The 2300 series, HP's new laser offering for the small to medium-sized workgroup, includes a myriad of significant improvements over the previous 2200 series.

Changes include a 266MHz processor instead of 133MHz, 48MB of RAM rather than 16MB, support for 802.11b and, most importantly, a speed boost from 18ppm to 26ppm. Indeed, such are the improvements that many buyers may be lured away from HP's larger workgroup printer, the 4300dtn (review on the PC Authority Web site).

The first potential problem for any workgroup printer is installation, but adding the 2300dtn to our TCP/IP network was a breeze. HP's software took care of everything, including the network settings.

The next challenge is speed, but the 2300dtn was barely stretched by our tests. First up was our 50-page text document, which the 2300dtn produced at an impressive rate of 25.4ppm. Speed then increased to 26ppm during our Excel workbook and PDF tests; the only notable drop came when producing our complex 24-page DTP document, where the rate fell to 21.2ppm. While the 4300dtn is significantly faster at 45ppm, the 2300dtn fights back when it comes to quality.

It produced text of the highest order, with virtually no feathering or spidering, but it really stood out when producing graphics with some of the best images we've seen from a mono laser. Detail, saturation, sharpness and shading were all excellent, with greyscale fades proving exceptional (as mono lasers go). The only quibble was faint banding in pictures.
The 2300dtn also excelled in our Excel workbook test. Many mono lasers struggle with the low-contrast differences caused by shaded cells, but it consistently produced high-contrast, easy-to-read results.

In terms of features it's heavily laden with duplex units, extra paper trays and HP's excellent Jetadmin network printer management utility. HP's embedded Web server technology is also shared and allows users to configure the printer via a Web browser.