GCN LAB REVIEW
HP Color LaserJet CM2320
PROS: Good value, good print quality.
CONS: Long graphical times, unit stops to clean itself in the middle of print jobs.
Features: C
Ease of use: B
Color accuracy: B+
Text quality: B+
30-page black-and-white text print time: 1:44
30-page color print time: 3:14
VALUE: A
PRICE: $599
HP’S COLOR LASERJET CM2320 comes with an extremely low $599 price tag. But if that had been its only great feature, it wouldn’t have gotten such good grades.
Its flatbed scanner can capture documents of 1,200 dpi, which means that it scans even fine details. And it has a good duty cycle rating of 40,000 pages per month, which is perfect for an MFP for small to midsize workgroups.
Its text and color print quality are above average, and its printing speed of 1 minute, 44 seconds for a 30-page text document is acceptable.
However, we had some trouble getting an accurate test result when we tried to print our 30-page graphics-laden document. The MFP kept going into cleaning mode in the middle of the test, and it would take 30 seconds to 1 minute to complete the process. There was no way to predict when the cleaning would begin, so we kept sending the test until we got all the way through without triggering the cleaning process. We recorded a time of 3 minutes, 14 seconds, which makes it the slowest in the roundup other than the liquid ink-based Epson. And the printer cleaned itself right after our test.
The fastidious CM2320 is a decent MFP with a good printer, scanner and fax machine for the price, unless you need it to do a lot of color printing.
Hewlett-Packard, 888-999-4747, www.hp.com