Expert Verdict
The HP Color LaserJet 3600 comes with everything you could wish for in a modern laser printer. This machine is quick, even though its 17 ppm engine may not be the fastest in terms of nominal speed when compared to other printers, its cost per page is fairly good, and it has a few innovative functions that make it a very good choice for small and mid-sized offices. Being a color laserjet, this printer comes with four HP Color Laserjet 3600 Toner cartridges- black, cyan, magenta and yellow. This printer has two models where one printer has no network port, but there is another model which has it. Except for that, you will find everything in both the models of this printer. It has a relatively compact size and also, like the 2600n printer, it makes use of the Instant-On Fusing technology, which reduces warm-up time to almost zero. Its HP cartridges come combined with both the toner and the drum, which means that it operates just like a new printer when the HP Color Laserjet 3600 Toner cartridges are replaced. Moreover, its ergonomics are perfect, with a restrained but complete control panel.
The 3600 is small and has deep handholds, so a single person can not carry it easily. The front wall of the printer folds out to expose the paper path, four installed toner HP Color Laserjet 3600 Toner cartridges/ drum units arranged in a vertical rack, and the image-transfer belt held inside the front wall. The design couldn't make cleaning and maintenance any simpler. The main paper tray also feels a bit odd and has no stop when you pull it out, so users should be careful not to drop the tray. The paper-width and paper-length guides can be adjusted easily. Moreover, with the enclosed 250-sheet tray, the printer has a 100-sheet auxiliary feed.
A two-line backlit LCD on the top panel displays a whole set of menus, which we found simple to navigate with buttons for going through menus, selecting items, and backing out. The 3600 comes with a good amount of memory but you can't expand that, nor can you add a duplexer, which makes expansion options very limited. If you need those as well, consider HP's 3600 model with a duplexer and twice the memory.
For once, the minimal speed of the printing engine almost matched what our tests showed. Printing a fairly heavy word-processing document, we could observe a speed of 15 ppm, whereas the manufacturer claims 17 ppm. Thanks to the Instant-On Fusing technology, it also significantly reduced the time for printing the first page. Regardless of complexity, the time for a single page was between 13 and 19 seconds. Coming to print quality, it disappointed us on the important documents. Instead of black, the text looks grayish, also it showed some roughness in large font sizes, and lost fine details. Color graphics were not also produced smoothly and there were blocky transitions, though the color accuracy and details were fine. Furthermore, it did a great job on grayscale photos, with fine detail and smooth shading.
The cost per page using black HP Color Laserjet 3600 Toner cartridges was the lowest of all the one-pass laser printers we tested, at only one cent. Since HP has recently raised the price of its toner Color Laserjet 3600 Toner cartridges, the cost for color seems only fair, that is 9 cents per page at a rate of 20% coverage. That's still about average for this sort of printer, and a bit competitive with office-oriented inkjet printers.
In all, the base price of this machine is relatively high, however, the Color LaserJet 3600 is the best choice for a move to color laser. Its performance, good quality HP Color Laserjet 3600 Toner cartridges, flawless ergonomics and print quality make it suitable for all situations and purposes.
Review
This HP laserjet printer comes with all the necessary things, one might be looking for in a modern laserjet printer. The HP Color Laserjet 3600 printer aims at producing remarkable print quality with text, graphics, and bitmap images. The colours printed are totally accurate even at high contrast and the ink used for printing doesn't smudge off easily. Though the printer is high in price, the use of high-quality HP Color Laserjet 3600 Toner cartridges make it cheaper, while printing the documents as the type of ink used does not drain out quickly.
The HP Color Laserjet 3600 is a mid-range printer, that is suitable for top end home offices and for small graphical business purposes. The printer comes with a 250 sheet input tray, that can be upgraded to 500 sheet tray as well as a 100 sheet auxiliary feed tray. This is amongst a range of few printers, that actually prints colour text little faster than the black text.
Advantages- Has a relatively small footprint
- Offer remarkable print of graphics and text
- Has fast print speed
- Use of high-quality HP Color Laserjet 3600 Toner cartridges makes printing cheaper per page
- Maintenance is easy to do
- Quality of the black text is not as great as other models
- Limiting options available when printing on envelopes
The HP Color Laserjet 3600 Toner cartridges include:
- HP501A Q6470A Black toner cartridges
- HP502A Q6471A Cyan toner cartridges
- HP502A Q6472A Yellow toner cartridges
- HP502A Q6473A Magenta toner cartridges
The HP Color Laserjet 3600 printer aims at printing fast, even though its 17 ppm engine may not be the fastest in terms of the nominal speed, but its cost per page is fairly good. As the printer is not able to compete with heavy-traffic office work, it is important to check the features the printer has and you are expecting to get from this printer before you buy it.
What to do if the HP Color Laserjet 3600 printer prints only blank labels?
To resolve the blank label issue, follow the steps below:
Step 1: Make sure that your printer feeds the label
- Press the feed button on your HP printer and note where the label stops each time. If in case the label does not feed out to the correct position, consult your printer manual or contact the printer manufacturer for assistance on how to calibrate your printer.
- Make sure the HP Color Laserjet 3600 toner cartridges is properly installed and is not empty.
- Setup the driver media configurations through BarTender software.
- Open your document in BarTender, go to File > Print, and verify the correct printer is set.
- Click document properties and set the correct media settings.
- Make sure that your page setup matches your stock.
- HP printers can commonly print a configuration page by using the LED panel.
- Ensure that all the printer settings are proper and matches with your printer model.
How to clean the printhead of HP Color Laserjet 3600 printer for better print quality results?
The print head needs to be cleaned timely, in order to avoid any issue with the print quality. Clean the print head or check your HP Color Laserjet 3600 toner cartridges for toner replacements. Follow the procedure to clean the print head:
Step 1. Press Toner ManagementStep 2. Select Cleaning option and press OK.
Step 3. Select Black or Colour or All option and press OK.
The machine cleans the print head. When cleaning is finished, the machine will go back to the standby mode instantly.
Note: If you clean the print head at least five times and the print has not improved, try installing a new HP Color Laserjet 3600 toner Cartridges.