I Know Computers Well

The HP LaserJet 1200 printer and its capabilities seem to point to the fact that Hewlett-Packard has intended this monochrome laser printer using LaserJet 1200 printer toner cartridges to be ready for relatively high-speed printing jobs in a small office or home office environment. It provides good print speed, is compatible with Mac computers (which many HP printers aren’t) and even has a scanner attachment as optional equipment.

In truth, it’s evident that the 1200 printer is probably more suited to personal laser printing duties rather than as part of a networked workgroup. It also is offered to a prospective customer at what has to be an excellent price, especially when considering that the printer can kick out 15 pages per minute of product using the HP LaserJet printer toners. It’s not the fastest in the world, but it also isn’t the slowest. For those on a limited budget, this HP model could be perfect.

When it comes to print quality, Hewlett-Packard continues to do good work, striking a balance between cost and quality print. This printer from the world’s largest printer manufacturer is equipped with 1,200 dots per inch print resolution capability, which is not normally available at this spot in the market. Indeed, most printers going for what the 1,200 goes for usually features 600 dpi.

As far as memory, HP included 8 MB of it that can be upgraded to 64 MB, if needed. For the small office or home office environment, this memory range should be quite enough to meet the needs of most users. Start out with 8 MB and see if any memory upgrade will be needed, however. All of it will be controlled by a standard 90 MHz processor, which is acceptable enough under most conditions.

The LaserJet 1200 is a fairly versatile printer in terms of how it can connect to a computer. Certainly, it’s a bit more versatile than many of its competitors at this price, coming as it does with parallel port and USB connectivity capability. Most printers at this price feature one or the other, but usually never both. Usually, one only gets parallel port for the price.

This HP model is fairly durable, featuring a monthly duty cycle of about 10,000 pages. This means it can print out 10,000 pages of product before requiring any scheduled maintenance. HP recommends sticking between 3,000 and 5,000 pages per month, though there is no real restriction, so feel free to put it through its paces right up to the 10,000 page mark.

Printing out on a number of different media stock is one of this models specialties, and cards, plain paper, labels, transparencies and envelopes are handled with little difficulty. Its auto load input tray can hold up to 250 sheets of paper and there’s an additional manual loading slot that can take 10 more sheets, if required. For a desktop model, 250 sheets is an excellent storage capability.

Prices for the HP LaserJet 1200 printer have been running between $95 and $120 at several well-known online printer discount websites. Hewlett-Packard also maintains a website where a variety of handy printer drivers can be downloaded and also where the full customer manual is available as well. The printer provides good print speed and excellent durability. In short, there’s not much to dislike about it.

The only real ongoing expense with this printer is replacement of HP 1200 bulk toner. Finding HP toners at local stores wont give the same great prices as ordering remanufactured toner online and saving money really is a bottom line for a business.