Great Little Laser Printer for the Home (Hewlett Packard Laserjet 1020)

Member Name: Deru

Product:	Hewlett Packard Laserjet 1020
Date:	09/05/09 (90 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Compact, Quick, Reliable, Good quality, Cheap Compatible toner

Disadvantages: Official HP toners expensive

The HP LaserJet 1020 is a simple and compact black and white laser printer from HP. It superseded the LaserJet 1010, 1012, 1018 model s but as it has been out for quite a while, has itself been superseded by the LaserJet 1022 and maybe the LaserJet P1006 models, although mine is still going strong. The printer chassis has two shades of light greys and the body is quite curvy. It is small enough to fit in a book shelf, which is where I have mine. The trays stick out when extended but I fold up the paper feed tray when not in use. It only measures 370 x 242 x 209 mm so is probably one of the most compact laser printers you can get. I originally bought mine from Amazon for £45, which was an excellent deal but this printer usually sells for £60 - £100.

INSTALLATION

The printer came with a CD containing the driver. This is easy to install prior to plugging in the printer via a USB cable (not included) but even if you lose the CD, the driver is easily found on the HP website, as I've found when installing this printer at work without the CD. It only has a USB as a connection option and even though I would have liked a network connection, I can't complain for the price. The toner is easy to load into the printer by lifting the top cover like most other printers. Paper is also easy to load and I've not had any problems with the printer not picking up the paper like I occasional do with inkjet printers.

PRINTING

Printing is very quick and it usually shoots out a full page in less than 5 seconds. Specifications quote 14 pages per minute so it is very quick, especially compared to any inkjet printer. I have printed pictures which fill most of an A4 page and the print speed seems to be the same as printing a page full of text, whereas if I used my inkjet printer, it would take probably ten times longer to print the same document. The print quality, obviously, depends on paper as well but on normal paper, the text comes out sharp. Images are grey scaled but are very clear as it manages to produce different shades for each colour in the picture.
Some offices at my work place were using these as desktop printers before deciding to standardise all the printers to specific models, but while the 1020 was in use, I saw people printing several hundred prints at a time. HP quote that this printer is capable of printing about 1,000-2,000 pages a month. If you print more than this, then I would recommend a more robust printer. However, these printers aren't meant to be used for heavy use and one did start to smoke a bit and there was a burning smell from the printer overheating. After letting it cool a bit, it was back in action though.

One thing I would have liked though is a 'cancel print' button. That would be better than turning the printer off and deleting the queue.

RUNNING COSTS

An official toner cartridge costs around £50 upwards, which seems quite expensive but considering how it can print over 2000 pages from this, it doesn't seem so bad. Better yet, I've seen compatible toners selling for as little as £15 on eBay so you may as well go for those. Either way, I've yet t o have to replace my toner cartridge despite having used the printer for two years now. Granted, I only print stuff quite occasionally but this printer can be used in a home office with a lot more demand without any problems. When the toner does run low and prints starts to fade, I can always shake the cartridge to spread the powder inside to get a bit more juice out of it, whereas I wouldn't be able to with ink cartridges for my inkjet printer.

SUMMARY

PROS

- Quick prints
- Good quality prints
- Compact
- Robust

CONS

- Official toners are a bit expensive
- No cancel button

VERDICT

This is an excellent printer and great for those whom need something for low to medium volume of black and white prints. It would be ideal for a home office or good for school coursework that doesn't require colour. The extra print speed compared to inkjets would be invaluable for busy people with deadlines and the print yield makes it much cheaper to run than inkjet printers. I can highly recommend this printer or newer versions.

Thanks for reading!

Summary: HP LaserJet 1020

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