A business printer for the home user as well (HP Business Inkjet 1000)

Name: katew

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Product:	HP Business Inkjet 1000
Date:	26/06/08 (285 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Sturdy build; very reliable; good print quality

Disadvantages: Slightly noisy; quite slow

I've had quite a few printers in my time, but they never seem to last very long. My husband has had the HP Business Inkjet for some time, and found it very reliable, so we decided to get one for me too. So what do I think of it? Here goes:

**Build**
The first thing you notice about this printer is that it's BIG - around 20" (51cm) across and 15" (38cm) deep. Luckily that exactly fits the space I have to accommodate it. It's also pretty heavy as desktop printers go, but that's not a problem as I never have to move it. It comes in the standard livery of creamy white with dark grey trim. It's a very sturdy machine, too; the only problem I've found is that the output tray is above the paper cartridge and the flap to access the paper cartridge is a little flimsy.

**Controls**
The control panel is pretty simple. Easily reachable on the front of the printer you have 3 buttons and a display. These are an on/off switch, a button to cancel print (which you can also do from the control panel on the computer screen), a paper feed button (useful for pushing a sheet on through if you've just freed a very rare paper jam). The display is for the ink levels - a light flashes telling you which ink is low - more of that later. The connection to the computer is USB, as are most peripherals these days.

**Ink**
Now this is what I particularly like about this printer. It has four print cartridges, and separate print heads. There is a black cartridge, and one each for cyan, magenta and yellow. The black cartridge holds 69 ml (as that's the one you're probably going to use most of); the colour ones hold 28 ml. These retail from around £29 per cartridge or printhead on the HP site, although it is always worth shopping around, as some online retailers do them cheaper.

In around 4 years of having the printer, neither my husband or I have ever had to change a printhead so I can't tell you how long they last. I've had my printer for around a year, and have changed the black cartridge and two of the colour ones once each; this is with printing an average of probably 10 - 20 pages of mixed colour a week.

The advantage of having separate colour cartridges is that if one colour goes, for example if you have a 'house' colour for your business and therefore use more of that colour, you only have to replace the colour that's run out, rather than a 3 colour cartridge that may still have plenty of the other colours left. The disadvantages are that it costs more than some printers to set up initially, since you have to start by installing 4 different cartridges, and that it starts warning you that the cartridges are running out months before they actually do. When a colour has run out, the printer will actually refuse to print at all; until then, you do not need to replace the cartridge.

**Paper**
This printer can manage papers up to about 250gsm comfortably - this is about the weight of the average business card. The feed is from an enclosed tray, which holds around 100 sheets at a time. The paper guides in the tray can also be adjusted to hold envelopes or postcard sized paper - I use it for those small photo papers you can get. The feed is pretty reliable - as long as the paper is not creased or damaged, I've not had any paper jams.
The output tray is fairly shallow, meaning it can fit in a workstation cubby hole designed for it, but has an extendable arm to prevent the paper sliding off the end of it.

**Print quality**
There is a choice of print quality, from Draft to Best, which is used for photo printing. As I am a digital photo restorer, I tend to use draft to check the colours etc, and then send a copy on best quality once I'm happy with it. My husband's printer has a habit of, when you send to print on Best quality, printing a thumbnail version first, which is quite annoying (not to mention a waste of photo paper!). However, mine has never done that, so I imagine it's something he's done to his settings.

Printing a photo on lesser qualities is not a good idea - you get fairly strong banding. However, on Best quality, it does a really good job. I use it for printing out final photos for clients, and they're always very pleased with the results.

**Speed**
This is one of the drawbacks of this model; although it turns out a top quality print, it doesn't seem to be in any hurry to do it. When you send a print job (text or picture), it does a lot of clicking and whirring before starting to actually print. I don't find this a problem, but you might if you are a high volume user. On Best quality, it can take 5 minutes to print an A4 photo, but to my mind, the quality is worth it.

**Noise**
It has to be said that this is not the quietest printer I have had. It does a lot of grumbling and grinding, and the drive mechanism is quite noisy. Again, I don't see this as a problem, as I work from home so it's not as if I'm in an office that gets noisy with several of these printers running at once.

**Overall impressions**
If you can get past the sheer size of this printer, I'd say it's a really good machine. I've found it to be very reliable - I've had no problems with it at all in the year I've had it. It's also quite economical on the ink, as long as you ignore the warning lights and only replace the cartridges when they actually run out.

The other point is the cost. Although this printer is aimed at businesses, at around £50 to £100 (we paid around £79 for mine), it is cheap enough for the home user as well.

Summary: A great printer, especailly given its low price

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