HP 1100 Printer Review
The HP LaserJet 1100 laser printer is designed for the small or home office user that only needs monochrome prints. If color printing is needed, consider the HP 2500 toner printer. Its compact design and good print quality make it an excellent choice, but it has a tendency toward paper jams due to its vertical design.
The HP 1100 laser toner printer can churn out monochrome pages at a speed of about 8 pages per minute. It can handle a variety of media, including envelopes, transparencies, and labels. While the main paper tray is loaded vertically from the top, it features a front feed area for special media. In addition to the base model, there are multiple configurations available with a variety of paper capacities and other upgrades, including the 1100A, 100se, 100Axi, 1100xi, and 1100Ase.
The vertical design of the unit keeps its footprint very small, a welcome feature for home office users who may have limited space. Its input tray holds 125 sheets, and its vertical output tray holds 100 sheets. Although it saves space, the vertical alignment of both the input and output trays can lead to a tendency toward paper jams, and it does seem more prone to paper jams than most laser models. Paper jams are relatively easy to remedy, but it is an annoying problem, nonetheless.
Print quality is everything one would expect from a quality laser model. Text is sharp, defined, and dark. Graphics quality is about average. Fine lines sometimes disappear in graphics prints, and gradients are not as smooth as an inkjet, but it is passable.
HP LaserJet 1100 toner cartridges have a fairly small capacity. At 2,500 pages per LaserJet toner cartridge, the HP 1100 toner cartridges are just right for the compact model they were intended for. Replacing an empty toner cartridge is easy. Simply open the front of the unit, pull out the printer toner cartridge, and slide the new one right in its place.
The unit features a parallel port for connection to a computer. Though it could be shared across a network through a host computer, its small paper capacities and slower printing speeds will not be ideal for a shared environment. It is certainly designed for personal use.
Overall, the HP LaserJet 1100 features a very small footprint and an affordable price that will appeal to users who need basic laser printing on a budget. Paper jams are more frequent than some printers, but are fairly easy to remedy.