Buy Now...

Brand names come and go but one that seems to go on for ever is that of Hewlett Packard's LaserJet product line. With a pedigree that stretches back to the 1980s, there seems to be no end of laser printers joining this particular family. One of the more recent additions is the LaserJet 1022 model which is available in standard (1022), network (1022n) and wireless network (1022nw) versions.

When purchasing either of the latter two models an appropriate network cable is included in the package. You also have the option for direct USB connectivity with support for version 2.0. However you will need to provide the USB lead as one is not included in the box. This review is based on the 1022nw model.

Adopting the familiar bread-bin design concept, the printer measures 370 x 245 x 241mm (W x D x H). This printer is decked out in the standard computer grey livery with a charcoal grey top plate and the various connection sockets plus on/off switch hidden away at the rear. The top of the printer houses a couple of buttons to activate and cancel tasks plus four lights that indicate the current status of the printer and its wireless feature.

See also: Laser printers

more

During the set up of the printer and its supplied software, you are given the opportunity of selecting which connection mode will be used. There is a choice of USB, wired or wireless network. The appropriate drivers will be installed along with an electronic copy of the printer manual.

One point to remember is that while this printer can work with either wired or wireless network, it can not connect to both at the same time. As mentioned earlier the printer makes use of USB 2.0. There is support for Ethernet 10/1000Base-TX and 802.11b/g. I encountered no problems with any of the connectivity options.

The 1022nw comes with two paper feed options. The main paper tray, with easily detachable lid, can hold up to 250 sheets of A4 paper. However when one-off jobs are called for, using different sizes of paper or an envelope, there is an additional slot positioned just above the main entry point. Print jobs are fed out from the top of the printer and held in position by a flip-out lid.

Powering the printer is a 266MHz RISC processor with a maximum of 8MB of memory which comes as standard. Making use of HP PCL 5e printer language with 26 scalable fonts built-in, this monochrome laser printer has a claimed 18ppm speed at normal quality using A4 media. The first page should appear in less than eight second through the use of Instant-on technology. Naturally I expected to find a certain degree of discrepancy when testing these speed claims.

In the past my experience has shown that the speeds quoted by manufacturers are hardly relevant to normal home/office usage and need to be taken with a large pinch of incredulity. However this printer proved to be an exception to the rule. To be fair I was not too surprised to confirm the eight seconds for the first page to appear - in fact my timings put the figure at seven seconds. However I was surprised with the results I achieved when printing 18 copies of a standard letter. A series of test produced timings that averaged out at 63 seconds - I can certainly live with the extra three seconds. Print quality was excellent although the paper was rather warm to the touch especially when multiple copies were involved in the print run.

Reasonably compact, this printer should sit comfortably in any home/office environment. It is easy to set up, has a range of connectivity options, needs little maintenance and produces excellent results at a speed that should be more than adequate for most users. Current pricing for the LaserJet 2012 put the wireless network model at just over £200. The other models cost £198 and £124 for the 2012n and 2012 versions. Replacement cartridges are priced at £50 with a yield of 2000 A4 sheets. Minimum system requirements are Windows 98SE or later or Mac OS X v10.2 with 120MB of free hard disk space.

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/uk/en/ho/WF06b/5043-5343-5347-5347-5411-12094318-22739935.html