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NEW YORK—Hewlett-Packard has slimmed down its LaserJet line of business printers and overhauled its toner technology in a product launch that the Palo Alto, Calif.-based technology company is describing as its “most significant laser printing re-engineering since the introduction of the first LaserJet in 1984.”
In a media event here in New York, HP executives were on hand to show off the company’s latest laser printers. Gone are the grays and blacks of past models. The new printers, displayed side-by-side with their predecessors, are now encased in white plastic while striking a smaller profile. Depending on the model, the new LaserJets take up to 40 percent less space than before.
Space-saving dimensions aside, HP has reworked its toner technology to enable energy savings and faster print jobs. Dubbed JetIntelligence, the technology offers a lower melting point, a more compact and durable design along with an internal mechanism that continually redistributes the toner, making the office ritual of shaking toner cartridges a thing of the past.
“With JetIntelligence toner, you get more pages—because things don’t break down—which means higher yields, less intervention [and] more value for many of you,” said Pradeep Jotwani, senior vice president of HP LaserJet and Enterprise Solutions, while introducing the new printers. Other perks include better performance and less waste, he added.
The new HP Color LaserJet Enterprise M553 series printers can start to print just nine seconds after waking from sleep mode. Duplex printing performance no longer takes a back seat to single-sided print jobs, said company executives. Customers can expect both single- and two-sided print speeds of up to 40 images per minute (IPM).
A security feature, called JetAdvantage Private Print, prevents unauthorized users from misappropriating or simply glancing at printouts that contain sensitive or confidential information. The mobile-enabled (iOS and Android) JetAdvantage Private Print technology securely transfers print jobs to the cloud and delivers them to users once they are physically present at a compatible LaserJet and log in to claim their documents.
In another nod to the popularity of bring-your-own-device (BYOD) work environments, the printers support direct wireless printing without requiring users to log onto a WiFi network. Also supported on the high-end HP Color LaserJet Enterprise M553x is touch-to-print support for mobile devices with near-field communication (NFC) built-in. An optional NFC and wireless printing module for the M553n and M553dn will be available in the fall of 2015.
HP’s new Color LaserJet Enterprise M552 and M553 series printers, designed for workgroups of five to 15 users and print volumes of up to 6,000 pages per month, are also the first to include support for Google Cloud Print 2.0. For small and midsized businesses or workgroups with more modest needs, HP also debuted the HP Color LaserJet Pro M252 and MFP M277, the latter of which is the most compact laser multi-function printer in its class while offering the fastest two-sided print speeds, according to HP.