HP 4L Toner
LaserJet 4L Toner Cartridges

HP 4L Printer Review

The HP LaserJet 4L is a monochrome laser printer designed for the personal user in a home or small office. It has excellent text quality and good graphics quality, but its speed may be too slow for many users. The updated HP 1020 toner printer is a replacement for the discontinued 4L.

Despite being designed for the personal user, the HP 4L doesn't give the impression of being a personal laser printer. Its design is more rugged than many larger and more expensive printers, and it is an extremely durable and reliable printer. The printer measures 6.5 inches by 14.3 inches by 13.9 inches and weighs 15.4 pounds, so it is fairly compact and lightweight, perfect for a small office where space might be tight. The printer connects by parallel port, but does not have a USB connection. This could be a problem for users who have no parallel port, as many modern computers do not. Adapters are available for converting parallel to USB, however.

HP LaserJet 4L toner is very inexpensive. The product code for HP LaserJet 4L toner is 74A. Each HP 4L toner cartridge has a capacity of 3,500 pages. Users can save money by using third-party compatible LaserJet toner cartridges instead of the more expensive OEM-branded HP 4L toner cartridges. This will result in a much lower cost per page, which can result in a significant savings over the lifetime of the printer.

Paper capacity is somewhat limited, as it may have been a tradeoff to achieve the printer's compact size. The LaserJet 4L can hold up to 100 sheets in its main drawer, with a single-slot manual feed for alternate media types. Print speed is a bit slow, at only 4 pages per minute. Print quality is very good, though its 300 dpi printing engine doesn't quite compete with 600 dpi printers, many of which are around the same price.

Overall, the HP LaserJet 4L is a very reliable and solidly constructed printer, but its slow speeds and merely average print quality make it difficult to recommend over more modern printers.

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