HP LaserJet Enterprise 600 Printer M603DN

The HP LaserJet Enterprise 600 Printer M603DN ($1,749 direct), geared toward businesses with massive printing needs, has the chops to churn out large numbers of pages at breakneck speed. Its sticker price is high, but its low running costs should make it an attractive investment for busy SMB and enterprise departments looking for a speedy, high-volume black-and-white printer.

The M603DN?s 62 page-per-minute (ppm) rated speed matches that of the HP LaserJet Enterprise 600 Printer M603N ($1,499 direct, 4 stars) as the fastest of any printers we?ve reviewed. They both lived up to their blistering rated speeds, printing out our test suite in a near-record pace. A 275,000-page maximum monthly duty cycle (with a recommended monthly duty cycle of up to 20,000 pages), as well as substantial standard and optional paper capacity, pegs the M603 series for SMB or enterprise workgroups that print massive amounts of material.

The M603N measures 15.7 by 16.3 by 20 inches (HWD) and weighs 58 pounds. The front panel has a four-line monochrome LCD and some basic control buttons: Home, Help, Stop, and Back, plus a two-way rocker control with center button. To the right is a numeric keypad for entering PIN numbers for password-protected printing; below the panel is a port for a USB thumb drive.

The M603DN has a standard 600-sheet paper capacity, between a 500-sheet main tray and a 100-sheet multipurpose feeder, and has an automatic duplexer for printing on both sides of a sheet of paper built in. Additional paper-handling options are available to bring the paper capacity to a maximum of 3,600 sheets. Options include a 1,500-sheet input tray ($499 direct), a 500-sheet input tray ($299), a 400-sheet custom media cassette ($229 direct), a 75-sheet envelope feeder ($249), a 500-sheet stacker ($149), a 500-sheet stapler/stacker ($249), and a 500-sheet mailbox ($399).

The M603DN is the middle model of HP?s M603 series. The M603N lacks an automatic duplexer, while the M603xh ($2,399 direct) includes the duplexer while adding an additional 500-sheet paper tray plus an encrypted hard drive.

The M603N provides USB and Ethernet (including Gigabit), with optional WiFi. I tested it over an Ethernet connection with its driver installed on a PC running Windows Vista.

Printing Speed

I timed the M603DN on our business applications suite (using QualityLogic's hardware and software for timing), at a blistering effective 14.5 pages per minute (ppm), a very good speed for its 62-page per minute rated speed that?s based on printing text documents without graphics or photos. (Our test suite includes text pages, graphics pages, and pages with mixed content.) That?s statistically tied with the M603N?s 14.3 ppm, and slightly faster than the 13.4 ppm that the Editors? Choice HP LaserJet Enterprise 600 Printer M601DN ($899 direct, 4 stars)?rated at 45 ppm?turned in. The OKI B730DN ($1,299 direct, 4 stars), rated at 55 pages per minute, tested a bit slower still, at 12 ppm.

Output Quality

The M603DN?s output quality is fine for typical business needs. Its text was slightly below par for a laser, which is still very good, suitable for anything short of demanding desktop publishing applications that require very small fonts. Graphics were of average quality, good enough for internal business use. In a couple of illustrations the printer had trouble in differentiating between similar shades of gray, so I?d want to double-check the graphics before distributing them, say, as part of a report. Photo quality was average, good enough to print out recognizable images from files or Web pages, which is about all you can expect from a mono laser.

Other Issues

The M603DN has a very low cost per page (1.2 cents), the same as the M603N. The OKI B730DN?s cost per page is 1.4 cents, while the M601DN?s running costs are 1.7 cents per page. You pay much more up front for the M603DN, but for offices with the massive printing volumes for which it is intended, the cost savings can mount quickly.

The M603DN is pricey for a mono laser, but it lives up to the adage, ?you get what you pay for.? In its case, that includes sizzling speed, ample standard and optional paper capacity, a prodigious monthly duty cycle, output quality good enough for standard business uses, automatic duplexing, password-protected printing, and a very low cost per page. If you don?t need the duplexer, the M603N will save you $250.

The LED-based OKI B730DN has the same claimed maximum duty cycle as, and even greater standard paper capacity than, the M603DN. Like the M603DN, it offers secure printing and comes with an automatic duplexer. Its speed, although impressive, is lower than the M603DN?s. Its output quality doesn?t quite match that of the M603DN, but it?s still fine for standard business uses. The OKI sells for $500 less than the M603DN, but has slightly higher running costs, based on manufacturers? current costs and yields. (You can save about $20 per 10,000 pages printing with the M603DN.) Although the OKI B730DN is a very worthy printer, I?d give a clear edge to the M603DN.

The Editors? Choice M601DN, geared toward offices with lesser printing demands than the M603 models (its maximum monthly duty cycle is 175,000 pages), is a tad slower than the M603DN, lacks password-protected printing, and has a slightly higher cost per page, but comes in at a much lower sticker price. It?s a better deal for smaller workgroups with heavy though not exceptional printing volume.

The HP LaserJet Enterprise 600 Printer M603DN, which straddles the line between an SMB and an enterprise printer, ?has what it takes to churn out humongous quantities of black-and-white pages, and its low running cost promises cost savings in time if you can get over the rather steep sticker price. It?s the best choice for offices or workgroups with exceptionally large monochrome printing needs looking for a high-end printer, and earns an Editors? Choice in that capacity.

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