HP LaserJet PRO P1102W

A speedy small office printer

The HP LaserJet Pro P1102w's faster than average speed and high quality printing, along with its Wi-Fi capability, make it suitable for a shared printer in the home or small office. As with most monochrome laser printers, the Pro P1102w has good text print quality but lesser quality for graphics and photos. M. David Stone of PCMag.com finds that the graphics he prints sometimes have a dark band inside solid gray areas and a grainy appearance. He considers the text quality, however, to be excellent with more than half the test fonts being easily readable at 6 points.

The P1102w's paper tray holds 150 sheets, which is adequate for home use, though Stone says that it may need to be refilled often if the printer is shared among multiple users. The paper tray is a fold-out front panel rather than a full tray. This helps to reduce the footprint of the printer, which can fit well on the corner of a desk. The P1102w printer handles letter, legal, executive and postcard size paper via its 10-sheet multipurpose tray, as well as envelopes, which are fed through a manual feed slot. The multipurpose tray enables the user to print on different types of paper without removing paper from the main tray or feeding it sheet by sheet through the manual feed slot.

Printing speeds beat reviewer expectations

According to PC Advisor's tests, the P1102w prints text pages at about 14.6 pages per minute on both PC and Mac computers. However, the testers at PCMag.com report printing speeds faster than the manufacturer's claim of 19 pages per minute. Auto-duplexing is not available on this printer, but manual duplexing can be easily accomplished through helpful screen prompts. However, some user reviewers at Amazon.com identify problems with sheets of paper sticking together when duplexing, thus putting the pages out of sequence.

Melissa Riofrio of PC Advisor says she has concerns about the control panel of this printer. The two buttons and three LED lights on the control panel have icons but no word labels to identify what they do. She had to check their meaning in the HTML documentation, where she found useful animated translations of the LED sequences. Stone reports on the ease of the Pro P1102w's physical setup and says that, for PCs, the installation can be run from the printer itself rather than from the included CD. Several user reviewers at Amazon.com have published step-by-step instructions for the printer's wireless installation on Mac computers, as some people reported problems with accomplishing this using the documentation supplied with the printer.

More than three quarters of the more than 200 customer reviews at Amazon.com give the HP LaserJet Pro P1102w a score of at least 4 out of 5 stars. The quality of results and the printer's size receive high marks, but HP's customer support receives an average of 3.5 stars. Several user reviewers comment that though the printer and the input tray feel solid, the output tray feels light and flimsy. The reviews at Newegg.com echo the printer's rating at Amazon.com, with praise for the printer's speed, fast wake-up from sleep mode and quality of printing. Users report that the Pro P1102w can print from iPhones and iPads using AirPrint (after a firmware update).

All reviewers, both professional and users, identify the high cost of the toner as a drawback. PCMag's Stone points out that printers that cost only about 33 percent more have lower running costs. Hundreds of users offer feedback at Amazon.com and Newegg.com.