Home > Consumer Reviews > HP Color LaserJet 3500N Printer

Installation and configuration of this printer was easy and took less than 45 minutes from the time I started unpacking until I was printing.

I have extensive networking experience, yet I doubt a novice home user will have problems following the clear directions if this printer is installed as a shared device on a home LAN. I'm using an SMC wireless router with 4 switched Ethernet ports, so it was almost plug and play for me. I did have to set an address, but the instructions were clear and well illustrated.

The hardest part was installing the toner cartridges, but even that task was relatively simple if you take your time and follow directions to the letter.

Installing the management software and drivers is as simple as inserting a CD ROM and accepting defaults.

This printer produces beautiful prints in color and is blazingly fast. There is one area where it does not meet H-P's claims, and that is where the specs claim that with the instant-on fuser you will be printing your first page in as little as 18 seconds. It's more like 120 seconds or more. However, that is still better than the older models where it took as long as five minutes for the printer to warm up and start printing.

Overall, this is a great printer that produces amazing results in the highest resolution settings. The price is right, and the fact that it is network ready is a definite plus.

If you need a color laser printer and want one that anyone can install and operate with no hassles or reading through complicated manuals, this is a great deal.

If you're a Mac (or cross-platform) user, and have an Airport Extreme, it is unnecessary for you to spend the extra money on this model. Save your money and buy the plain 3500 instead. The essential difference between the 3500 and the 3500N is the included print server. If you have an Airport Extreme, that device becomes your print server, via the USB connection on the Extreme. You can then point your Windows and Mac computers to the Airport Extreme's IP address and use it as the print server.

Now, some will note this means that you're dropping down from USB 2.0 to 1.1, but you might want to think hard about whether this is genuinely important to you. Yes USB 2.0 is significantly faster, in raw transmission rates. But most people simply don't print files that are big enough for this to become a perceptible issue. Routine printing of reports, web pages, e-mail and the like, do not attain a perceptible speed bump.

On top of that, there is the inevitable warm up period that's standard for laser printers. There is a lag between when the printer has received the data necessary to print and when its internal processors send the command to feed the paper and begin printing. Honestly, most of the time, the delay is not in getting the information TO the printer, it's in waiting for that warm-up cycle to complete. The truth is, chasing after genuine 2.0 speeds is trumped by the printer's own internal speed. And it's not a slow printer--not by any means--but honestly, I don't detect any real difference in speed between having the printer connected to the Airport Extreme and having it directly connected to my G5.

If you don't have an Airport Extreme, you might want to give some serious thought to using the price difference between a 3500 and a 3500N towards an Airport Extreme. Not only would you gain a cross-platform print server (through either X.3's Rendezvous or X.4's Bonjour), but you'd also be adding wireless connectivity to your network as well.