HP LASERJET 1300 TONER CARTRIDGE - HIGH YIELD

HP LaserJet 1300 Review

Overview:

Continuing the curved look introduced on the 1160, the HP LaserJet 1300 still offers fine-resolution printing, high capacity toner with more memory and an extra paper tray option to hold up to a ream of paper.

Pros:

Anyone familiar with Hewlett-Packard’s previous LaserJet models may do a double-take with the LaserJet 1300. Starting in 2003, HP decided to soften the look of their monochrome LaserJets. Stylish curves give the 1300 a more polished look from its blocky predecessors. HP offers two types of 1300: the base model and the 1300N with a built in Ethernet network card.

While other manufacturers have warm-up times that can take as long as 30 seconds, HP resolves this by essentially keeping the fuser on standby. This results in the LaserJet 1300 to begin printing in less than 10 seconds. The 250-sheet cassette tray will support paperweights from 16# paper to 43# cardstock and sizes ranging from 3” x 5” up to 8.5” x 14” legal size. The 1300 has a 10-sheet multi-purpose slot for labels, single-feed envelopes, and transparencies. If you don’t mind ruining the aesthetics, you can add a second 250 tray to double the LaserJet’s paper capacity.

With HP’s ProRes 1200 the LaserJet’s 600 x 600 dpi resolution is enhanced to produce prints of 1,200 dpi quality, without appreciable loss in speed. This keeps printed text relatively sharp and does a decent job with photographs. Like all LaserJets, the 1300 comes with a Toner Save feature to conserve on toner.

Realizing that a network model will require more memory than the typical 2MB to 8MB allocated to past LaserJets, the LaserJet 1300 comes standard with 16MB, and can be expanded to up to 80MB. This expandability makes the 1300 suitable for any large print job or the 1300n as a long-term network printer for an office or a classroom.

While PC’s with a parallel port are becoming few and far between, it’s still nice to free up a USB port if your computer still has a parallel port. You get that choice with the LaserJet 1300. The USB also makes it easy to quickly connect a laptop to the printer. Understanding that even small offices can have big business needs, the 1300 comes standard with PCL5e, PCL6, and PostScript2 emulation.

Cons:

At 20 pages per minute, this laser printer is a little on the slow side of printing speeds. With inkjets today exceeding print speeds of 20 ppm, the 1300 has some stiff competition.

There comes a time when function should take precedence over fashion. While the 1300’s control panel is quite unobtrusive and simple, interpreting the controls is not. The 1300 has a small lighted “Go” button, with two other lights for “Ready” and “Attention”. The Go button can do several things depending on the sequence and duration the button is pressed. All three lights are used in Morse Code fashion to communicate up to 7 different messages or errors. While it might not have been stylish, I would have opted for an LCD display on the printer.

60 decibels is the level of talking in a room. Now imagine that sound level in your office in the form of a printer. While practically silent in Standby, the LaserJet 1300 produces 63dB during power, wakeup, and printing.