Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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190 of 200 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
UNBELIEVABLE VALUE, QUALITY AND LONG-TERM INVESTMENT, November 12, 2005
I purchased my HP 1020 laser printer at Office Depot for $129.99. This was a good bargain even compared to online shopping prices. I know that if you are patient, and you perform a bit of due diligence, you can get this printer "new, never opened, and unrefurbished" on eBay for around $100-120 (I know this because I bought a secnod one as a Christmas present for $105 on eBay). Note however, it does not come with a 2.0 cable - so you will have to buy one to connect it to your computer ($25 in the retail stores and $5-7 on eBay). I am one of those shoppers that "does his homework" before making purchases. I was buying this to replace my miserable Brother HL-1440. I say miserable despite its generally good ratings because the poor LONG-TERM value of this printer clearly outweighed the initial features. What I mean by this is that the Brother requires not only the replacement of a toner cartridge at, what $60 per shot? But also, an EXPENSIVE DRUM every 4-5 toner cartridges. The drum alone cost about $130!! You might as well buy a new laser printer - which I DID. Printer manufactureres are like drug dealers in a way- they sell the printer itself for cheap to lure you in...the hit you hard when it comes to the cartridges (and/or drum).
The beauty of the HP-1020 is that it is very inexpensive, efficient, blazing fast (as advertised - 353% faster) from the time you click "print" to when the printer actually spits our your document (about 4-5 seconds) even when the printer is not "warm." Also, THIS PRINTER DOES NOT REQUIRE A DRUM REPLACEMENT. The cartridges cost $70 if you pay full price, but I found new, original HP nonrefurbished cartridges for $55 (including the shipping cost) - never buy them in a store, always buy online from a reputable retailer like "New Egg".
Anyway, this prints very clean documents, and set-up could not be easier, even for a non-techie. I actually set this printer up on my home network so my wife could print from her (wireless internet connection) laptop, directly to the HP-1020 which I connected to my desktop computer. It is pretty cool.
FREE ADVICE: Don't listen to the untrained computer store high schoolers help who tell you (or me) that you need a network enabled printer to set up a network printer whereby you can share the printer with other computers or laptops on your network - you DON'T. Just search online for directions on how to set it up (and make sure your firewalls are DISABLED on all computers to add the new printer - you will know what I'm talking about once you try to set it up).
As for the specs of the HP-1020, don't let the 600x600 dpi mislead you. It prints equally as well if not better than as those "1200 x 1200" dpi printers - you will NOT be able to see a difference. If you can think you can, set up an appoinment with your optomotrist. In other words, why waste away your hard-earned $$$, which can be as much as an extra $50-100, just for useless specs that do not represent the true and actual print quality of documents you will receive? Put that $$$ towards a back-up toner cartridge. Besides, Hewlett-Packard utilizes some sort of "dpi enhancement" on the HL-1020 to maximize its 600x600 dpi to give you a 1200x1200 type print quality.
There was a newer model, i.e., HP-1022 with "better" dpi specs and more memory (8mb versus 2mb on the HP-1020). Again, don't let this mislead you into paying more than you have to. The memory supplied in the HP-1020 is PLENTY. Trust me, I am one of those guys that always wants the "best AND MOST features" on electronics - so if I thought it was necessary, I would have purchased the HP-1022.
The funny thing is, every time I would print on my old Brother HL-1440, my computer would ALWAYS give me an irritiating "not enough memory"-type pop-up everytime I printed, despite the fact I had over 24 MB of memory in the printer itself! NOT ANYMORE! This HL-1020 printer works flawlessly with 2 mb of memory. Also, if you are thinking about buying the HP-1022, the ratings I've seen online as not nearly as good as the HP-1020. In fact, the HP-1020 has received nearly perfect 5-star ratings from about 12-15 reviewers I've seen on the internet from different review websites. Plus, the HL-1022 costs about $70 more! For what?
In sum, I would HIGHLY recommend the HL-1020 printer for home or even small business use. It's truly a value, and you will not go broke once you get through the first toner cartridge. Thus, TWO thumbs up and FIVE stars. Oh by the way, I did look at other brands, HP seemed to be favored over others in reliability, quality, etc.
I hope this helps your shopping decision.
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92 of 97 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Solid printer, July 1, 2005
I have a model 1012 at work and liked it so much I bought a 1020 for home (the 1012 was unavailable at the time.) They are virtually the same machine. I have found these to be easy to use and pretty fast printers. I like the manual paper feed slot and use it often for envelopes and labels.
And, unlike Golden Comet, who either has a dozen printers at home or is in HP Marketing writing advertisements disguised as reviews, I am a regular customer with no bias towards or against HP products.
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74 of 78 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Small but powerful, October 22, 2005
I bought this for use with my new Mac mini and was surprised to find that HP does not have any Mac drivers for the LJ 1020. (In the spirit of full disclosure, the box does list only Windows systems under the minimum systems requirements - I just didn't look since it did not occur to me that they would not have Mac drivers) I traded e-mails with HP and they indicated that I should return the unit for a refund since it was not designed to be Mac compatable. I then Googled a bit and found out that users were having success with the LJ 1022 drivers (as Amazon Lover indicates here) so I tried these and it worked like a charm. (December 2006 Update - It seems HP has updated the drivers on their website to delete functionality of the 1020 using the 1022 drivers. Not to worry - just Google HP 1020 Mac OSX and it will bring up sites that have the old drivers). I really don't know why HP Tech Support wouldn't know this. I like the unit as it has a small footprint on my desk, starts up fast, has excellent print resolution and a good capacity for the paper tray. I replaced an aging HP LaserJet 5P at about one quarter the cost and am very pleased with the unit.
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