# Color Laserjet 3600n



## jp1203 (Jul 21, 2005)

Hey Everyone--

Just bought one of these bad boys. Just about everyone's currently selling them for 250 each. If you're thinking about it, I'd say go for it! It's amazingly fast, stunning quality, and it comes with 4000 page toners.


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

Yea lots to pick from now too. Where I used to rent it got to hot in the place and the inkjets used to dry up so I gave up on it so had no printer. Was told that with the Laserjet you would not have that trouble but back then then cost so much and color ones cost even more. Plus they took up to much room.
But now that has all changed and they are cheaper and smaller. 

What brand and model did you get? 

I am living at a new place now but still never printed much so want a printer where if it is not used there is no ink dried up on it so the laser jet sound like a way to go. Plus I got a whole lot more room to have a printer or even more then one. 
Then get a binder type of thing so you can print out info and make booklets. My sister has all that junk to do those things. Lot nice then putting a staple in the corner.


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

I love the idea of a color laser printer, but the print quality still doesn't match a good inkjet photo printer. One of these days...


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

That is what my sister said john. But again the laser still had some great color images. Now I seen them on really nice paper printing out the demo at the store but not on photo paper. 
But not looking for that either but just a great all around printer and over all cheaper to print each page. A good Photo printer could be a 2nd printer but I don't need that as much as a printer for everything else.


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

I have a copier/scanner, which is also a printer, that's what my wife prints on. My primary printer is a Brother HL-5140 laser printer. The HP Photosmart C7280 is strictly for color use, which I don't do enough of to warrant a laser printer. The HP printer is the 6 cartridge model that really does excellent photos, and it also feeds the 4x6 photo paper directly, which makes it very convenient.


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## jp1203 (Jul 21, 2005)

JohnWill said:


> I have a copier/scanner, which is also a printer, that's what my wife prints on. My primary printer is a Brother HL-5140 laser printer. The HP Photosmart C7280 is strictly for color use, which I don't do enough of to warrant a laser printer. The HP printer is the 6 cartridge model that really does excellent photos, and it also feeds the 4x6 photo paper directly, which makes it very convenient.


I have a Brother HL-5240 as my primary, a basic 30 ppm monochrome laser.

I have a Brother MFC-240C for scanning and rare copying.

I have a Canon S9000 for photos and large stuff (11X17, etc)

...and now for color a HP Color Laserjet 3600n.

Basically, I've got the best of all the printing worlds.

I got it because I do like to print a color chart from time-to-time and I absolutely hate inkjets for anything but photos. The only quality issue is it tends to lose detail in darker areas, but other than that I can't notice any big flaws with color graphics. For any truly good photo, I have my Canon S9000, which is basically lab quality.

All that's left to do is make a 50 ft. cable to run over to the router so I can share it through the server. I need more RJ-45 ends to do that, though. Apparently in the web-based utility there's a lot of neat options.


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

You simply have too many toys!


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

Can you run RJ-45 that far without trouble? I heard you need to add a booster or something if the RJ-45 cable is over 14 feet or every 14 feet or something like that.


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## Rich-M (May 3, 2006)

JohnWill said:


> I love the idea of a color laser printer, but the print quality still doesn't match a good inkjet photo printer. One of these days...


Well I think this depends on what you are printing JW. For photos no, but for word processing or color newsletter printing, the laser is far superior IMHO.


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## jp1203 (Jul 21, 2005)

JohnWill said:


> You simply have too many toys!


You've gotta have toys! Actually, I've had two previous lasers, but I only bought a new one for a new toy each time and because I knew someone who could use the old one anyway. I think the 5240 is here to stay at this point, though. I can't get much faster without paying insane prices, I don't need duplexing, and the quality is great.

The 3600n also will probably never be replaced. It's hard to beat the featureset for $250.

I also have an old HP PSC750 and Canon i960 in the closet, out of ink. The PSC750 I might as well toss, but I can't bring myself to do it because it works pretty well. The i960 is definitely too good to toss.



hewee said:


> Can you run RJ-45 that far without trouble? I heard you need to add a booster or something if the RJ-45 cable is over 14 feet or every 14 feet or something like that.


I have one line running 100 feet across the house already, and several other 25 footers. I think the limit is 200 feet, but I'm not completely sure.


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

JStergis, OK it may of been 114 feet but that was long ago the guy at Fry's who said something to my sister when she was asking about it so it may of also been said to sell something.


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

hewee said:


> Can you run RJ-45 that far without trouble? I heard you need to add a booster or something if the RJ-45 cable is over 14 feet or every 14 feet or something like that.


100 meters is the specification for Ethernet, which is a lot more than 14 feet.


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

JohnWill said:


> 100 meters is the specification for Ethernet, which is a lot more than 14 feet.


Yep it sure is more then 14 feet.


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## jp1203 (Jul 21, 2005)

I'll scan some prints off of it for you all to see. The quality will be nowhere near as good after scanning, but it will show basically that it's not bad at all.

Maybe I'll do it now, just have to see if I've got any printed to scan through.


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## jp1203 (Jul 21, 2005)

The scanner's pretty bad, so it takes a lot out of the pictures (there's no banding or lines on them like the scanner has).

I think you'll get the idea, though.


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

Actually, it's pretty hard to get an idea from the scanned images. Let's suffice to say that I've seen this printer at several local stores, and even printed samples on photopaper on it, and there's no comparison to the prints I get from my HP inkjet. Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of a color laser printer, because the ink doesn't dry out, but the quality just isn't quite there yet.


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## Rich-M (May 3, 2006)

JohnWill said:


> Actually, it's pretty hard to get an idea from the scanned images. Let's suffice to say that I've seen this printer at several local stores, and even printed samples on photopaper on it, and there's no comparison to the prints I get from my HP inkjet. Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of a color laser printer, because the ink doesn't dry out, but the quality just isn't quite there yet.


Not for photos JW but for anything else it was way above the level of inkjet.


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

Well, I'm sure the color prints are fine, but my primary use of color is for photos. I suspect most home users have the same requirements.

I've looked at the color lasers many times and my credit card itched, but I haven't made the leap yet.


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## Rich-M (May 3, 2006)

JohnWill said:


> Well, I'm sure the color prints are fine, but my primary use of color is for photos. I suspect most home users have the same requirements.
> 
> I've looked at the color lasers many times and my credit card itched, but I haven't made the leap yet.


Yea photos are the difference as you know I am a retired pro Photographer and therefore really fussy. I don't much like inkjet either with photos because most printers don't do a good job either and the shots don't last at all because of the "blowby". But color lasers for newsletters or brochures are far superior and more professional looking. I keep hoping that photos will improve but I have never seen photo paper for laserjets and that could be all the difference in the world.

One thing I do also is I have a really cheap black Brother laser printer networked to all pc's because you cannot beat that for ordinary printing and everything that can be black ( which is 90% of what I print) goes through it and that way my ink cost for most printing is $40 a year. Remember the laser will print 5000 sheets or more on one cartridge depending on the brand.


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## jp1203 (Jul 21, 2005)

I love having a quick black and white laser. I just ran the town newsletter on it because their copier is very sick and they didn't really want to pay to have it done at Staples or somewhere similar. 

875 pages in 30 minutes on the dot (I had to reload the tray a couple times, so the actual time is probably 29 minutes or so.

...and the best part is that it cost me less than 13 dollars in toner and drum life to run it all.

For your average inkjet user that would take 3-4 hours to print and would cost 50-60 dollars, maybe more. ...and of course laser text is perfectly sharp and inkjet text is fair at best.


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

I have two B/W laser printers, one is a copier/scanner, the other is a plain Brother laser printer. I'd say almost all of my printing is done on one or the other. The color printer gets used maybe every couple of weeks.


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## Cheeseball81 (Mar 3, 2004)

I've demo'ed the 3600 at work and it seems to be a really nice laser printer. I've never gone laser myself, yet sometimes I think I want to.
Right now I have a regular inkjet printer, the HP 6940 - which prints photos pretty nicely.
I also have an all-in-one the HP 6480 - scans nicely, copies are OK, don't do much photo printing on it, if any at all.
I still think I want one printer just strictly for photo printing. Any good recommendations?


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## Rich-M (May 3, 2006)

Canon Pixma, take it from a retired Pro Photographer:
http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfoAct&fcategoryid=184&modelid=15596


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## jp1203 (Jul 21, 2005)

I second anything Canon. 

I have a Canon S9000 that prints stunning photos, and I have a Canon i960 that prints equally as nice ones, I just don't use it because I have the S9000.


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

Well, I really like my HP C7280, it does very impressive photos.


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