The Pantum P2502W can only print in black and white. It uses laser technology to do this. It prints a good number of black pages before you have to replace the toner cartridge, and since the drum unit is built in, you don’t have to worry about replacing an extra part. Also, the cost per print is very low, which keeps costs down in the long run. It prints text documents at a very fast rate, making it easy to get long reports done quickly. But it can’t automatically print on both sides, so if you want to print documents on both sides, you have to put the printed pages back into the input tray. It takes a while to warm up and start printing, and as it prints, it tends to push sheets of paper out of the output tray. It’s also hard to set up with your wireless network, and the app that goes with it for iOS is hard to use.
1. Design
The Pantum P2502W isn’t very well made. The body is made of plastic that feels cheap, and the front output tray extender, input tray, and top cover all feel thin and cheap. Also, since there isn’t a full input cassette, the paper input stays open. On the plus side, the top cover is easy to open so you can get to the sheet rollers and toner cartridge. Also, the input tray feeder has width sliders so you can line up different types of paper correctly. Also, the power cord can be taken off, making it easy to replace if it gets broken. Since the printer’s exhaust is on the right side near the back, it’s not a good idea to put it in a small or tight space.
Compared to an inkjet printer, the Pantum P2502W is easy to keep up. This is true of most laser printers. Since there is no ink-related maintenance, there is no need to clean or align the printheads. To change the toner cartridge, all you have to do is lift the top cover of the printer, lift the old cartridge without unclipping anything, and slide the new one in. Also, the drum unit is part of the cartridge, so you don’t have to worry about replacing it separately.
The Pantum P2502W’s paper tray can only hold 150 sheets, so if you print a lot, you’ll have to fill it up often. If there’s a paper jam, you can easily get to the sheet rollers through the top cover, which is right behind the toner cartridge. You can also take the cartridge out to get even more room. Still, when you print, the area around the sheet roller gets very hot. This makes plain sheets curl, especially when you print for a long time, and can cause paper jams.
The Pantum P2502W has a great cartridge system, and each cartridge can print a lot of pages before it needs to be replaced. Since the drum unit is built into the printer, you don’t have to worry about having to replace an extra part.
The original standard and high-yield cartridge models for the Pantum P2502W, the PB-210S and the PB-210, aren’t easy to find at most major stores as of this writing. At the moment, you can only get the PB-211EV (Economic Version) and PB-211 (standard) models, which are both compatible with this printer model. Pantum says that they will both run out after 1,600 pages. As a point of comparison, the original PB-210S can hold 1,000 pages.
2. Document
Even though the Pantum P2502W’s speed for printing black-only text documents is about average for laser printers, it’s still very fast. It means that even the longest research papers or dissertations can be printed in no more than a couple of minutes. After the printer hasn’t been used for a while, it takes a while to get the print job and print the first page. This can slow you down if you only use the printer occasionally. It can’t automatically print on both sides of a sheet of paper. Instead, it prints the odd pages first and then tells you to put the printed pages back into the output tray without changing the way the paper is oriented. Then you press “Continue” on the printer to finish printing on the other side. Check out the Brother HL-L2325DW if you want a similar printer that can automatically print on both sides of a page.
As the printing speed video shows, the Pantum P2502W tends to push other pages off the output tray as it finishes printing each new sheet. This is because the heated elements cause the pages to warm up and curl. It can be very annoying because you may have to pick up a lot of sheets that have fallen and are out of order. Also, around the 0:54 mark, you can see that the printer grabs and prints out several sheets at once. It only happened when filming the video but didn’t occur at any point afterward. This problem is often mentioned online, and it can lead to misaligned or off-center prints and a lot of paper jams.
3. Photo
The only colors that the Pantum P2502W can print are shades of gray. There are a lot of uneven bands, so even if you print grayscale gradients, they won’t look smooth.
4. Mobile apps and connectivity
Before you can use the Pantum P2502W to print over a Wi-Fi network, you have to set it up with wires. To do this, you must first install the printer’s drivers and then connect it to your computer using the USB-A to USB-B cable that came with it. At this point, you can set it up to work on your local Wi-Fi network and then disconnect it from your computer. On the other hand, if you want to print from your phone or tablet without connecting directly to the printer, you must first connect to the printer via Wi-Fi Direct to set it up with your router.
Also, the back of the P2502W looks like it could have an Ethernet port, but it’s blocked off in this model, so you can’t plug anything in there.
Even simple things like connecting the Pantum P2502W to the mobile app take a lot of time. To connect the printer, you have to press the “WiFi” button to print a setup sheet and then scan the QR code on the sheet. The setup sheet says that you can also connect by choosing “Configure printer WiFi,” but the app doesn’t have this option.
All View
The Pantum P2502W is a black-and-white laser printer that can only print. Compared to other models that only print in black and white, this one is much less well made, and it takes a lot longer to warm up and start printing. But the number of pages it prints is about the same as models that cost a lot more, and it prints faster than other models in its price range. Unfortunately, its weak build, problems with paper feeding and paper output, hard-to-use mobile app, and limited connectivity options mean that other models are probably more reliable and less stressful to use.
