Cons: None so far, has exceeded my expectations, especially regarding 'noise pollution,' my current hot button!
The Bottom Line: Buy it, try it, Costco.com plies it! Certified bargain at $129, if $50 coupon deal's still running (was as of July '04). I'd even buy it at $179 regular price!
tomminator's Full Review: Hewlett Packard LaserJet 1012 Printer
What I instantly grooved on:
1: No fan... so absolutely noiseless when in standby. Not at all objectionable when actually printing...instantly noiseless again when printing complete.
2: Draws only 2 (two!) watts in standby.
3: Fast, first page out in 8 seconds.
4: Gorgeous quality for a monochrome laser... no streaking or banding. I'm pretty into Photoshop and just for kicks tried a few pictures... and was pleasantly surprised! But don't expect it to compete with even the cheapest dedicated inkjet photo printer for B&W photo reproduction.
5: Small, fairly lightweight, with relatively tiny footprint (actually sits on top of my Dell microtower computer) and relatively elegant color scheme compared to the usual off-white box.
6: Never needs a $100+ drum replacement! It's print cartridge contains both toner and drum elements in one unit!
7: Easy setup: Plug it in after loading the software... and off you go!
8: Relatively inexpensive (for me, $129 at Costco after $50 instant coupon)
What was less than 'printacular':
1: $67 dollar cartridge covers 'only' about 2000 pages worth of printing...on the other hand... you never have to replace one of those notoriously expensive drums (which, parenthetically, I did on my previous laser, a Brother monochrome, to the tune of $140, only to have the same banding/streaking problems that prompted the original replacement!...Oh! Brother!) To keep this in perspective, however, I calculated that even with the fairly pricy print cartridge, it still pumps out pages at aprox. 1/3 the cost of my HP 'office caliber' inkjet.
2: As there's no fan, it can get a bit warm if you print say 50 copies in a row, but people buying this printer aren't (or shouldn't be!) expecting an office-capable, network ready, auto-duplexing, multi-trayed 95lb. stand-alone behemoth with a 2500 sheet capacity and 50,000 page per month duty cycle!
3: Issue of paper curling has been raised, esp. following long uninterrupted print runs... I personally have not seen this, but I do use a slightly higher paper grade/weight than the cheapest possible product (24lb paper from Costco)which may help matters. I have printed up to 17 pages in a row under these conditions with absolutely no trouble.(Moral: If you buy 500 sheets of ultra cheep paper, you may just get reamed!)
4: 150 sheet tray limitation. For me, not a big deal...I share this printer on my three computer home network, and we just don't print enough big jobs that it's even an issue...we fill it up every 2 weeks or so.
5: The '1200 dpi equivalent' print mode option doesn't seem to make all that much difference in text print quality (although, when printing photos, for which I admit, you undoubtedly did not consider purchasing this unit, they did tend come out appreciably better), and this mode does slow things down a bit.
6: No USB cable... everyone complains about this, but lets get real, hardly any printers include one these days... most of us have an extra lying around... if not, Costco (no, I don't work for them!) sells multi packs for less than the price that, say Office Depot or Circuit City, charges for just one!
Ships with powercord only. Toner and Cable available in the supplies section of this Page. Software available for free download at HP.com. 90 Day War...More at Cheap HPprinters.com
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