The LaserJet 1010 offers decent prints for a home office or a small business. Unfortunately, the limited expansion options and its middling print quality fail to measure up to the rest of its attributes.While HP has targeted the LaserJet 1010 at the SMB (Small Medium Businesses) market, we think this little laser is better suited as a personal laser or one for the small office instead. The rather low 12ppm rated output and 5,000 pages per month duty cycle just don't seem to withstand the rigours of a larger workspace.
The AU$379 LaserJet 1010 departs from the boring large, beige look and transcends to a very compact grey ensemble. Measuring just 371 x 231 x 208mm, this LaserJet is almost half the size of the older LaserJet 1000! However, the weight remains at 7.25kg--not exactly featherweight, but it lets you move the unit around without breaking into sweat.
Aesthetically, the LaserJet 1010 took its cue from the company's Color LaserJet 2500, bearing some of the pleasing curves. What's becoming a norm for most personal lasers is, the rounded top of the printer which doubles as an output tray. Disappointingly, the paper is similarly held up by a piece of plastic. While the support is considerably better constructed than, say, Samsung's range of personal lasers, the one on the LaserJet 1010 will still be unable to hold up the 150 pages that the input tray can supply.
The LaserJet 1010 does have some budget tradeoffs. Neither its 8MB of installed memory nor its paper capacity (150-sheet input) is upgradeable. However, its redeeming feature stems from its ability to allow for networking--both wireless and wired--through an optional Jetdirect print server.
The LaserJet 1010 is easy to set up as long as you do not have another printer installed on the same machine. The installation program refuses to install completely on a setup which has other printer drivers left on the PC. While there are clear installation and usage directions, the troubleshooting section covers only the basics. If you can't solve your problems here, HP does offer telephone support via HP's Customer Care for the duration of the one-year warranty. Electronic support is also available through HP's Web site.
In any case, on a relatively clean system, this LaserJet will install smoothly and without issue. The CD also comes with a detailed user guide and a copy of Adobe Acrobat for reading it. Adding to the list of pluses, a USB cable ships together with the unit so you won't have to interrupt your workflow when you realise you don't have one.
The LaserJet 1010, rated at 12ppm (pages per minute), performed rather well in our tests. It finished our normal-quality 10-page test in about 58 seconds, which translates to about 10.3ppm. This puts it behind even Samsung's affordable personal lasers such as the ML-1710 and ML-1750. Although the print speed wasn't exactly stunning, the duration, from sending the print job to the first page being printed, was a zippy 13 seconds, which can be attributed to the "Instant-on" feature found on the likes of the higher-end LaserJet 5100 series.
In terms of print quality, text output was excellent, staying clean and legible even down to a 2-point font size. Although the marketing jazz says this laser is capable of 1,200dpi, this is achievable only on HP's own LaserJet paper. Still, we doubt there's really any need for anything more than 600dpi for text. With respect to graphics, the LaserJet 1010's images were mediocre. While the printouts gave off good contrasts, photos lacked crispness and detail--there is noticeable dithering and edges look slightly jagged.
The LaserJet 1010 comes with a 2,500-page starter cartridge. Frugal users will also like the option in the software drivers to use less ink, allowing the yield to increase with the tradeoff of slightly lighter outputs.
The HP LaserJet 1010 will prove to be a good choice for the home or small office only. Given its lack of expandability and rather low duty cycle, making it serve a larger workgroup may lead to more headaches from possible breakdowns. Nevertheless, its reasonable print quality and speeds amount to one of the better personal lasers for the money.
HP LaserJet 1010
Company: HP Australia
Price: AU$379
Distributor: Selected resellers
Phone: 13 23 47
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