HP LaserJet P1006 Printer

I received this laser printer as a replacement for my HP LaserJet 1020 Printer (Q5911A#ABA) which was roughly the same size and price. The toner for the older laser jet had roughly double the page yield which is my biggest complaint about the HP P1006.

On a positive note: for the price, this printer is outstanding. It installed in under 5 minutes on both Windows XP and Windows Vista (I have it installed on two machines). It prints VERY fast and is reasonably quiet. The print quality is outstanding, even using the economy mode to save toner. For a home office or general home use, this printer can't be beat for its price. It will save the average user hundreds of dollars in ink costs.

Note to users who want to do double sided printing:
I like to print double sided to save paper and in order to consolidate some of my larger print jobs. I've noticed that double sided printing wreaks havoc on this printer... I'm not sure whether its the toner or the printer itself. In any case, after you print several pages double sided the printer fails to produce high quality prints no matter how many times you run the cleaning utility. Instead you get lots of debris and extraneous black spotting on the paper. So, I recommend you steer clear of double sided printing.

I just bought this printer but was aprehensive due to some of the customer feedback I had reviewed. I setup the printer to my Windows XP PC and started to print. I was particluarly concerned about three comments made in reviews that I had read:

1)The printer does not print very good at point 5 font - false
2)The printer makes noise when just turned on - false
3)The printer does not duplex - true

I tried to print a document at point 5 font and to my surprise it was very legible. The quality is very good whether at FasRes600 or FasRes1200.

The printer made virtually no noise when I started it up. I even turned it off then on again and detected very little noise.

The printer does not duplex automatically. However, if you set the prefernce to print on both side, the manual process is quite easy. You simple remove the paper and re-insert exactly as you remove it - no need to re-orientiate. I found this to be a big plus compared to the ink jet printers.

I tried printing a picture at FasRes1200 and I must say the picture was not sharp as I expected from a laser printer. With the exception of words in the picture, the image was quite grainy. But being a monchrome printer, that is not a major issue for me, I will print my pictures on the inkjet.

Cons: The paper tray is open and therefore exposed to dust - then again the open tray makes it easy to re-insert the paper for duplex printing.

HP LaserJet P1006 Printer is an economical way to mono print for home and small office, esp. good for university/college students. It won't waste your time to wait until it's warming up and the 1st page to come.
There is a problem when I am using the printer, that is when you print something duplex, you have to do it manually but the software supporting this feature sometimes go wrong. Except this, the printer is very good. It is reliable and productive.

Great Price on a very fast no problem printer. Cartidges are a little steep pricewise but at 1500 pages per cartridge still a good buy. Order Now

Since I rated this five stars you know I like the printer. Truth is, it's an exceptional value--perfect for the small office or home/kids computer. It's fast, quiet, and with my XP operating system I was up and running within about fifteen minutes. (Being a guy, I did not read directions and I guess luck was with me!)

Within minutes I tried their two-sided printing feature: excellent. Since then, I've come to appreciate the extremely quick start-up, HP's "Instant-on" technology.

One hint I don't believe I've seen mentioned. The set-up discs from HP are known to toss in extras--marketing pop-ups, supplemental software widgets that have nothing to do with the original focus (printing) and who knows what else. Frustrating! At the HP website, you can download the bare-bones, most up-to-date P1006 driver and avoid loading your computer with their needless extras. I've made a habit of this with all new hardware--especially HP.

We have so many choices, I expect a lot. I think, at least this time, HP delivered.