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. No colour available. 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.