading some bad reviews on the more expensive and heavier duty 3000 series, which we didn't really need anyway).

The local Office Depot had it for $499. After I purchased it, I noticed on HP's website that they have it on sale for $374 through May 12th. So did Staples online (through May 5th). Office Depot was cool and gave us a price protection credit.

It's rated at 12ppm black and 10ppm color. Our color newsletter printed at about 3ppm for both sides (equiv. 6ppm) in duplex mode, meaning less than two hours for the job instead of eight hours on the inkjet. And the print quality is pretty nice. Text is crisp, graphics are sharp, and colors are rich and smooth. And, the print doesn't smudge or run like inkjet.

Our newsletter doesn't have photos, and you wouldn't want to print fine art photos on it, but photos, text, and grahpics look pretty good for applications such as a newsletters, trade show handouts, product info sheets and the like. Most people wouldn't be able to tell the difference from a professional print job without a loupe, except you can't do full bleeds.

Consumables are a little more expensive than an inkjet. I figure toner and paper for this newsletter job was about $58 total, v. about $40 for the inkjet (extra six hours notwithstanding). Comparable price for the same job at Kinko's online was about $490. Another online discount shop quoted about $390. So as far as I'm concerned, the printer has just about paid for itself on this one job.

One tip: I had trouble getting duplex printing to work. You have to turn on the feature from the printer control panel, and you have to specify one of the paper types supported for duplex printing such as "Light Glossy".

So far, based on one job anyway, I'm very happy with the printer. Ask me again in a month or two.

The HP 2605dn is a great bargain, too. For a list price of $499 ($374 for the next few days if you shop around), you get four-color laser printing at 12ppm black or 10ppm color (your mileage may vary), built-in duplex (two-sided) printing (a feature that can cost hundreds to add on to more expensive printers), Postscript and PCL drivers, and built-in USB or Ethernet hookup (cables not included) with a built-in print server. It is recommended for print volumes of 500 to 1500 pages per month, with a monthly duty cycle of "up to 35,000 pages."

You can access the printer control panel with provided software or log on to its built-in web page from any web browser, which lets you set printing options and monitor toner levels and of course order replacements online.

Plus, it comes with full capacity toner cartridges, not the "starter" cartridges with half or less of the standard capacity. So that's a savings right there. Cartridges are $75 for the black, which is rated for 2500 pages, and $83 each for the C/Y/M cartridges, which are rated for 2000 pages each. It averages out to about 15 cents per page for color, or 3 cents per page for black.

It won't replace our 20ppm HP2200 LaserJet workhorse that prints black for less than 2 cents per page and that we've had forever and just keeps going and going and going, and it won't replace a photo printer (or our all-in-one scan/copy/fax/print inkjet), but it's pretty nice for small color print jobs when you need quick, professional looking results (and with an office already full of printers, the Ethernet connection came in handy for locating it in the study for now). And it could be all the printer most home or small office users need for everyday printing.