HP LaserJet P1102w Review May 27, 2010 13:00 by Matt Bird
Our wonderful employee Matthew Bird, (tweet him at @stinky_ink, his idiocy is amusing) , was the lucky winner of this printer in a prize draw run by the lovely people over at Enterprisenation.
I do enjoy getting my mitts into a printer, and I would be remiss in my duties if I didn't give this prize a thorough once over!
The HP P1102w:
Bar jubilation toward Enterprisenation for a prize... me and luck are not well acquainted..... the box arrived quickly, clean, well packaged and sitting happily inside was the printer. The HP p1102w printer. Surrounded by that horrible horrible polystyrene packaging that makes that horrible horrible sound that just scares me so m... anyway! Unpacked, on my desk, remove the 5 or so tabs and put the cartridge in...
...I plug it into my PC by USB, turn the power on... few screens pop up on my machine, I go grab a biscuit, come back and it's installed. Completely. Thumbs up to HP, I know this is just a simple mono laser rivalling the Samsung CLP 300 in size, but I don't think I even pressed a button.
HP P1102w quality tests:
Print off a test page, fine and dandy. Print off a 20 page text document straight after, taking 77 seconds. Over 15ppm, very respectable for such a low cost laser. Next, to test the fabled Auto On/Auto Off feature, quoted to use just a third of a normal printers consumption. It certainly went into standby mode quickly, and looks dead-to-the-world. Send another print document and my world is blown. The laser printer initialised and started printing in just under 3 seconds. My 20 page document took 80 seconds! Less energy usage AND fast start times for printing, looks like a win-win deal if you ask me. Yes, the printer takes ~40 seconds to turn on from a completely-off and cold state, but standby mode seems so efficient you needn't do this throughout the day.
Moving onto text and image printing, with the only difference I found being a small knock in print speed, down to 14ppm. Text registered well when printed over images, though it did experience a small halo effect around the characters - but not enough to ruin the experience. A full A4 greyscale image printed in 9 seconds (including startup time :-) ) and was impressive for a laser printer, with blacks being deep and colour gradients from black to grey surprisingly smooth for a laser printer.
Wireless printing is again an easy process. But it does lead me to my only two gripes for this machine.
All plain sailing?
Firstly, there is no ethernet port. Networking is limited to wireless connectivity and is only 802.11b/g. This means you either print through the USB connection, or wireless. One or the other, which may limit some users!
My second gripe, and this may be the best and most pointless complaint I have ever made, the wireless connection light goes off when the printer enters standby mode. Now, I only noticed this as I came back off lunch and couldn't tell if it was turned on or not as there were no lights on.
It seems quite an extreme way to save energy usage, especially as the machine does infact come out of standby when a print request is sent wirelessly, and I think this would annoy me whenever I actually wish to disable wireless and I have to engage the printer just to find out if it is active or not.
Print costs for this machine will be slightly higher than other machines, as the only HP p1102 toner at present is the CE285A toner, but when remanufactured versions become available costs will drop! At a 1600 page yield, the machine is obviously designed for small offices, and with such a small footprint it really is ideal for small office use.
So my overall view? This is a great little machine, ideal for small offices with reasonable printing volumes. If you are not comfortable with technology, this machine has been built for you. Installation is sickeningly simple, and HP has its lovely printer menu system to help you with any issue encountered. Though not the cheapest to run, it comes with benefits that may be worth the few extra £'s. So thank you very much Enterprisenation for this great little printer, it has found a welcoming home in the office!
11 Responses to “HP LaserJet P1102w Review”
May 27, 2010 13:25
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Stinky Ink and Viv Darlington, Stinky Ink. Stinky Ink said: New Article, HP LaserJet P1102w Review (http://bit.ly/cv4TLu) [...]
May 27, 2010 13:57
Aw, thanks for the review, guys! I'm glad, overall, that the printer was a hit at StinkyInk.
Happy printing!
From Enterprise Nation
June 06, 2010 15:13
And it now looks like there is a way to print from the iPad directly to certain printers. You just need a certain feature installed.... http://www.pcworld.com/zoom?id=194341&page=1&zoomIdx=1
June 07, 2010 08:42
Haha! Brilliant iPad printing. Pity it won't work on my P1102w :-( But, there is a way to get HPs printing from an iPad, article to come!
June 17, 2010 23:16
can C4092A toner be used in this printer? seems to turn out a lot cheaper...
June 18, 2010 14:04
Hi Sue,
unfortunately that cartridge won't work in that machine, at present it looks like only the HP 85 will be for the P1102w. Hopefully they release an XL version of the cartridge soon, especially considering the market shortage of the CE285A cartridges!
June 29, 2010 10:09
I have an application that can print photos to P1102w from iPhone and iPad directly.
December 18, 2010 13:13
Please, Kim, which app is that (to print from iPad directly)? I've tried some and nothing worked...
February 06, 2011 21:29
So if this does not work with an ipad why is it such a great printer?
Is there a work around? Why not? Seems like HP is dependable in their lack of service for ipad.
April 25, 2011 13:24
So let me get this straight:
Kim says:
"...I have an application that can print photos to P1102w from iPhone and iPad directly."
Thanks for that info...but do you have a link to it? I found this printer listed from a company that has a modified cartridge with MICR ink. This type of ink is required for printing checks.
I am trying to set up a way that a friend with vision-impairment can use an iPad(he's tried it and likes it) to print his personal and business checks. I need to find a sure-fire way to set up a compatible printer (like the 1102W?) for the iPad to do this. I found one App that could work for composing the check. Now I just have to find a printer.
Any help would be appreciated.