Customer Reviews

HP LaserJet 1320n Monochrome Network Printer

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

As always, here's my honest review with some background.

I've been looking for a good laser printer that I could have on my network for a while now. I have a small office and am an aspiring teacher (currently student teaching). When I can't get to the copy machine at school, I wanted something I could use to do some "mass printouts" for my students. I had an old NEC Superscript, but it frequently paused between pages for a breather and was generally slow.

If you don't need the network card (print server) built into this printer, then the 1320 (not 1320n) would be an amazing value! For me, I wanted the networking, so I was willing to spend the extra money. Setup was relatively simple, changing the IP address was easy, and I was up and running, printing from my Windows XP machines AND my MacOS X (10.3.7) machines.

Now for the printer itself. I'm very impressed with the build quality. Printers have been turning into plastic junk lately, but this one still has metal guts, metal supports holding the paper in the bottom tray, etc. Certain parts seem like generic plastic, but overall it has a nice fit and finish.

Print speeds are amazingly swift! The first thing I put this little print-monster through was a 70-copy worksheet for my students. It took sheet after sheet without a pause! It might grab paper just when the previous sheet is half way through because they seem to keep flying out! Duplex printing was a bonus with this unit - handy in a pinch, but it slows the print speed by about 2-3 times - because it pulls the paper back inside and reprints on the other side... Either way, I dare you to find a quality printer like this, with a duplexer for this price!

Instant on fuser sends paper printing within 8 seconds. Overall, I'm very pleased! I was tempted to get the next model up (2420) but the price difference with no standard duplexer killed that deal.

Wish list? An tiny LCD display telling me whats going on would be nice - but it has lights which do the job just fine. Also - and I'm just dreaming here, it would be nice to see an option for this printer to staple printouts...I know, I've been around pricey copy machines too much!

So, pick yourself up this printer! You won't be sorry. The print quality is very crisp - your well-known HP laser quality, and even graphics are suitable! Its B&W (no color printing), but the money saved on just one toner from time to time as apposed to inkjet cartridges every other month is mind boggling! ...and how often do you need color printing? Some may, but for the bulk of what I print, B&W is fine.

High recommended! ...feel free to contact me if you have any questions that I might be able to help you with.

One-year update (11/2005):
I would now give this printer 5 stars, as my original concerns (below) were superficial/cosmetic issues. The printer has performed wonderfully over the past year, no issues or breakdowns. Toner life has been well beyond my expectations, lasting just over a year of use. (I typically print a lot of academic, text-focused articles. Graphic-heavy works might use toner more quickly.) Printer speed is great, and even pretty decent using the 2-sided mode.

At this point, my only complaint is that the manual feed 'slot' isn't a 'tray'--thus requiring a bit of attention when using. Regardless, I can recommend this printer for home or small-office users who want fast, black and white printing.

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I recently purchased this printer to make printing over my home network easier. Functionally, the printer warms up quickly, text is clear, and it comes installed with some nice fonts one doesn't normally find standard in Windows, such as CG Omega and Univers.

Network setup and installation were easy, you do need to have your own ethernet cable, but you just plug it into your hub, then install software from the supplied CD. I had no problems with installing on 98-SE or XP-SP2 (although the XP computer I had to pay attention during installation to make sure the firewall settings were opened for the print spooler).

I haven't had the printer long enough to speak on toner life, but we'll see.

Two things keep me from giving this printer a perfect review:
1) The images of the printer (on HP's site as well as Amazon) make the printer appear to be the same color scheme as the newer HP PC's, the cool silver and gray-blue. However, the printer is an off-white beige and non-bluish-gray. I was looking forward to the more futuristic color scheme.

2) When I received mine, the HP logo decal was missing from the front of the printer. The empty space for the logo is a bit annoying. I spoke with HP about this and the service rep was very friendly, but they couldn't send me a replacement logo. My only options were to exchange the printer (at no cost), or live with it.

Overall it's a great printer, and the phone service I've received has been courteous. The not-so-cool color scheme and logo fluke aside, I highly recommed it. But spending $500 for a home printer, I expected better attention to details.

I have both Macintosh (OSX) and PC (Windows XP) computers on my home network. So I wanted a network printer so that I would not have to directly connect the printer to any one machine.

A single driver CD-ROM is included with this product. You must load the drivers onto both the Mac and PC. The SAME CD-ROM works with both. Once the HP driver is installed the machines can communicate directly with the printer.

The print quality seems fine, both with graphics and text. Being able to print on both sides of the paper is a really handy feature, and saves paper. The double sided printing is all automatic to the printer. No more printing odd/even pages and flipping!

Laser printers have a few advantages over Ink Jet printers. If you print mostly black/white text/graphics like I do, you will find your print speeds faster with a laser printer. You will also find lower print costs than Ink Jet. Further, toner has a longer shelf life than Ink cartages, since toner is already dry and will not dry out like an unused ink cartridge may.

All and all I am very happy with this printer. I have not had to contact HP support, so I do not have any opinions on the support side of this product.

UPDATE: Mid Nov 2006.
Maintenance parts are available for printer repair "do-it-yourselfers".
(such as rubber rollers, separation pads) at [...]
You save a lot of money if you can find a service manual off someplace like ebay, and the parts from a repair company.
Previously we bought most of our maintenance parts from [...], (but despite claims to the contrary by another reviewer),
PW still doesn't offer 1320 parts.

Printerworks sells parts for the HP1300 printer, NOT the HP1320 series. The 1300 is a rounded looking unit, the 1320 is definitely square-ish.
NOT interchangable.


THE REVIEW:
If it weren't for a couple small problems/isues, I'd give it 5 stars.

PROs:

1. very fast one-sided prints
2. fast 2-sided prints
3. compact size
4. 2 choices of toner catridges:
a.regular toner cartridge 49A (2,500 sheets per cartridge)
(it comes with a 49A, always get the 49X after the starter cartridge runs out. Only a few bucks more and over TWICE as much output capacity)
or
b. eXtended life cartridges, 49X (estimated output = 5,000 - 6,000 sheets)

CONs:
1. unable to find service manuals
(Normally you can get great deals on fee-bay, for HP printer service guides. However, I never see any of the manuals that also include the HP1320 or 1320n).
a. Many times I fix my own printers inhouse, using service manuals and individual parts from a place called Printerworks.
b. Example: a fuser unit. Many times the fuser cakes up, builds up, on the metal roller of the fuser unit. Normally in the middle of the roller.
To buy the whole fuser can be $200 or more, depending on if it is
NEW vs REFURB.
I service a lot of HP4 and 4MV printers.
The metal fuser tube only costs like $40 plus about 45 minutes of time for dis-assembly then re-assembly.
c. I cannot find anything on the hp1320 series at Printerworks, which is really sad. (Maybe HP is deliberately trying to keep endusers from doing their own repairs; who knows).

2. manual feed slot - what were they thinking???
(OOPS......I guess they weren't "thinking").
Nothing to stack your envelopes or stationery on, no pull out plastic piece like most other printers.
It's a crappy, horizontal, single piece feeding slot.
You have to sort of push the envelope in, make sure it starts feeding into the printer.
You can't just insert an envelope and leave, or it will most likely fall out.
LAME, real LAME.

BUT,
Even though there are a few cons, I still like my 1320.

Still need a service manual though, otherwise I'm dread the day it needs new rollers or separation pads, or both.

This printer was purchased for use in an office environment. It's used often everyday, so it has to be dependable. This one has performed nicely so far. I would purchase another one without hesitation.

Been in moderately heavy use for over 2.5 years, prints fast on both sides from the paper tray with no problems. Networking works just fine, wireless (if you have the wireless version) or wired. I never installed anything except the printer driver. Just tell Windows (on whatever computers I want to print from) to "Add a new printer" then "Create a new port" "Standard TCP/IP Port" then use the printer's netbios name or IP address, which is easily configurable in the 1320n's web-browser-based utility.

Main complaint is manual feed. It doesn't work very well. The way it's supposed to work is you open a little door and put an envelope or sheet of paper in a slot. One sheet at a time. No fold-out tray, nothing thing to hold the sheet but a little friction after you push it far enough into the slot. This works OK with envelopes, but with paper the friction is not enough and sometimes the page just falls out of the slot onto the floor.

So apparently the manual feed slot is designed mainly for envelopes. But again, you could really only do one at a time. There's another door you can open on the back of the printer to allow envelopes to go straight through so they don't get bent. And again, there's no tray to hold them; they just fall out the other side. (Make SURE you use the manual feed slot and open that back door if you're printing labels, or they'll get stuck inside the printer.)

In summary, this is a great printer for printing on both sides of plain paper. The problematic manual feed won't be an issue for you unless you're wanting to print stacks of labels, envelopes, or postcards, etc. (The main reason I ever use manual feed is to print on both sides with non-duplex printers, which doesn't apply to this printer.) And if you want to print on letterhead or another color of paper, you can just put it in the main tray.

I have used many printers that were much more expensive in both Apple and Windows network environments. I now have 4 of these babies (3 at work) and one in my wifes home office. They are fast, reliable ( a necessity in my busy office and for my wife who is a consultant and frequently prints reports 200 pages in length ) and economical. In two years, not a single breakdown. HP has a great website if you do have problems or need drivers, etc. I am about to buy a 5th printer (second one for my wifes office). I love it. I usually don't write reviews like this espousing my love for a printer.

We purchased this printer to replace an ancient laser printer we had. We have a home network and multiple computers for the family to use. The printer setup was easy and fast. Connect to the network, install software, Print.
The first page out is fast and duplex printing is great.
We have had this printer for more than 2 years. We have gone through 3 cases of paper with fewer than 5 paper jams during that time. With 3 school children doing the majority of the printing, and adding paper this is remarkable.

The whole reason we bought this printer was because it has Networking built in. However, all jetdirect cards I have used in the past have the STANDARD LPR port and cue. almost all internet printing is doin via LPR. What is the point of having a network based printer if it doesn't use the internet defacto-standard LPR?
Garbage. Thanks for warning HP. This printer is no better than the Junk multifunction inkjet printers. This printer is NOT for buisnesses.

I bought an HP 1320N ((...) on a rebate sale) which seemed like the perfect printer for my OS9/OSX systems at first. However, in OS9 it didn't work at all with AppleTalk (via Chooser), but when connected via AppleTalk LPR (using the Desktop Printer Utility) it went nuts trying to print from Quark Xpress 4.11 (one of my main programs). It would endlessly print a few lines of postscript code on each page from its tray until it was exhausted (then showed an out of paper error to continue its endless printing). Only programs like MS Word would print correctly in the OS9 environment via LPR. In OSX it worked fine using Rendezvous. Then on the sixth day of ownership its network card decided to stop all communication with Rendezvous and even IP printing. I tried re-checking all parameters and settings and finally did resets. No print jobs would complete all the way through pausing at 92% data transferred with nothing printed. This was ridiculous for a company like Hewlett Packard which long has had an excellent reputation in my mind, especially in the Mac graphics world. The 1320N has ended my favorable opinion of HPs since their model lines above the 1320 weren't competitive with other brands. Also, I've been noticing several 1320's (3 total) both regular and N models on display at retail stores showing unrecoverable print errors with their blinking orange LED in the middle of its array. Short of turning it off and on, press any button or open the front toner loader panel and it will still not recover. BTW, they had paper in their paper trays.