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Tour
Front
The front of the unit has a curved front, arcing down from the top to the bottom, reminiscent of a hatchback car. The top of the front has a dark gray control panel, with a 0.5 x 2.0-inch, monochrome, two-line LCD display, which can reflect a lot of glare and become difficult to read at the wrong angle. Otherwise, it’s very readable but limited in the amount of information visible for such an extensive menu. (It’s necessary to print out the Print Menu Map to be able to know what options there are and be able to navigate them.)
Below the LCD screen on the gray operation panel are four toner color icons, which correspond to four bars on the Ready menu to indicate toner levels. To the left of the LCD are three LEDs stacked vertically, with the corresponding words listed to the left—Ready, Data, and Attention. To the left of these are the white Menu and the pink Stop buttons, both square in shape, with the words printed above. Immediately to the right side of the LCD screen is the blue, round Help button, indicated by a question mark. To the right of this is the teal, square, enter button, indicated by a check mark. Triangular up and down buttons appear above and below, respectively, and a return button lies to the left of the enter button, indicated by a curved arrow. That sums up the entire display, simple but pretty much everything you need, except for a larger and easier to navigate menu screen.
Below the operation panel is the main access door for replacing toner cartridges, and that comprises the entire front of the unit. Embedded within the center of this panel is the door for paper tray 1, that can be accessed by pulling on the handle at the top edge of the tray. The tray drops down about 40 degrees from vertical, and the top part of the paper tray slides out in two sections to accommodate paper as large as 8.5x14 inches. The name of the printer is shown on the bottom right of the tray. In the center of the printer above tray one and below the operation panel sits the HP logo. Below tray one is the horizontal tray two, which slides out easily by pulling on the indentation at the bottom of the tray. A spring-loaded tab at the right side of the tray is a paper level indicator, which enables the user to see at a glance the level of paper in the tray without opening it. An embossed number one and two are on the lower right of each paper tray. An optional 500-sheet paper tray that fits on the bottom is available for an additional $249.
Back
The back of the HP Color LaserJet 3600n looks like a refrigerator with its metal cooling vents and screws and bolts. In the upper left corner of the back is the port for the large power cable.
Left Side
The left side is dark gray plastic, with the arc of the white front panel. The raised left-side tab to lift the top panel sits above the indentation in the gray panel for the user’s finger. The HP logo, larger but simply embossed in the gray plastic lies in the middle. Vents appear at the left on the gray panel as well as toward the bottom. At the bottom is a space for fingers to slide in to grip and carry the hefty printer.
Right Side
The right side of the unit looks much like the left—dark gray plastic with the arc of the white front panel and the opposing tab for the top panel. A larger HP logo is embossed in the gray plastic that lies in the middle. Vents appear at the left on the front panel edge and on the gray panel as well as a vent toward the bottom. The white power button lies inset on the upper right. The side of the aluminum panel that contains the circuit boards is visible on the right, with ports for one USB cable and one Ethernet cable.
Top
From the top, the dark gray control panel can be seen near the front edge. Halfway across the top is the paper output slot with the output tray near the back. This tray doesn’t have edge guides and is only a piece of plastic that holds the paper up. The center of the plastic can slide upward so it can catch executive-sized prints.
Interior
When the large access door on the front is opened, the entire innards of the printer are exposed. There is a large black tray that is part of the multipurpose paper tray; at the bottom, its rollers show. When this is folded down, the HP 3600n shows its true colors – the colors of its ink cartridges, that is. From the top, the 1-foot-long cartridges are stacked vertically as black, yellow, cyan, and magenta.
Components
Display (4.00)
The large HP 3600n printer does not have an LCD screen. Instead, it has a two-line digital display that is about 2 inches across and a half-inch tall. The display looks tiny compared to the main body of the 3600n printer. The resolution isn’t great. It’s only good enough to read the words that fit on the screen: Calibrating and Ready are the common ones. Most users will probably access control of this printer via their computers, so a more elaborate interactive display may not be necessary. But for certain functions, like maintenance and testing, a larger display would have been helpful.
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Paper Trays (7.00)
There are two standard input paper trays on the front of the HP Color LaserJet 3600n. Tray two holds up to 250 sheets of legal-sized paper, and it rolls out like a drawer from the bottom. Tray one, the multipurpose paper tray, resides in the front of the access door, folds out at an angle, and has a 100-sheet capacity. It can hold papers as small as 3x5 inches and as large as 8.5x14 inches with its adjustable edge guides. Thus, it can hold everything from photo paper to standard legal and letter papers to executive-sized documents and envelopes.
The output tray is located atop the printer and has a plastic extender to support the edge of the paper when it ejects from the printer. The output tray can hold 250 sheets. The only way to do double-sided printing is manually from the multipurpose paper tray. The next model up, the HP Color LaserJet 3600dn, has automatic duplex printing capabilities.
Power supply
The power cable comes in the box with the printer and allows plenty of voltage to flow through its vein. It has a three-pronged grounded plug.
Internal Memory (5.00)
The major difference between the two versions of this HP Color LaserJet printer—the 3600n and the 3600dn—is the amount of RAM included. The review model, the 3600n, has a 360MHz Fujitsu FR555 FRV processor and 64MB of RAM, which is not upgradeable. The HP Color LaserJet 3600dn is nearly the same printer but with 128MB of RAM and a few extra features like automatic double-sided printing. The HP 3600n’s 64MB should be enough memory for small offices because most of the processing will come from the computers that it is networked to. The problem may come with network printing in larger offices when trying to handle multiple jobs.
Hard drive (0)
There is no hard drive with this printer, but it does have 64 MB of RAM.
Accessories (8.00)
There are lots of ways to accessorize the HP Color LaserJet 3600n. The most necessary accessories are the ink cartridges, of course. They cost a pretty penny: the cyan, magenta, and yellow cartridges are sold separately and run $129 each on the HP website. Each cartridge yields about 4,000 pages and weighs 3.3 pounds. The black cartridge retails for $132 and can print about 6,000 documents. Users can monitor the cartridges with HP’s SureSupply software, and users can monitor up to 15 different HP printers and collect usage reports and order supplies with HP’s Print Care software. Besides these accessories, there is a wide variety of HP paper and a standard $20 USB cable (at HP, but of course available for much less elsewhere).
The 3600n printer comes with a 90-day trial of HP In-House Marketing Assistant Software, which provides users with templates and step-by-step instructions on how to create items like brochures. The total input paper tray capacity can be expanded to 850 sheets with the addition of the optional 500-sheet tray. This tray looks like a wide box that is added to the very bottom of the HP 3600n printer. This adds $249 to the cost of the printer as well as adding weight, but larger offices may enjoy the benefit of not having to refill the standard paper tray a dozen times a day.
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