Reviews for HP (Hewlett-Packard) LaserJet 2840 Color Multifunction Printer

Color - 20 ppm Mono - 4 ppm Color - 600 x 600 dpi - Printer, Scanner, Copier, Fax - MPN: Q3950A

$319.99 - $450.82   Compare Prices
  • 4
  By member: killiash - Feb 12, 2008

Best small office or home printer I've had (but do...

Strengths: Setup, scan, fax, BW print speed, color print quality, cartdridge life, support for Mac and Linux

Weakness: Noise, no high capacity paper tray, no auto-duplex option

I've had this printer for 4 months now and it works great with Windows now that the server spooling to it doesn't run Vista (seems more stable with XP Pro).

In our environment, it gets printed to by: Win 2000 Pro, XP Pro, Vista, Mac OS, and Linux machines with no problem.

HP also did a great job with the setup web pages built into the printer firmware.

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  • 1
  By member: mikejt4 - Dec 25, 2007

Worst HP Printer ever!

Strengths: Prints, scans, copies, network enabled, fast B/W

Weakness: Drivers, firmware, Vista support is awful

Had it for 3 days now and I'm ready to throw it down the stairs. It printed for a while, a copies ok, but the Vista drivers are dismal (XP SP2 a little better). Scanning over the network just won't work for me, like many people. And now it's gone into an infinite calibration loop - it seems to be jammed up inside somehow .... the power won't even stay on. If it wasn't so darn heavy I would have returned it already! Bought this as a Christmas present for the wife and myself (we've had an HP Laserjet 4L for 15 years that was flawless) and it's the worst piece of technology I've touched.... ever. And I've been in computing for about 30 years, so that's saying quite a lot! If you're planning to buy one, make sure you do some research first ... I relied on HPs (old) reputation and made an impulse buy, and I'm really regretting it now!

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  • 4
  By member: mdmclean - Oct 5, 2006

HP 2840

Strengths: Black Laser, Color Laser, Scanner, Copier, Memory Card Reader, Fax, Auto Document Feeder. HP Reliability.

Weakness: Noisy, Carousel (multi-pass) Printing, No Auto-Duplex.

Now, this printer is noisy, but it isn't as noisy as the previous reviews led me to believe. This printer is noisy, as the carousel spins, but it isn't "too" bad. Also, I find it calibrating (making noise on it's own) maybe 1 or 2 times a day. I purchased this for the high volume printing that I do. I may not be using this at work, however much printing is done at home. This printer has many features in both the hardware. As was mentioned before, it has a handy web-based status and config utility. Not mentioned is that it has a "Scan To" feature. With this, you can scan documents from the printer and have them e-mailed automatically, or placed into a folder on any computer on the network. It will even convert to PDF format, even if you have no PDF creating software.


If this printer had an auto-duplex option, or was single pass, or quieter, it would be a 5/5


EDIT: I have had this printer for almost 2 years now, and I like it more and more every day. I would like to comment on the difficulty some people are having on the network based features. It is not the easiest or fastest printer to install, HOWEVER if you do it, and setup your network and firewall correctly, it works fine. All the features work, and have worked since day one.

Could it be easier to install? Definitely! Does it do the features advertised? Definitely. It just needs to be setup correctly, and the corresponding firewall changes made.

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  • 4
  By member: geofsoares - May 22, 2006

HP Color LaserJet 2840 All-In-One Extremely Versatile

Strengths: Extreme Versatility - including printing digital photographs directly from flash memory stick. Long life cartidges expensive but lower on a per page cost basis than inkjet.

Weakness: Extremely noisy while printing.

The versatility of use of this printer is great. Also the laser cartridges are expensive but with long life - 4000 pages - they will need to be changed less frequently and will result in a lower cost per page. Color print quality is impressive and the ease of printing directly from a flash memory stick means I am finally printing digital photographs! One (possibly big) drawback is the loud noise while printing.

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  • 4
  By member: nelson714 - Oct 19, 2006

Great printer for the money

Strengths: Network was easy to set up, The print quality is very good. The top paper tray is easy to load for specialty paper

Weakness: Noisy, The first unit we received the bottom paper tray would not load paper.

We have used the 2840 for about a month now and so far it has been fantastic. It is very easy to use and the network set up is a breeze takes me about 8 minutes to set a computer up on the network 5 of those minutes are software coping to the computer. We purchase this unit to replace an OfficeJet G85 and with our OfficeJet we were going through an Ink cartrige about every 40 days. So far in the first 30 days of use we have not even used 10% of our resources. It should save us quite a bit of money in cartriges. The only 2 down sides we have had with this unit is 1. The first unit was defective, thankfully we purchased it a officemax and they took it back and gave us a new one right away. If not for Officemax I would of had to send the printer back to HP for warranty. I did call the HP tech support and they were very helpful in determining that the first unit I received was defective. 2. The unit is noisy it makes quite a bite of noise when it warms up. The funny thing is it takes longer to warm up then it does to print.
All in All I am extremly please with this product and would purchase it again if I had it to do all over again.

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  • 2
  By member: theinmoe - Sep 18, 2006

HP 2840 All in one LaserJet

Strengths: Compact, good color quality, fast black and white print

Weakness: Noisy, Scanner don’t work with network, HP software crash all times

Bought this for multi functions capabilities, but turn out scanner doesn’t work as expected, scan from network setup and HP software hung up. HP should have more options for scan. Scan to email don’t work for network setup.
Printing is fast for B&W but color is slow and noisy and not good for quiet open office. Whole office can hear when printing.
It comes with full toner cartridges not starter which cost about $350 for all four.
Memory card reader work well. Fax is easy to set up. Web interface to monitor fax and printer status is a plus.

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  • 3
  By member: Dave0126 - Jan 26, 2007

HP 2840 - Great Printer and Fax, Poor Scanner

Strengths: Excellent black and excellent color printer. Sharp and reasonably fast. Fax is excellent and reliable.

Weakness: Scanner is almost useless when printer is installed on a network. The Scanner can not deliver via email. Printer is noisy.

This is an excellent choice as a color printer with reasonably fast black and white capability. The printing is sharp and colors are reasonably accurate. The fax capability is versitile, and easy to use. The fax is also quite reliable. Unfortuantely, the scanner is not well designed. It can only deliver via email or to a file if the printer is installed on a PC. When installed as a network printer, the scanner is almost useless, not able to deliver a scan to email or a network server. The raises the question of scan to what?

Score: Printer 4/5, Fax: 5/5, Scanner 1/5

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  • 5
  By member: datwell - Jan 18, 2007

Great machine!

Strengths: Great print quality - does not jam-even when manual duplex printing. It prints, copies and scans well which is just what we wanted.

Weakness: A tad big - it needs some room. It's noisy and recalibrates often. The comprehensive software works best with a "clean install." 5 items have to replaced - the 4 cartridges and the imaging drum.

Supplies are a bit pricey, so we buy on eBay. Somewhat surprised that the imaging drum has to be replaced at about the same time as the black cartridge. However, the bottom line is that we are really happy with the 2840. It does everything we need and does it well!

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  • 4
  By member: bansal - Sep 10, 2006

Excellent

Strengths: Versatile, Easy to use, Crisp printing

Weakness: Noisy, Calibrates frequently

I would rate this as excellent. The machine really does everything you want it to do. The printer is a little bulky so you do need ample space for it.

I bought a 3yr warranty for incidenals. Repair or replace.

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  • 5
  By member: tracyw1970 - Mar 23, 2007

Good High Volume Laser printer

Strengths: Two available paper trays, fast, great print quality, card reader.

Weakness: Bulky, heavy, loud, and expensive.

Just as others have said - this is a loud printer. I knew that going in and it really is not a problem for me. I was looking for a good quality printer with two paper trays (letter and legal). This printer printer very good quality documents. once it starts it prints very fast and has a variety of different software options for setting up exactly what you need. I love the HP toolbox to go in and look at the fax history saving paper and toner and to check the cartridge level get the replacement numbers and a host of other things. If this was just a bit more quiet this printer would be perfect!

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  • 3
  By member: tengst - Mar 21, 2007

Color LaserJet 2840 All-in-one

Strengths: 2 paper trays (manual feed and 250 sheet tray), firmware is upgradeable

Weakness: Noisy, software installation is poor

Overall it does what it claims to do. That said, HP, as usual, installs enough software to choke a horse (or slow down the computer startup in this case). If you choose the full installation it puts over 500MB of mostly garbage on the computer. It might make it easier to configure via nifty web pages, and check for updates all the time (updates haven't come out for it in several months), but at the cost of icons in the system tray, slower startup, etc. The basic install doesn't install enough to really configure the scanner software so setting the default scanning options is next to impossible.

I changed the IP address of the unit a week after I had it and I had to download a utility from the HP driver page just to get the scanner to work (or go ahead and do the whole installation over again).

HP REALLY needs to work on their software options. A la carte would be really nice, instead of basically all or almost nothing.

That said, it works over USB fine, it works over Ethernet fine and the black and white printing warm-up is fast. Color is a little slow but that's right in the specs.

It is noisy. There's no doubt about that.

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  • 3
  By member: Trippthree - Jan 25, 2006

HP (Hewlett-Packard) LaserJet 2840 Color...

Strengths: This product does everything I need it to. It is fast and dependable

Weakness: There is not to many of these, but it does get jammed up sometimes. Customer service is not that great.

I really have not had this long enough to say, but I might recomend this for someone. I will get back on here in about 1 year from now and tell everyone what I think. I had a Officejet 9130 whick really was terrible.

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Reply by member: WiscEwald
Jun 1, 2006

Hi TrippThree,

I know it hasn't been a year yet, but what do you think of this printer now that you have had it for 6 months? I am curious... I have been shopping for a color laser all-in-one printer.

Also... if ANYBODY else has anything to say (negative or positive) about this unit, please post a comment for me to read. If anyone has come across a printer that you think is better - I would be very interested in knowing about it.

THANK YOU!!

  • 5
  By member: mkblackmart - Nov 3, 2006

Impressive machine for a small business/home office

Strengths: Easy set-up/network ready; great print quality; comes with full toner cartridges

Weakness: Heavy (to be expected); toner refills/replacements are costly

Having relied on all-in-ones for a few years now for our small business office, we felt we were ready for a step up to color laser.

I was a bit timid after reading other reviews regarding difficult set-up from the included software, but I also knew that by choosing to update the software during set-up, the fixes would be there. Turns out that the printer I received already had the most up-to-date software, so this was a non-issue. The printer set up onto the network easily, first time, and only required that drivers be added to the other workstations to make them all share the printer nicely. Could not have been happier with the process.

As far a performance, the machine lives up to the specifications from the manufacturer. It's a little noisy when working, but silent when standing by waiting for the next job. Print quality is excellent, scanning is accurate, and (knock on wood) so far so could.

Highly recommended!

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  • 1
  By member: HP2840SUCKS - Mar 14, 2009

WORST HP ALL-IN-ONE EVER SOLD

Strengths: NONE

Weakness: SCANNER NEVER WORKED. HP NEVER RELEASED A VISTA TOOLBOX LIKE THE XP HAD

NEVER EVER BUY A HP PRODUCT. YOU WILL FOREVER REGRET IT. TECHNICAL SUPPORT NEVER HAS AN ANSWER. THE DRIVERS AND FIRMWARE WERE NEVER UPDATED FOR VISTA. THEY CONTINUE TO LIE ABOUT IT

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  • 1
  By member: rjafary - Dec 30, 2007

HP 2840 is worst Multi Function Unit

Strengths: Monochrom Copying, BBw Printing

Weakness: Color Copying, scanner, Firmware, sofware installation, and huge take off noise.

Had it for 18 months and I have installed and reinstalled the software at least 20+ times. The scanner is so poorly design that it stops working after usually 3-5 scan job. HP tech recommend a clean install, so I installed this on brand new PC and I was still getting software and hardware conflicts to my surprise!!! It prints OK but it is very noisy. HP Vista/XP drivers are dismal at best (Vista driver a little better). Scanning over the network just never worked for me, like many people (You can ping the machine but it does not see the scanner in window interface in network install): Needless to say, installing on USB drive, has many flaws also. This darn thing is also heavy. I finally gave it all sort of tries on installing software(must have tried it 20+ times) to get to work properly which it never did. This is the worst piece of technology I've touched or seen ever. I've been in computing for about 12 years and I am very familiar with computer, so that's saying quite a lot! After 18 mnonths of toying with this junk from HP, I finally gave that to charity-It can only print and do a lame BBW copy.

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  • 3.0
  reviewgist.com - Dec 23, 2009

ReviewGist for Hewlett Packard LaserJet 2840 Printer

Quality is Good according to 10 Printer experts. -- "Output quality is superb."-pcmag.com -- "excellent image organizer and editor"-pcworld.com -- "the photo quality is easily good enough for printing items like client newsletters and marginally good enough for printing snapshots or photos for framing."-pcmag.com Read more to find expert opinions on more features like Speed, Refills, Interface,...

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  • 3.8
  testseek.com - Nov 4, 2008

HP Color LaserJet 2840 All-in-One

Testseek.com has collected 5 expert reviews for HP Color LaserJet 2840 All-in-One and the average expert rating is 75 of 100. The average score reflects the expert community’s view on this product. Click below and use Testseek.com to see all ratings, product awards and conclusions.

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  • 3.3
  TopTenREVIEWS.com - Jul 16, 2008

hewlett packard imo refurb laserjet laser color printer

Hewlett Packard Imo Refurb Laserjet Laser Color Printer receives an overall TopTenREVIEWS score of 2.66 out of 4.00. It is ranked the #40 laser printer of all time. The overall rating represents an intelligent balance of features, value as a function of price to features, and a summary of reviews from a variety of sources. The TopTen REVIEWS' formula gives a picture of important consumer...

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  • 3.3
  PCWorld - May 27, 2005

HP Color LaserJet 2840

Offers media card slots and extensive image software, but it's poky and image quality is mediocre.

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