It's not simply about manufacturing smaller printers than the previous iteration. For HP, it starts with the toner, and as such requires innovative thinking to give customers a high quality print, with the added benefit of yielding a high volume of pages. Far from the sexiest bit of kit in the office, the printer is sometimes overlooked as to just how vital it can be in the efficacy, or lack thereof in the business. To that end, we were on hand to see a trio of new Laserjet printers prime for launch in South Africa courtesy of HP.

Starting Inside Out

Unlike their Inkjet printers, which normally have a refresh cycle of twelve months, and are designed specifically for consumers with a fairly low amount of printing demands per month, HP's Laserjet offerings are more suited to enterprise users. The latter usually printing in excess of 1000 pages per month. Therefore, as we found out today, a fair amount of research and development goes into their design. As a result the refresh cycle for Laserjet printers is around the three year mark.

For their first batch of printers - the M252, M277 and M553 - HP started by looking at the toner. The result was the creation of its ColourSphere toner, which has been designed to deliver better quality printing at lower temperatures. The reason for that, is to not only require less electricity to heat up the toner, but also ensure all the internal mechanism of the printer itself have to deal with less heat. Another interesting aspect of this toner technology, is that every single cartridge uses up almost 100% of the toner within. This means HP can give more accurate estimates for page yields per cartridge, which is good news for a business aiming to keep costs well under control. All of these enhanced functions fall under HP's JetIntelligence banner.  

Greater Control

Along with the newly designed toner, HP has also stepped things up on the software and solutions front. The new range of Laserjet printers will all feature onboard LCD touchscreens. While onboard displays is nothing new, HP has integrated safety measures to ensure toners from one device cannot be swapped with another. This specific function arrives unactivated from HP when the Laserjet is purchased, but can be activated by owners. Another intriguing function is Private Print, which allows users to print confidential internal documents, with the print only being released from the printer via a specific user access code.       

Meet the Family

As far as the new Laserjet printers go, three different models will be available at South African retailers by the first week of June. Starting off things is the M252, which is capable of printing 18 pages per minute. Designed exclusively for users that wish to print (as it features no scanning or fax functionality), the M252 is best suited to supplement a large full-scale printer within a large office setup. The M252 is set to retail around the R3000 mark, according to HP.

Sitting in the middle is the M277, which will probably be HP's best-seller given its jack of all trades billing by the manufacturer. The M277 can print, fax, scan and copy, which makes it ideal for the SMEs looking for a printer that can pretty much handle most tasks around the office. Although pricing is yet to be finalised, HP sees the M277 retailing for roughly R4000.  

Last on the list is the heavy duty workhorse of the Laserjet range, the M553. Far larger than its brethren, this printer is purely designed to handle high volume printing requirements and can churn out up to 35 pages per minute. Pricing for this model has not been detailed, as it is normally bundled as a service solution by HP.