The HP LaserJet P1102w is a low-end monochrome printer, lasting for a long time since launched by Hewlett Packard 10 years ago. This classic LaserJet printer prints up to 19 pages per minute and is with high energy efficient. Wireless connectivity and mobile printing from a mobile device are easy to set up and reliable. Consumers love it as a personal printer or a workhorse in small offices. By now, there are still many queries about the machine on the internet, such as HP LaserJet P1102w driver, toner, etc. Let's get a little bit deeper review about it.
Compact, light and unremarkable appearance
Simple functionality comes with a light body and compact footprint. HP LaserJet Pro P1102w is very small with 7.7 by 13.7 by 9.4 inches (HWD), and weighs only 11.6 pounds. This black and white laser printer was more compact than many InkJet printers. You can easily find a place in your home or small offices, and even most desks or tables can take it.
The equipment looks like a dark box with a pure high-gloss black plastic body and no contrasting coloring. The most visible parts are an input paper tray on the font bottom and an output tray on the top. Besides the output tray, an intuitive control panel consists of two buttons and three small LEDs indicated by icons with no words. The streamlined design delivers an unremarkable but straightforward element in the environment without a scanner, ADF, or touch screen.
Construction is sturdy to last long, and toner replacing paper jam removing is easy to access from opening the front cover.
Functionality and speed
HP P1102w is a single-function printer with no scan, copy, fax features.
The "sleep" mode saves energy, and it takes a short time to wake up and locate the network with instant on technology. The first page comes out in 8.5s, and the printer works swimmingly at any time after warm-up. It prints up to 19 pages per minute for text, and the graphics speed falls to 13 ppm. A photo prints in 13 seconds at top resolution FastRes 1200, while 10 seconds at normal FastRes 600. Automatic duplex printing is not available, but you can manually reload the printed page, which will be annoying if you want to print some two-sided brochures.
P1102w is sluggish by today's standards of a monochrome laser printer with a printing speed from 22 to 30 ppm. However, this printer was produced with mainstream technology ten years ago compared well with some same-aged Samsung models, such as the ML-2525 and ML-1915.
Moreover, this wireless HP LaserJet printer offers mobile printing ability, enabling you to print from virtually anywhere.
Paper handling
The monthly duty cycle is 5,000 sheets, and the recommended print volume is 250 to 1000 sheets of paper per month.
The capacity of a 150-sheet main input paper tray and the 125-sheet output tray is not low for small and home offices. And the 10-sheet priority input slot by manul loading various materials meets your different printing needs. Most regular papers of different types and sizes are supported, including plain, recycled, heavy, light, cardstock, envelope, postcard, label, etc. The printer can not print on glossy photo papers, and it's not suitable for color photo output.
Overall, it is not a robust printer, but very suitable for personal use or small offices.
Output quality
The HP LaserJet Pro P1102w printer performs well on printing quality.
Text printing is professional and stable, even as low as 7 points. The fonts are well-shaped and crisp, straightforward to read. The output of graphics like tables, charts is a little frustrated. Well, most of the time, bars are smooth, and lines are solid. But, some graphics display noticeable graininess and an unwanted dark band inside a solid gray area. This black and white laser printer is sufficient for in-house use between colleagues but not suitable for essential documents like marketing reports, invoices, contracts, and business cards.
Laser printers struggle with color photos, which is the territory of InkJet printers. HP LaserJet Pro P1102w printer can't print color or glossy photo paper. But it's good enough to show some details for monochrome photos on web pages.
The Cost
Variable prices of HP LaserJet P1102w printer
The reasonable price is about $160. But the printer is now not available from HP official stores both on its website and Amazon. The replacement model is HP LaserJet Pro M102w, priced at $250 according to the information from Hewlett Packard. If you want to buy a new HP P1102w, there is still some inventory from distributors with an extremely high price up to $700, which is even higher than the newest color all-in-one laser printers. Brother MFC L3770CDW, for example, costs $430 and features automatic duplex printing, scanning, copying, and faxing, not to say the printing speed and printing quality. The other option is buying a refurbished one, which is still far more than a wise choice to spend $300 on an old-fashioned model.
HP LaserJet P1102w toner
Genuine HP cartridges for your HP laser printers are laser toner cartridges. The specific toner model is HP CE285A, with a page yield of 1,600 pages. CE285A (also named 85A) is a black toner cartridge, which only prints in monochrome but not colors.
Before using out the starter toner for just 700 pages, the machine will alarm you with a low toner volume signal on the control panel. You should search for toner replacements to feed HP 1102w early.
The running cost
Besides the machine price, we should consider the running cost before deciding to buy. The majority of the money you spend on printing is the consumables if the printing volume is more than several hundred per month. Ink and toner for some cheap printers may cost you a hand and leg in the long run. The secret is the higher cost per page, the more money you spend while printing. We get the cost per page by dividing the toner prices by the page yield, which is the ink and toner can produce.
The original HP 85A CE285A toner cartridge price is $76 from the Hewlett Packard website. The affordable printer comes with an expensive genuine HP P1102w toner with 1,600 pages. After about 3,200 pages of printing, the money you spend on genuine HP 85A toner cartridges is $152, which catches the printer itself.
We get the cost per page for this original HP 85A CE285A toner cartridge, 76/1600=$0.048. If you have a lot of printing works in your small offices, the running cost will be beyond the expectation. A monthly print volume of 400 pages will take $20 per month and $240 per year. 4.8 cents per print is nearly twice as Brother TN760 with 2.6 cents per page cost, which is compatible with DCP L2550DW, HL L2350DW, HL L2370DW, HL L2370DWXL, HL L2390DW, HL L2395DW, MFC L2710DW, MFC L2730DW, MFC L2750DW, MFC L2750DWXL. Brother printers are more economical choices than HP.
Save money with compatible Products.
A printer manufacturer like HP often sells the machine at a low price and makes money from expensive toner replacements. The users have the right to get cheaper compatible Products from third-party producers. Some OEM alternative laser toner cartridges gain a good reputation, such as True Image, LD brand. And, you can shop with confidence from such reliable, compatible toner cartridge suppliers.
True Image is an online compatible toner cartridge retailer that offers excellent cost-efficiency products and a 100% satisfaction guarantee service. Our compatible replacements are from the ISO certificate partner factory, and we stand back on every product we sell. The orders are free of charge shipping all around the USA continent territory, and we follow every step of logistics to your hands. If you wait too long to receive it, we will offer a 20% discount. Defective products and printer damage caused by our replacement cartridges are covered by service too. May someone ask, "will you sell my personal information"? Please rest assured that we will only use your data for our sales purpose.
Please be noted that brand names trademarks images are for reference only, which belongs to their respective owners for the compatible replacements.
Software and Firmware
The HP P1102w operation and bios update are straightforward under HP support. You can download specific files for software and firmware from the HP website, such as HP LaserJet Pro P1102w driver, HP ePrint Software, and HP LaserJet Firmware Update Utility.
Download HP LaserJet Pro P1102w driver
HP LaserJet P1102w driver is the product installation software. You will need it when you buy new equipment, but after that, the driver is often ignored until errors occur to require another installation.
Pro P1102w printer driver has different versions according to the operating system, including MAC OS, Microsoft Windows, and Linux. The downloading page detects your operating system automatically, and you can choose a different OS. The second step for manual selection is to check the OS versions. Pro P1102w printer driver are compatible with most Microsoft Windows like Windows 8 32-bit, Windows Vista 32-Bit, Windows XP, Windows 8.1 32-bit. Then you can download files to install HP P1102w.
Additionally, you can plug and print with HP Smart Install, which is fast and straightforward to process. But HP smart install works with Windows only. The users with another operating system like MAC OS will have to download HP LaserJet Pro P1102w driver from HP support pages.
Wireless connectivity with your IP address and mobile printing with HP Eprint in Wi Fi.
HP ePrint is an HP smart software for network and wireless connected printers. It enables you to connect the printer to a local PC with a USB interface or use wireless connectivity to a mobile device and print from virtually anywhere. The wireless HP LaserJet printer is responsive in a Wi Fi based wireless network and an Ethernet. Set up the machine with your IP address and start the mobile printing.
It's a little disappointing not easy to find and change wireless network settings on this if need changes. Also, if you use the USB cord to set it up locally, the machine will default print via USB instead of a mobile device.
Related printers
As technology develops and the market changes, the OEMs keep launching new models with modifications from the old ones. The modifications can be new functionalities such as wireless, automatic duplex printing, scanning, or improved features like printing speed. LaserJet P1102w printer has many siblings in the HP printer family, and part of them use the same consumables. HP LaserJet P1102w toner CE285A is compatible with printers including HP LaserJet Pro P1100, P1102, P1102W(CE657A#BGJ), P1102W (CE658A#BGJ), and multifunction printers including HP LaserJet Pro M1132, M1210, M1130, M1212NF, M1217NFW. For instance, M1217NFW MFP performs the same as P1102w for printing but enables you to copy, scan and fax.
Interestingly, most of the compatible replacement cartridges 85A can be used in the Canon LBP6000 printer and MF3010 all-in-one, which uses a black toner cartridge named Canon 125. Canon and HP are partners in the printing field, and both launched many similar printers, of which the only difference is the toner chip. Now the third-party consumable manufacturers use a compatible chip to make the OEM alternative 85A toner cartridges universal.
Our suggestion
HP P1102W is a classic single-function monochrome printer. The wireless, affordable and responsive features make it a good choice for personal use. And the good essential paper handling capacity allows it to meet the text printing needs of small businesses. It is not a sturdy printer for high print volume, and the relatively high running cost is a problem in the long run.
As a discontinued printer, you can not get it from HP now, and prices are high from distributers. The replacement printer is HP LaserJet Pro M102w, priced at $249. If you are not an HP addictive user, many options have much better price performance. Brother HL L2370DW is similar to HP 1102w and prints at speeds of up to 36 ppm. Or you can pay a litter more to get the all-in-on MFC L2710DW priced at $220.
