HP Laserjet 1160 review

HP's latest Laserjet offering will make a tempting proposition for the small or home office user. Not only does it have a quoted print speed of 20ppm, but the retail price is an impressively low £219 inc VAT.

HP claims the 1160 is capable of 1,200dpi resolution, although this is only through anti-aliasing, giving each dot space one of four different levels of black, and leading to an apparently improved resolution. In truth, however, the difference between the 1160's text quality in 600dpi mode and 1,200 FastRes mode was negligible, and we noticed that some printed characters had been unevenly printed at the higher resolution. Not only this, but print speeds slowed down from 20ppm to 15ppm.

Printing in economy mode had no effect on print speed, but HP claims that switching to this will result in the mechanics of the toner cartridge expiring before the toner itself runs out. If economic running is what you're after, though, the Kyocera FS-1020D (see A List, p46) is still unbeatable at 0.68p per page.

Text quality in normal 600dpi mode was excellent, with characters remaining sharp and readable at the smallest font sizes. Our complex Excel graphs and spreadsheets were clearly legible, and line graphics such as bar charts and technical diagrams were clear, making the 1160 perfect for classroom and small office environments.

Laser printers can struggle with solid patches of grey, but the HP managed to perform without noticeable amounts of dithering. Reproducing high-resolution graphics proved a tough test for the 1160, which in 600dpi mode produced rather grainy, noisy images that you won't want to use in important presentations. However, here the FastRes technology came into its own, producing an image that was noticeably better than the standard 600dpi version. This is the one area where it was notably better than the FS-1020D.

The actual specifications of the HP are rather run-of-the-mill, but the printer doesn't suffer for it. Just 16MB of RAM had no effect on our print speed tests but will account for a delay if the printer is connected to a network and spooling multiple jobs. Unfortunately, such a connection will have to be made through a print server, as the 1160 doesn't have a network card installed.

The 1160's build quality is everything we've come to expect from HP's Laserjet series. Certain aspects, such as the fold-out tray used to print onto envelopes, have a rather plastic feel to them, but the parts that will see the most use, such as the main paper feed tray, feel like they'll last for years.

HP's printer driver is utilitarian but works well. The driver generates a web page when viewing printer status and toner cartridge condition that allows the user to print test and status pages as well as start troubleshooting.

The reason the driver can afford to be simple is that the 1160 is hardly feature-heavy. No duplexing or networking means this is a machine better suited to a classroom or home office than a large workgroup. However, the 1160 is still a fine machine - it just doesn't offer quite enough to knock Kyocera off the A List.

Author: Dave Stevenson