HP Laserjet 1200 Review - PAGE 1

Austin Bailey - Wednesday, December 12th, 2001 0 Favourite (0)

Intro:

The HP laserjet 1200 is a high-speed midrange laser printer with few of the frills, but all of the charm of an office or home HP printer. Ive used HP printers for over 10 years and the 1200 offers the familiar feel of its long standing line of printers, with one of those new age, small footprint designs.

Specifications:

Monochrome laser engine with 256 grey scale printing

print speed, black - normal: 15 ppm

print quality - black: 1200 x 1200 dpi

network ready - Optional

paper trays (std / max) - 1/1

memory (std / max) - 8 MB/72 MB

pages per month - 10,000

paper tray capacity: 250 sheets

output tray capacity: 125 sheets

scalable typefaces: 45 scalable fonts plus 35 PostScript® fonts built-in

dimensions: 16.3 x 19.2 x 10 inches (w x d x h)

18.3lb

Installation and First Impressions:

Installation on our Win2K and Win9X systems was relatively seamless. We had trouble on our first install on a Win2K system, but a reinstall of the drivers solved all of our problems quite easily. Included are the now standard color foldouts for quick/easy installation and an extremely helpful instructions manual. The printer does not include any connection cables, another industry standard now, because it supports both USB and parallel port connections.

Though HP calls the 1200 a small footprint printer, we find that the exposed tray design wastes considerably more desktop space than an upright design like the budget Samsung ML-4500 or a more traditional design like HPs 2200DN printer.

Performance

The performance of the Laserjet 1200 is superb. Our standard test for monochrome laser printers includes printing a 30 page pdf document with graphics and text, and also a test of pure text printouts. The Laserjet 1200 managed to average almost exactly 15 pages per minute (14.64 ppm) on our tests, a feat that is even more impressive because normally our tests come out 1-2 pages BELOW the manufacturers stated specs. This is one of those pleasantly surprising occasions where our test results mirror the manufacturers performance claims.

The LaserJet 1200 delivers quality text at all font sizes right down to a 6pt font. Anything below an 8pt font is tested purely as a formality, since it is unlikely that anyone will really use such a small font size. At this 6pt size setting, the 1200 printed legible, but thick lined text (its more mature sibling, the amazing LaserJet 2200, prints a much finer and more legible 6pt text).

White text on black backgrounds was also clean, though the white text did not stand out as clearly as we have seen in some other mid-range printers.

In monochrome graphics printouts, the 1200 is noticeably cleaner then other printers in this class. However, though the printer handled black and white photos without problems, the grey-scale capabilities of the printer failed to impress in our Excel graph printouts.

Conclusion:

With the LaserJet 1200, HP manages to deliver the performance it promises its consumers at a price range that was once thought impossible for such a performance level. Because of its high-speed printouts, its great text quality and its 10,000 pages per month duty cycle, the 1200 is extremely suitable for the SOHO or home user. A quick look on the net found this printer for $299, a huge savings over the $399MSRP. At that kind of price, the 1200 makes an excellent replacement for a standard 8ppm or slower printer that sported an even costlier price tag just a few years ago.

Overall Score: 87%

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