13 out of 13 people found this review helpful.
Fine for Light Use
Date of Review: Mar 14, 2006
The Bottom Line: For the average home user, not printing photos, could be ideal, and easy to find cartridges
I have purchased 5 of these printers over the last 3 years, starting with the 3400 series and now the 3900 series. These are all basically the same printer, with differences in case color. They all work exactly the same, and use the same supplies. I have purchased these for light use in medical situations where one or two pages per day is the load.
First, a real advantage to us is the very small footprint. These cylindrical-shaped machines are perfect to snug up against a wall.
Second, they are so light, on top of being small, that I have found they easily travel in a car. I have found that they compare well to the 'portable' printers on the market, most of which have real usability issues.
Third, we have enjoyed the ability to use a wide range of quality choices. I print financial data on the road and have found that the 'fast draft' setting works perfectly for pages of data. I will then choose 'normal' for correspondence. Of course, that uses more ink.
Fourth, I find that pie charts, etc., that I print from time to time will come out wet on standard copying paper, and usually use 'fast normal' for those.
Five, we have found that the machine prints reasonably fast in 'normal' setting, and quite fast in 'fast draft' when there are many pages.
Six, the cartridges are small for this machine, HP #27 and #28. If there is a large volume of printing needed, this machine will do it, but, as another reviewer noted, one can easily burn through an entire black cartridge in one large project, e.g. 100+ pages of heavy text.
Seven, I've never used it to print on photo paper but have obtained decent color prints on copying paper for a quick hand-out to clients.
In summary, don't judge a $50-or-less printer by standards not appropriate. I own two HP LaserJets for high-volume printing and I suppose, with a magnifier, I would see higher quality in their b/w print. However, I can't pop those in the back seat of a car and take them easily in a hotel room like I can this little printer. Print quality on this machine is miles better than the early 'home model' inkjets, and certainly satisfies my needs for correspondence printing from my laptop.
In the past 3 years, with daily use in 5 offices, we have not found a single problem with these machines. Oh, they may jam occasionally, but that's usually due to using improper paper, or paper out of the package that's been packed too tightly and not 'riffled' before use. Also, they print single envelopes just fine.
I have had HP printers since going to Windows, back when we were on 3L and 4L Laserjets, and I intend purchasing more HP printers in the future. In fact, I'm now looking at the Color Laserjet to replace my 1220.
