Hp Toner, Laser Printer Reference Center

This affordable monochrome laser printer is geared toward home or small office users who need laser quality for a budget price. While it forgoes some of the frills of more expensive printers, it delivers great quality and decent speeds at a very low price. Its compact design makes it about the size of a large inkjet printer, ideal for home users who are upgrading from an inkjet to a laser for higher-quality printing. In many cases, the HP LaserJet 1020 will occupy the same space and footprint.

Another advantage of laser printers over inkjets is ink savings, and the HP 1020 doesn’t disappoint here either. The single black cartridge costs around $75 or less to replace, resulting in a cost per page of about 3.5 cents. Cartridges have a capacity of 2,000 pages, so while the upfront cost of cartridges is undoubtedly more expensive than in inkjet, the savings will be significant in the long run. Print speed is around 12 pages per minute, which is average for its price and class.

There is no mistaking the 1020 for a high-volume office printer, however. Its monthly duty cycle is recommended at 5,000 pages. This may pose a problem even for home or small office users who do a large volume of printing in a month. The printer lacks duplexing (two-sided) capabilities and has no included ethernet port. Lack of an ethernet port is likely a cost-saving measure, and seeing as how the low monthly duty cycle would keep the 1020 from being a good network printer, is forgivable for its intended users. The input tray has a capacity of only 150 pages, further limiting users who need to print a lot of pages at once.

Overall, the HP LaserJet 1020 is a compact printer with good print quality. Home users may find it a good fit, but some will need to consider their print volume needs before purchasing, as it is not designed for high-volume use.