Back when monochrome laser prices were well into four figures, a lot of people called the ink jet—then a fledgling technology—the poor man's laser. I haven't heard that description in a long time—not since ink jets shoved dot matrix printers into a nearly forgotten niche. But with ink jets like the HP Officejet Pro K5400dtn Color Printer ($249.99 direct), it may be time to take the phrase out of retirement.

The K5400dtn is part of the K5400 series, which is built around the base model K5400 ($149.99). The other models are the K5400tn ($199.99) and the K5400dtn that I tested. The "tn" model adds a network connector and a 350-sheet input tray to the 250-sheet tray in the base model; the "dtn" model also adds duplexing to print on both sides of the page. Since all the models are basically the same printer with different options added, all of our quality and performance results apply to all three models.

My overwhelming conclusion from our tests is that the series can stand toe to toe with color lasers in the sub-$500 range. The K5400dtn's speed is well into laser territory. Its output quality is comparable with that of lasers. The paper capacity for the two models is higher than for most sub-$500 lasers. At 1.5 cents for a black-and-white page and 6.0 cents for a color page, the claimed cost per page is extraordinarily low for an ink jet or inexpensive laser. All of this makes the K5400 series the . . . ahem . . . poor man's color laser, and a good choice for a small office or busy home office.

Setup is straightforward, but a little more involved than with most ink jets. The K5400dtn comes with the second tray, a duplexer unit, four ink cartridges (with cyan, yellow, magenta, and black inks) and two print heads. Each print head handles two ink colors and is designed to last for the life of the printer. The size and weight, including the duplexer and tray, are 11.7 by 19.5 by 19.1 inches (HWD) and 26.5 pounds.

To set up the K5400dtn you first remove the packing materials, snap the duplexer into the back of the printer, set the 350-sheet second tray in place, and stack the printer on top of the tray. You then open a door in the front of the printer to install the ink cartridges, and open the top to install the print heads. Then you plug in a network cable and power cord, load paper, let the printer run through its alignment routine, and, finally, run the automated installation program.

Speed for business applications is arguably the K5400dtn's strongest point. I timed it on the ink jet version of our business applications suite (using QualityLogic's hardware and software, www.qualitylogic.com) at a total of 8 minutes 49 seconds. That's a record speed for standard ink jet printers. Only the Ricoh Aficio GX3050N—a printer that uses a modified ink jet technology, with a gel-based ink—was faster, at 6:59. Not surprisingly, both the overall speed and the speed of each individual test were a close match to the HP Officejet Pro L7680 All-In-One, which is built around the same print engine as the K5400 series.

Speed for photos was less impressive, averaging 2:25 for a 4-by-6 and 5:22 for an 8-by-10. But, like the laser printers it is meant to compete with, the K5400 was designed for offices where printing high-quality photos is not a core requirement. HP has wisely chosen to optimize the printer for business applications instead.

The K5400dtn didn't do quite as well on quality relative to lasers as it did on speed. On our text-quality tests, most of the fonts that you might use in a business document were easily readable, with well-formed characters, at five points, and some were easily readable at four points. One, however, needed 8 points, and one highly stylized font with thick strokes needed 20 points. As a practical matter, the text is more than good enough for most business uses—but not quite a match for a laser, particularly for desktop publishing applications.

A potentially troublesome issue is that, as with almost any ink jet output, if you handle the paper with moist fingers, the ink will smudge. HP says you can avoid that problem with special ColorLok paper, but, of course, that's more expensive. Graphics were good enough for any business use, but also a touch below laser quality. I saw obvious banding in default mode, but not in the highest quality mode. I also saw dithering, in the form of graininess, even in high-quality mode. Depending on how much of a perfectionist you are, you may or may not consider the high-quality output to be good enough to hand to an important client or customer whom you want to impress with your professionalism.

Its photos on glossy paper qualify as true photo quality, but not very high on the scale. Colors on some photos were far too punchy. The photos will also smudge if you handle them with moist hands. On the other hand, photos on plain paper are more than good enough for printing newsletters or Web pages with photos, making them easily a match for laser output.

In any case, the HP Officejet Pro K5400dtn Color Printer's minor shortcomings in quality, compared with a color laser, need to be weighed against its low price. Its overall quality and laser-class speed and paper handling are enough to warrant consideration if you were thinking about buying a low-cost color laser. And for anyone on a tight budget, the K5400dtn is a good choice as a color laser substitute. In fact, it's our new Editors' Choice for a budget-priced, small-office color printer.

Benchmark Test Results
Check out the HP Officejet Pro K5400dtn Color Printer's test scores.