12 out of 12 people found this review helpful.
Five years old and still kickin'!
Date of Review: Jun 19, 2007
The Bottom Line: Even though they are out of production, if you want a good, inexpensive printer, this one should be on your list. You won't regret buying one!
If you had told me five years ago that I would be writing today about this printer and how wonderful it has been, I would have said you were crazy.
And I would have been wrong.
This HP LaserJet 1000 has been, bar none, the single best piece of computer equipment I have EVER owned, and I have owned many, many printers in the past 20 years. For the money I paid ($250), I could buy two of HP's newest low-end laser printers, but I don't know if I would be as happy as I have been with this one.
From the day I bought it in March 2002, I have printed countless church bulletins, school reports for my kids and my wife, and God knows what else. And it's never had a problem, not even once.
This printer has outlived two computers and is now the main printer that I connect to my Acer notebook whenever I need to print something other than pictures (I have a PictureMate photo printer for that purpose). It has been retired from church printing duties because we bought a Canon ImageClass 6530 printer/copier, but it remains on standby in case that one breaks down.
You will be happy to know that, while this printer was designed to work with Windows 98/2000/XP, you CAN use it with Vista. HP does not have a Vista driver at last check, but the XP driver (downloaded from HP's website) works fine. I've had no problems using it in Vista at all.
Print quality is wonderful until the toner cartridge gets low. Even images look good, although any inkjet printer will do a better job of printing those. Text reproduction is second to none.
About the only thing the printer does not do that I wish it did is automatic two-sided (duplex) printing. You can do it manually, but sometimes the paper curls and jams the printer. It's the only thing I have to say I don't like.
I've seen quite a few of these printers on eBay and elsewhere available used for reasonable prices. If you want a low-cost, no-muss-no-fuss printer that is reasonably cheap to run (Sam's Club sells the toner/drum cartridge for $50-55), this one should be on your list.
