HP Laserjet 1020 Printer (Q5911A#ABA)

During the past 2 years I've gone through 2 inkjet printers. One was a Canon that could never print an entire page aligned. It took me till after my warranty was out to realized that it wasn't me, it was the printer. Sadly, the other was the HP5650, which had terrible software issues and finally started misfeeding the paper. I didn't know what I was going to do for my next printer.I finally came to my senses and realized that since I hardly ever use color, I should start looking at LaserJets. Much to my surprise, I found this one for less than many of the photo-capable InkJets. Unfortunately, my computer became a little fussy during setup, but after that, it's worked like a charm.The pages come out extremely fast, the print is crisp and dark, and it's not too loud. None of the "cajunk, cajunk" sound you get with the ink jets either. Also, the footprint is smaller than the HP inkjet I am now going to smash to bits. It's like a little chunk on my desktop instead of a big long log! What more could you ask?I still think HP is a cheap, crappy company for making us buy our own USB cables, and for not supplying a manual, but until Canon and Epson get up to speed on reliability, I'll stay with HP anyway.June 2006 addition --- YES there IS a problem with this thing curling the paper. The lasers get the paper warm and then there are 2 plastic tabs the paper passes by on its way out, and they curl the paper. Downgrade this rating a full star!! This doesn't happen on my friend's older business HP laser model!I ordered this from Amazon for $130 after the discount for getting their credit card, of course with free shipping. I am extremely pleased with this printer all the way around: price, performance, and appearance on my desk.

The printer arrived in a box hardly big enough to contain it. Thin cardboard, very thin styrofoam and the printer didn't print. I contacted the seller. The seller sent a "new" cartridge. Still didn't print. The seller then had me send that printer back and sent another printer.It took a good two months to get the second printer which I have never bothered to open because it is futile.Instead, I used the cartridge they sent in my other HP that is the same model. Normally, one of those 12 A Cartridges lasts me a year of hard use. This one stopped working today!!!! I have not used it for even a month!!! These cartridges cost $86.00! This was the biggest ripoff I have ever experienced!Do not, do not fall into the same trap I did.

I got tired of paying for ink cartridges for my injet printer, and also of waiting for it to slowly print my material, so I decided to replace it with a laser printer. Since I don't print pictures, a black and white printer is sufficient. I couldn't be happier with the HP 1020. It's very compact (actually smaller than my Epson), unbelievably fast (though it takes a little while to get going), and the result is crystal clear. One important note, though: I'm a Mac user and this printer isn't intended to support Macs. But I learned from other reviewers on this site that you can solve this problem by downloading the printer driver from HP for the HP Laserjet 1022, which does support Macs. I did this, but the other reviewers left out an important bit of information: the directions that come with the printer say to wait until instructed to plug in the computer and attach it to your computer via a USB cable. But this is NOT what you do in the case of using the 1022 driver for this machine. Instead, after downloading the driver from ther HP website (which you can do for free, afte going to their support page), connect the 1020 to the power source and to your computer; then go to Printer Utility, select Add Printer, and the Mac will do the rest (it automatically uses the 1022 driver to support the 1020). Once my partner did this (I was in a muddle until she did so!), it all went very smoothly. For the very low price that Amazon is asking, now even Mac users can enjoy this outstanding printer.

This printer, though mostly functional when connected to a Windows box, did not work without significant amounts of effort when connected to a Mac. Customer support at HP was not helpful in resolving my Mac connectivity issues. I eventually got it working with some 3rd party tools, but then the printer power supply died. I called HP customer support again and was told to buy a new HP printer.Needless to say, this is the last HP printer I will own. I suggest looking at some of the Brother models instead.

The first printer did not work at all -- the paper crunched up like an accordion. After several phone calls and emails, including having to take and send pictures of the problem, a second printer was sent out (at no expense to me) and that one works O.K.Note: neither printer arrived with a partially-filled toner cartridge, as was advertised.