Re: printers

[Nathan Sivin <nsivin@nospam.sas.upenn.edu>]

I suggest that you check recent reviews, which you can do online
at CNET or the PC MAGAZINE or WINDOWS MAGAZINE site. Paper
handling is important to me because I do a lot of double-sided
printing. Some printers have duplexing built in, but most non-HP
printers are too flimsy for my taste or, according to reviews,
exhibit banding and other imperfections. Fifteen months ago I
first tried the HP laser printer in the $700 range, which offered
1200 dpi printing. When it arrived, I quickly found that it is
not recommended for double-sided printing, and indeed it mangled
the paper most of the time. Luckily the vendor let me return it
for a 4050, which has completely solid paper handling and many
other improvements over earlier models in the $1100 range. I am
delighted with it, although in the 15 months since I bought it,
it has been superseded. The new 4100 does 25ppm, with a duty
cycle of 150,000 pages/month. 

As for the 2200, for $800, it may well be all you need. It prints
at 19ppm, has a duty cycle of 40K ppm, and has a built-in
duplexer, which should indicate adequate paper handling. If I
needed one today, that is the one I would check reviews on (the
4100-series model with duplexer is over $2000). 

Cheers,
-- 
Nathan Sivin
History and Sociology of Science
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia PA 19104-6304
(215) 898-7454
nsivin@nospam.sas.upenn.edu