Simplicity meets reliability for a perfect score

Have you ever had a dream where you were able to afford the perfect little Hot Rod B/W Laser Printer for dirt cheap, an engine that was so perfect in every way? ...And not just any Laser printer, but THE Printer with a Capital P? Don't you just have the urge to toss the old inkjet out the window? Inkjets? Ewwww! That bottomless ink pit, that print head drying piece of junk you once thought would make the right companion to your projects? I hear you. Being a Graphic Designer, and having to do some side projects from home, I know how it feels, trust me. But there's good news ahead.

Note: tested on a PC under Windows XP Home, about 400MB RAM, on a 700Mhz, using various programs (Firefox, IE, Office documents, Ufile Tax documents, Photoshop 7, Illustrator 10 CS, Quark 5, Acrobat, PDF, Notepad and more) with text and/or graphics intensive.

FOREWORD
Helwett Packard [hp.com] formed in 1939 by the two guys, is a known and trusted company that's been around, reinvented themselves times and again. You've seen their products and ads on TV: entry level digital cameras, computers, LCD monitors, printers... They offer personal and business solutions for each and everyone. But in my heart and mind, HP stands for quality printers first and foremost. Everything else they make, in my opinion, is secondary. But enough about the company: let's get to business!

The recent changes in technology made it possible to offer quality personal Laser printers for as low as hundreds of dollars. Prices had a dramatic plunge for a whole bunch of technology items. ...This the right time to purchase your Dream Machine!

WHY GO LASER?
Here are five reasons why a Laser Printer is a hot idea:

1. They last for a long time;
2. They print office-like quality output;
3. Ink cartridges can run thousands of pages before running out, and the replacement costs about the same as buying the CMYK colors for a Canon Bubblejet (around 80$ Can);
4. They hold more paper than inkjets;
5. They're surprisingly fast--printing one or 10 pages only takes a moment and starts immediately;

YOUR NEEDS
If you already started to look and compare, you might have noticed a few comparable brands: Brother, HP, Samsung, Canon, Epson, Lexmark... The Samsung, for example, has been one of the cheapest options lately. So how can you decide what to buy?

1-Compatibility:

The Samsung sounds great, but the specs show that it's NOT Mac compatible. As a Designer, I cannot invest in a PC-only printer. Lexmark has some good and bad feedback--my friend had an inkjet by Lexmark and hated it. You're left with a few reputable brands, which should be comparable.

2-Reliability:

So, why did I choose an HP printer? I wanted quality, reliability, and all the goods for one low price. Let me ask you a question: have you ever heard somebody telling you that their HP is broken or really messed up? Me neither. As a Designer, I have some previous experience with the brand. I worked in a Publishing house where we had a new HP 4200 printer. It was solid, super-fast, reliable and surprisingly efficient.

3-Effectiveness:

Guess what? The output quality to my HP 1012 is crisp and easily comparable to the big HP 4200. It's nearly as fast, instant printout (way faster than printing on my old Canon bubblejet). It processed my graphics from my hi-resolution Quark 5 file perfectly, better than I could expect for a home printer. The black is really black, dry, super-fine. When I print EPS logos, they have crisp outlines. Greyscale tones are clean with fine dots, really acceptable. It's also a quiet printer. So quiet, I could have a phone conversation in front of it without any problem. Idle, it's completely silent. READ ABOUT SOFTWARE in the CONS section below.

4-Toughness:

The box is made from a solid plastic case with many metal parts inside. If you've seen HP cartridges before, you know they are rock-solid and easy to manipulate. Overall, very pleasing, well assembled. It's small and compact, but it's not the smallest around. My tiny Canon scanner is crowded in the corner of my accessories desk.

You shouldn't hesitate, but if after all this you still do, peek at reviews for the Brother printer; see if it gets any good reviews. I also trust the Canon brand for my electronics (scanner, digital camera, color inkjet printer). People don't seem to like anything from Lexmark in general. Next is the spec sheet...

SPECS OVERVIEW
• Mac OS9, OSX, Windows (all except Win 95)
• Size: estimated 14.5" wide, 14.5" Deep, 8.5" high
• Black: Up to 15 ppm
• Processor: 133 MHz
• Resolution: 1200 dpi effective output [optical 600 x 600 x 2 dpi with HP Resolution Enhancement technology (REt)]
• Return the cartridge through an environmentally conscious return program
• One-year limited warranty
• 150-sheet covered input tray; manual feed tray; 100-sheet output tray; Legal-size compatible
• Monthly duty cycle up to 5,000 pages
• 8 MB of RAM

HP uses an instant-on fuser technology that prints your first page in less than 10 seconds at 15 ppm. The effective output quality is 1200-dpi (600 x 600 dpi with Resolution Enhancement technology REt), offering crisp, sharp results from the first page to the last. It has a horizontal 150-sheet covered input tray, and host-based printing. It's compatible with a variety of operating systems, including Mac OS 9 and OS X (people outside America should double check), and Windows 98, Me, NT 4.0, 2000 and XP.

More details and the PDF spec sheet on HP.com

CONS (about the...)
Although the HP is a great printer, here are some cons, which shouldn't really matter, really:

• Startup software/toolware: if you're a total geek and hate software to pre-load upon computer startup, you'll want to disable some of the EXE running in the background by hacking into your Windows' items.
• The software/toolware and dialog boxes are average and minimal, which means it's easy to use, so it's actually a good thing. But there is NOTHING special about the software. The dialogs are comparable to anything I've seen before. They are plain and not colorful, and there's nothing exciting about them. At least, you never get bothered by the pop-up dialogs (unless you're out of paper or something).
• No USB chords: for some reason, printers usually NEVER ship with a USB chord. Dollar shops have them for a buck!
• Installing Drivers is easy enough: in Windows XP, you must insert the CDrom first before booting the printer. The only confusing thing is it's installing the HP 1010 Drivers series (which includes this 1012), as opposed to being called 1012. Just assume 1010 series equals 1012.

SPECS REVIEWED
One star=poor
Five stars=excellent
------------------

Print Speed: 5 (perfect)
Exterior design: 4 - 1/2 (sweet)
Interface/buttons Design: 5 (dead easy)
Quietness: 5
Paper feeding: 5 (no jams)
Heating up speed: 5 (instantly)
Material quality: 4 - 1/2
Software: 3 - 1/2 (good/average)
---------------
Overall: 5 (this printer is excellent)

IN THE BOX
In the box, you get:

• Near ready-to-use Printer
• Sealed cartridge good for about 1000 pages (refills should be 2500)
• Power chord (no USB chord--go to a dollar shop to get one)
• Drivers/software installation CD
• Visual installation guide (full PDF guide online or on CD)

CONCLUSION
I've had the HP printer for a few weeks and I simply love it. I would not hesitate to buy again. It serves me well. It's reliable and has only advantages. It's quiet and super-fast. I can print stuff directly from Quark 5 (PC) and it looks perfect, including EPS images. If you go for an HP, you'll have a clean conscience. It's a value of $299 US, but I got a deal on it for about $220 CAD with free delivery, from an office supply Web store. Go now and buy it!