Customer Reviews

HP LaserJet 1022 Printer (Q5912A#ABA)

5 star:		(63)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

The Good:
- super fast printing
- almost perfect print output (super dark black & wide range of greys)
- compact size, won't overwhelm your desk
- connects by USB port

The Bad:
- noisy when printing (whirring motor)
- manual feed holds only a few sheets or a couple of envelopes
- usb port issues (this can be fixed, see below)
- connects by USB port and nothing else

This laser printer is the best value for its performance and output. I had a LaserJet 6P which is a dinosaur now, still works perfect but doesn't understand PostScript3. I got tired of printing Japanese text by first having to make a pdf and then print. Now I can print directly to the printer. The text is near perfect on a scale of 1-5, i'd say 4.5. Unless you are going to buy a $600 Ricoh, you should really consider this printer solely based on its speed and text output. Even compared to other $300 models, this printer can hold its own and may even be better in some cases. It is kind of noisy when it prints- a deep whirring noise - it's bearable but should be mentioned. The manual feed can only hold a thin amount which could be a problem for some people who are going to be printing onto a lot of envelopes. And unfortunately you can't load envelopes into the main compartment. Also the actual printing of envelopes can be annoying, you have to press the button on the printer before it prints any envelopes and you have to do it for each single one - there might be a way around this but I haven't figured it out yet.

The USB issue:
yes, HP tech support can be frustrating as with any company. But my experience wasn't as horrible as others here have had. I received two follow up phone calls, even one from an HP technical engineer about this usb issue::

through trial & error, here is what I did to make it work:
If you are having problems connecting the USB printer to your computer, i.e. WinXP won't recognize the printer, you need to disable the USB 2.0 Enhanced Host Controller. For some reason, on some computers running WinXP, the USB printer port is recognized as an "Unknown Device." It affects any USB port, doesn't matter if it's USB 2.0 w/Firewire or an older port. It can be fixed easily with a little tweak. I'm sure a lot of people have returned the printer b/c they thought they couldn't print or it was incompatible. Not everything works perfectly straight out of the box, what fun would that be?...

You may also have the same problem if you plan to connect the printer to a router or print server. I have a wireless Linksys Print Server and it does not recognize the USB printer. I have asked Linksys to update their Firmware. When it will happen? who knows.

Keep in mind this is a brand new model for HP and issues will arise they may not have the needed tech support yet. Notwithstanding, for this price and excellent output, I think it's worth it.

I have had my 1022 for about 9 months now, and have yet to have any sort of problems and I'll never buy another inkjet. It prints quickly, and while it lacks a duplex unit, the driver does support a sort of make-shift duplex printing. Select double sided printing, and print. It prints one side of all pages, then you can put the stack back in the printer without changing the orientation and hit one button on the printer to print the opposite sides. No need to remember how to manually print alternate pages in reverse order and so forth...saves me so much ink and paper. (This works on my mac. I assume it also works on windoze.)

Also, I would like to point out I have printed over a ream of paper and haven't needed a new cartidge and have no signs of ink shortage.

---Update---

I have now had this printer for close to 4 years, so I thought I would update the review. For the past two years, I've been using the printer substantially less. (I am no longer a student and don't have frequent need to print things.) I am still on the first print cartridge, and am most of the way through what is probably my third ream of paper since purchasing the printer.

The printer still works for most things, but it has developed some problems.

* For some reason, ink seems to stick too long on the barrel, so I get text ghosting on the page, i.e. text at the top of the page gets printed faintly again halfway down the page, on top of whatever text is supposed to be there. This isn't bad enough to cause difficulty reading, but doesn't look very professional. I can no longer use the printer for things like resumes.

* Sometimes i I haven't printed anything in a while, the printer puts out a puff of smoke after ech printed page. This isn't a problem with functionality, per se, but is sort of worrisome and makes me think the printer wont last too much longer.

* With OS X 10.5, printing over Airport no longer works properly. I'm more inclined to blame Apple than HP for this, but neither company seems inclined to do anything about it at this point. I now need to physically connect the printer to my laptop with a USB cable, which is somewhat annoying.

* There doesn't seem to be any channel for having the printer repaired or doing self maintenance. I'm sure *someone* can fix it, but likely at more than the cost of a new printer. Again, we are back to the sad situation of printers being sold as throw-away products. I will probably have to buy a new printer to replace this one, even though this one should meet my needs.

Overall, I still think this printer is a much better purchase than an InkJet, but I would lower my rating to 3 stars because HP apparently follows a design philosophy of planned obsolescence, even with their LaserJets. I'd like to find something that is designed to last a bit longer without having to buy a huge, high-dollar office printer. For comparison, many Apple LaserWriters (produced 1985-88) are still operational. They just don't build them like they used to.

Running Windows XP; SP2; on a single Gateway Profile computer. Microsoft Office 2003.

I read earlier reviews and it would appear that this printer either works for you and gets 5 stars, or doesn't work and gets 1 star. There is little in between.

We bought it about three months ago as a replacement for an old HP 4P that finally died. The difference is remarkable. The 1022 installed quickly (USB); has a small footprint; prints the first page of a job very quickly; is fast; relatively quiet; prints cleanly; handles paper well; does envelopes (one at a time). But I would stress that we use it lightly, perhaps a few pages a day and I can't comment on how it would stand up under very heavy use.

Note that a new cartridge is about 1/3 of the cost of an entire new printer.

Still, we recommend it.

I see there are some conflicting reviews about this printer, but I guess as always it depends on who is using the printer and what they're using it for. I use this printer in my home office for personal and very light business use, meaning I don't print more than about 10 or 15 pages per day. In this capacity, I've been thrilled with it so far.

The set-up was so easy---about five minutes to put everything together, Windows XP recognized it right away and the software only took seconds to install. I've had no problems with it now after using it daily for nearly three weeks. To me, it's fast, easy and high-quality, just like I would expect from HP.

I have been very impressed by this printer for the price. It zips through pages and looks a lot better than the Brother and Samsung purchased by our office. I am using it on Mac OS 10.4.7 & 10.3.9, but installations at the office in 2 Dell XP Pro PCs went without a hitch. The noise level strikes me as pretty quiet, especially compared to the old HP LJs that I used to support.

If you do a lot of printing, step up to the LJ1320. It's faster and has a 5,000 page cartridge availble that lowers toner cost to less than 2.5cents per page. The 1022 only has a 2000 page cartridge available. The 1320 goes on sale for only a hundred dollars more than the 1022.

...and I do mean it works. I'm planning to buy this printer for my home PC because I've been using this model daily at work for about 10 weeks. I print a high volume at work - approximately 1/2 a ream of paper every day over a 9-10 hour period. I use an entire toner cartridge about every 10 working days. The HP Laserjet 1022 has been a champ, printing mainly on standard printer stock, but also various Avery 8.5x11 label sheets - with multiple runs thru the printer, the occasional envelope, and some two-sided pages as well. The prints are uniformly crisp and clean until the toner begins to run out; by removing and shaking the cartridge, then re-inserting it, i've been able to get an extra day's printing out of each cartridge, roughly another 100-200 sheets. And it prints so fast!
I didn't set up the printer myself - our IT tech did; but it took him only a few minutes, and it's running fine on my WinXP Pro operating system; I expect it to run equally well on my Win2K Pro O/S at home.

I bought this item for printing chemistry journal articles for graduate school. I wanted something reasonably fast and economical. I distinctly remembered as an undergrad trying to print a 30 page article on my HP PSC 2110 and waiting forever.

This seems like a good printer. Setup was a breeze. Envelopes are easily done, although it feels like they aren't as gracefully handled as in the PSC2110 (apples and oranges comparison, though). The printouts look great. I'm very pleased with my purchase. HP printers have never let me down.

After receiving the printer I followed all the directions for set up, hit the switch and watched the first page get half way through when it died. No useful information comes with the product to help so I had to go to the HP web site. Their on line diagnostic system polled the printer and then looped back to the start page half a dozen times and never gave any info. Called the listed number only to get recording stating the office hours had just ended for the day... 24/7 tech support?
The next day I called the "HP invent" number and yep, you guessed it, hello Bombay! After ten minutes of "is it pluged in?" and "did you put paper in the printer?" questions I was told it must be broken and that they would be happy to send me a reconditioned unit in a week or so. My other option was to take it to a local HP repair center which I did. After three days of no action and several follow up phone calls I was told it was broken and that it would have to go back to HP as there were too many things that were not working and that the local repair center would not be sent the parts by HP because of the type of problems. But not to worry, I would probably receive a nice refurbished unit in about 5 to 7 days even though I did pay full price for a new one. Let the buyer beware, no help from HP when you really need it!
If I ever get the printer back and working I'll let you know how it works.

After researching laser printers by HP, I settled on this model, and I couldn't be happier. As others have said, it's a little noisy, but for what it does, I find it perfectly acceptable. I was a little worried by some of the other reviews concerning the compatibility of this printer model and Windows XP, but after installing the printer exactly as specified in the instructions, it runs perfectly. This is a great first laser printer for home office use. It's easy to use, the toner cartridge is easy to install, and it prints very fast with great quality. I am very pleased. And as always, Amazon's service is great.

I could not install this printer because of a false jammed paper signal. Turns out the factory turns the jammed paper recovery off to increase printer speed. What a stupid idea. Accordingly, I could not recover from this false signal; had to return printer. Also, searching on the web I discovered that many people had the same problem with other than the 1022 HP model. In addition, was unable to get help from HP. Also, software from printer did not play well with my XP system, had warning that printer software was not compatible with XP.