A fast, reliable, versatile, B&W laser printer at a great price
Pros:
Very good quality print and versatility, fast and reliable, at a great price.
Cons:
It looks like it's cheaply built for a laser printer, but it really isn't.
The Bottom Line:
This printer is a winner for anyone working at home of in a small office environment who needs an inexpensive high-capacity B&W laser printer.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
I'm a medical transcriptionist, and I routinely print out more than 250 pages of medical reports a day using a simple Courier font, so I need a fast, "no frills and no nonsense" laser printer that will do the job at the lowest cost possible in terms of toner and other consumables without paper jams or other distractions.
Several months ago I decided that it was finally time to buy a new laser printer and retire my old, rather slow HP LaserJet 6P to backup status after it had printed 150,000 pages. Over nearly two decades I have always been happy with HP printers (both laser and inkjet), but this time I made the mistake of buying a Brother HL-5140 because it seemed like a good buy at the time. Sadly, I started encountering very frequent paper jams with it after about 5,000 pages, and clearing paper jams from this printer is inordinately difficult (requiring the removal of the entire toner/fuser assembly).
So I went shopping again, settled on the HP LaserJet 1300, and I couldn't be happier with my choice. I began using it three months ago and it has performed absolutely flawlessly for me.
The print quality is great, and with HP's slick "instant-on" fuser technology, firt printouts in a job kick out in about 3-4 seconds.
Installation & Support
As is the case with all HP printers, installation (with either a USB or parallel connection) is a snap as long as you follow the simple instructions on the enclosed CD. And the 1300 installation includes a very slickly integrated Internet-based toolbox that monitors the printer's status.
This very helpful toolbox gives you current information on such things as the printer's status, the amount of toner remaining, and also lets you easily modify any of your printer's default settings.
Versatility
When it's connected via parallel port, the HP LaserJet 1300 even does DOS.
That might sound silly to most people, but as a medical transcriptionist, it's important to me. Even though I use MS Office for everything else, I still prefer to do my work in WordPerfect 5.1 DOS. The LaserJet 1300 includes PCL6 emulation, so the supplied WP 5.1 DOS drivers for most of their later HP printers (including most of the LJ4 series) will work just fine. And that's a big plus.
Reliability & Economy
The printer has a duty rating of 10,000 pages per month and I've been printing 5,000-7,500 pages a month for three months now with absolutely no paper jams or other problems.
Unless you're printing a lot of graphics or some intensely concentrated pages of text, HP seems to be quite conservative with their estimates of toner capacity. I have already printed 5,300 pages with a 13X toner cartridge that is rated for 4,000 pages, and I still have 20% of my toner left.
Conclusion
Look no further if you're shopping for a fast, reliable and inexpensive B&W laser printer.
