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HP Laserjet 1320
by shirleyleunicorn
My parents saved me the hassle, time and money of buying my own printer by giving me their old HP Laserjet 1320 (they wanted to buy something more advanced that could do colour and A3 printing). I was rather happy because I generally have a whole heap I have to print out, and also because its hard to get a cheap printer that is well ... functioning as well nowadays. This printer had been under rather intensive use even years before it came to my hands, and it is still as fully functioning as ever; I guess that is saying something about the reliability and how robust this machine is.
Well, first of all, I should probably point out that this printer only prints out in black and white. This can be a little annoying if you want to colour code your work or something like that. However, most of my printing would be on monochrome anyway; so buying a colour printer and colour cartridges would be a huge waste. If you like all your print outs to be multicoloured, then this printer is not for you. However, for me, the simplicity of the monochrome printing is just the right thing for me.
It is a big and bulky machine, built in, like the colour of the printing, in shades of black, grey and white. It seems to be made of quite good quality plastic, having lasted this long. It is quite old and heavy, making it not very portable, and particularly not suitable for being carried all over the place. It is not an aesthetically perfect printer, but the simple way in which it is displayed gives it the sense of classic timelessness. As I mentioned, it is very big and bulky, so it might be a bit of a problem finding some place for it near the computer without it being too much in the way. For me, I have had the idea of putting it under the table- so I have to be very careful not to step on it.
The printing quality is very good; I have not found any faults with it so far. The quality and the print remains even on the sheets of paper, and it works equally as well on card too, which is of course an added bonus. You do not get the horrible blotces that you sometimes encounter with inkjet printers. The printed paper comes out, fresh and warm from being printed, through the slot at the top of the printer. It prints quite fast, so you do not have to wait too long even if you have ordered for many pages. It is very easy to select the double sided printing option (which not only saves paper but makes your finished document more compact) though this does take considerably longer to print out. I have never yet faced a paper jam with this printer and I hope I never will.
I have printed out some black and white pictures and photos using this printer, and the results have been as good as if I was printing in black and white using a good quality inkjet printer. Also, you should take in account that this, as is with all laser printers, does not work if you are using T-shirt transfer paper. This does not affect me much; if I had wanted something for complicated graphic design, I would have bought a decent colour inkjet printer ages ago.
The paper tray only accommodates for A4 sized paper, which is absolutely fine by me, as I hardly ever need to print in A3 size and upwards. And anyway, you can always tick smaller sheets together in order to make something large. If I need smaaller sized print outs, the paper is very easily trimmed or cut down in size. I normally put around a quarter of a five hundred sheet pack of paper (so that is around 125 sheets of paper) inside the paper tray though it can take up to 250 sheets.
The toner is very expensive, as is with all or most laser printer toners. At over fifty pounds per toner cartridge, many would be intimidated and state that it is far more than they would be prepared to pay for a simple cartridge. However, the thing that they do not tend to take into account is that yes, printing is an expensive activity, and also the fact that they are actually saving you more money than you wuld if you had to buy ink cartridges for an inkjet printer. Under the usual intensive and daily printing that my printer usually undertakes, an inkjet cartridge, which may initially seem more expensive, would only last for a month, maybe two. A toner cartridge lasts me for well over half a year each. So with this printer, you actually end up saving money.
Would I recommend this printer to you? Well, it really does depend on you. If you want a good quality simple printer, and do not mind printing in all black and white like me, then this could be the perfect printer for you like it is for me (thus the 5 out of 5 rating I have given for it). If you require something more flashy with colour but also less reliable, I would recommend for you to look elsewhere. Really, it does seem to be the simplicity of this printer that makes it so special.
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Samsung CLP 320
by wendolina
This is an exceptional printer for the price. I had wanted to upgrade my inkjet printer for some time due to it constantly breaking down, eating paper and costing me a small fortune in ink. I saw this nifty little printer advertised online and thought I was living in the future! I didn't realise you could purchase a laser printer on a ... budget, let alone a colour one. It's described as compact, and in comparison to most all-in-ones it is, however it is a little heavy. It is aesthetically pleasing and sleek. It's remarkably quick and works out cheaper to run in the longer term than your standard inkjet. The quality of printing is superb, and whilst it's not recommended as a photo printer - photos are detailed, bright and shiny. It's worth noting that cartridges are about £50 each and this model requires 4. But as I mentioned, they last much longer than standard inkjet replacements. It would probably work out more expensive if used frequently, but as I only use my printer as and when I find it fulfils my needs perfectly.
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Samsung ML 1640
by helenc72
As a student, I rely on having a good printer as I often need to print out my essays, notes, lecture slides, articles etc. I have been staying at my parents' house this academic year, so I have had a lot of chance to put their printer to the test. My parents also use the printer very heavily as they are self-employed and working from ... home, having to print a large amount of customer order details per day.
The ML 1640 is a laser printer which Samsung say is "sleek, yet manages big jobs".
=== Appearance ====
The appearance of the printer is not particularly sleek in my opinion, as it is actually quite large and bulky. It is roughly cube shaped, with the paper tray sticking out a bit further at the front, and takes up a larger surface area than many other home printers, so it is not ideal for someone who is very short on space. It has a matte black finish with Samsung on the front and there is nothing flashy at all about how it looks. Personally I am not particularly bothered about the appearance of the printer and neither were my parents when they bought it. They have a shelf above the computer where it fits, so the size issue is not a real negative in our house.
=== Use ===
The printer is very easy to use. It can be attached to the computer by USB cable and is recognised automatically, so there is no need to mess about installing anything.The power button is at the back in a position which is not immediately obvious if you are using the printer for the first time as it is quite hidden, but it is accessible and easy to reach once you know where it is. The printer shows a steady light when it is on and ready for printing. A red light alerts you to problems such as lack of paper or any paper jams. You can clearly see how much paper is left, as the tray is external and not in a pull out drawer as with some other printers.
=== Positives ===
Most of the time this printer is reliable. It prints quite quickly. It prints clearly and to a perfectly decent standard without any streaking or smudging. We use it a lot every day so it does get subjected to a lot more work than the average household printer and although it has occasional problems (see below), most of the time it does the job.
We get through ink cartridges fairly quickly but you can get a lot of pages from each one. If you shake the cartridge when pages start coming out a bit faded, you can usually get a lot more from it. I can't really comment on the price of cartridge replacements as my dad pays for them in bulk and I don't know the details but he did take into account ink costs when buying the printer and says the ink for this is reasonable.
=== Negatives ===
I have noticed a few negatives with this printer. Firstly, it is very loud. This is not a huge problem, but it is much louder than you would expect for a household printer!
Secondly, and much more annoyingly, sometimes the printer has difficulties when picking up the paper. Quite a few times recently I have had problems with the printer trying to take too many sheets of paper at once, which results in jams and crumpled paper being stuck inside the printer, which can obviously get very frustrating. My dad keeps telling me that I have to send my documents to print one page at a time and feed each piece of paper individually into the printer to prevent this problem, but as you can imagine that gets very tedious and it shouldn't be necessary!
On the whole I am fairly satisfied with the printer as it is usually up to the task, but I wouldn't particularly recommend it ahead of any other printer because I have had a few problems. I would say it is okay but nothing special.
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