HP LaserJet 1020 Printer (Q5911A#ABA)

Really nice printer, it's black and white ink, but does the job better than my higher quality printer,

My rating is arbitrary, because I haven't had time to really use this yet, but I wanted to say this DOES work with Vista.

I almost didn't buy this based on some people not getting this to work with Vista, but i found it on sale at Best Buy ($100) by accident, and decided to try it.

Technically, it should NOT work with Vista. As of June 2007, I checked HP's site, and they do NOT list this as Vista compatible, and the general driver HP says it has made available for SOME printers is not applicable for this one.

Well, I have a SONY Viao that has never been loaded with anything but Vista....and it worked fine the first time I loaded it from the set up CD, and I have already printed something.

It was a 10 minute setup. The software loading was a little confusing--I can't remember exactly what happened, but it almost seemed like I had to load it twice...maybe that is throwing people off--but it ultimately loaded and worked.

And yes, you do need a cheap USB cable. Mine cost like $5 at the grocery store and is working like a charm.



I have had this printer at work for some time now, and just bought a second one for home. Having had other laserjets in the past, I am very happy with this one - quick to set up straight out of the box, and a fantastic printing speed.

i just duel booted my lappy with xp and vista, (6-15-07), and as long as you use the cd that comes with it to install it and then plug it in when it asks, it will work perfectly. i hope this helps with any vista compatability issues, and good luck.

this printer is GREAT!!!

The HP4L performed flawlessly for over 10 years. Lightning took it out.
This one is considerably faster with a larger paper tray at a fraction of the price.

I bought this to replace my original HP 4L Laser jet after 15 years. This seems to do a great job so far, much faster downloads and clean print,BUT BEWARE.... IT DOES NOT COME WITH A USB CORD TO CONNECT, so if the printer your replacing has the old stle connecter (as mine did) be ready to spend another $35.00 for a usb cord. That is why I gave it 4 instead of 5 stars.

I got the Laserjet 1020 printer for my father; I decided it was time for him to upgrade to a laser printer from his slow as molasses Officejet ink printer. I selected the 1020 because of the superior reliability and quality of HPs and the great reviews this particular model received. Not to mention, I have owned a HP Laserjet 6L printer since 1998 and it is still churning out print jobs, albeit it squeaks a bit now, but it's still doing its thing with precision and speed. So I figured if HP can make a printer that can last almost 10 years so far, with HEAVY printing, then I better stick with them. My 6L got me through thousands of pages of law school research/writing, and years well beyond.

The 1020 is extremely fast and has exceptional print quality. Hit print and it is printing with hardly any delay in between. (Note: I haven't tested it out printing graphics just text).

The 1020 connects to your computer via a USB cable. Unfortunately the 1020 doesn't come with one but I bought mine here on Amazon for $10: Belkin F3U133-10-GLD 10' USB 2.0 A/b Device. If you want even cheaper get this one for $8: Belkin Pro Series USB 2.0 Device Cable (USB A/USB B, 10 Feet). I prefer Belkin but there are other brands that sell USB cables even under $8. I don't know why HP doesn't include a USB cable but it's not a big deal; you don't have to spend an arm and leg on one.

Unlike what other reviews have indicated, a brand new, factory-sealed HP 1020 printer DOES indeed come with a toner cartridge. So if yours didn't, you need to take that up with your seller and find out why the box was opened and toner cartridge removed because you aren't getting what you paid for. (Be sure to purchase from a reliable seller.) The toner cartridge slides easily into the printer.

Installation only requires you to put in the installation CD (before you connect the printer) and your computer will do the rest. However, I did run into a snag. I didn't delete the prior Officejet 600 software thinking I didn't have to. But once I loaded the 1020 software, the computer would only recognize it as software for the Officejet 600 printer and not for the 1020. My only solution was to delete all the Officejet software and reload the 1020 software. Only then did the computer fully recognize the 1020. I must have erred somewhere in loading the 1020 because it shouldn't have been a problem to add another printer, but since I knew my father was never going to use the Officejet again, it was just easier to delete all remnants of it from computer and start from scratch loading the 1020. (I only have the patience to research computer issues when it is absolutely necessary. Otherwise, "delete" or "system restore" is my preferred resolution method.) After software was loaded, I plugged in the USB and power cord and I was printing seconds later.

There are two things I don't like about the 1020:

1. It doesn't have a stand-by/hibernate mode; it's either on or off controlled by a power switch. My 6L will automatically power down after a certain amount of inactivity without having to manually turn it off. And, as soon as I hit "print" again, it wakes up and seconds later it is spitting out my print job--no having to flip power switches. I guess I am spoiled but I don't like having to flip the power switch on the 1020 to turn it on/off because I probably would forget to turn it off.

2. The 1020 feeds paper from the front of the printer via a pull-out tray. Thus, you have to free up space in front of the unit to make room for the tray. My 6L feeds from the top and doesn't require any additional desk space apart from the unit itself. If you have plenty of desk space then it's an irrevelent issue but it sometimes space is in short supply.

All in all, I am very pleased with the 1020. For the average user, I cannot see why the 1020 wouldn't suit your needs very well. The 1020 is worth far more than $99 (on sale) at Staples. And please don't pay more than $100 because it is on sale every week at any given office/computer store--at least in my area. My 6L printer cost me over $600 back when I got it and it is nice to know $100 can buy its equal today.

I agree with the reviewer who said it was inexcusable that HP still has no Vista driver for this printer.

It worked great when I had XP, but then I was forced to upgrade to Vista due to other issues and of course the printer has been sitting like a lump under my desk for two months now!

I'm quite unhappy with HP's timetable of releasing a driver by JULY. Come on guys, Vista was in beta for how long? It's not as if you didn't know it was coming.

And I tried using the original CD that came with the printer to install on Vista, the way another reviewer suggested. I couldn't get it to work no matter what.

For that one week between getting the printer and installing Vista, it was great. I would have given it 4 stars out of 5.

It took a while for me to find a decent printer to replace my antique HP InkJet 500 series printer, but am glad that I waited this long for the HP LaserJet 1020 printer. It took less than 15 minutes for me to remove packing materials, insert the ink cartridge, and have its configuration software installed onto my laptop computer (Incidentally the ink cartridge is designed to produce up to 2,000 pages.). For most of the installation I used the very easy to view installation manual (which comes with the computer on a CD that also contains the installation software) that has both still and motion picture images to demonstrate how one can easily assemble the printer and have it running in a very short period of time. Afterwards I tested the printer by printing two pages; these are the best printed pages I have seen from a laser printer - or rather, from any printer - that I've used previously. I have no doubt that this small, excellent printer will be an invaluable workhorse lasting for years.

These laserjets are well designed, work well and are easy to use. (We use 5 of the similar 1012 model and they are good workhorses.
The 1020's installation disk is great -- with good pictures, easy instructions that any normal person could follow. Much better than the manuals written in engineering language. HP should be complimented.

It's not true. when I received the printer, I found that the printer did not have any cartridge. so, I had to buy the cartridge. the information is not true. be careful. I was very upset.

Should have purchased this printer long ago. It is compact, performs great and does not require the high cost of constantly having to buy ink-jet cartridges. I highly recommend this printer to anyone who works from home and needs a reliable, affordable printer to "get the job done"!

A number of reviewer have reported what HP's support site reports - that the LaserJet 1020 does not work on Windows Vista. Just use the original driver CD that comes with the printer and run the installation on Vista. The installer automatically detects the printer and installs the driver. This printer works perfectly with these drivers on Windows Vista Home Premium edition.

This is a small bodied laser printer which "flies" and is a cost saver for the everyday text printing that needs no fancy color etc. Very happy, easy to use, easy to install, cartridges life makes for inexpensive running. Perfect for the student, home office and personal use. A good looking unit.

This is an excellent product at an outstanding price. It makes laserjet qualty affordable and there should be no question of whether or not it is a good value. I have recommended this to several friends who have already purchased this laser jet printer

Well made and nice text output. The only criticism I have of this printer is the paper tray. While these have a very small footprint, to load paper, you need to open the tray which sticks out and takes up more space the tray stays open as long as you need to print. Also the paper is exposed, so its subject to curling, fading, etc. Not big issues, but my personal preference is a drawer style. Overall a great printer. Got a great deal on it at Amazon.

The Canon Laser Jet is easy to install and produce the pictures you need. The footprint is small and so can fit in most available spaces. Very pleased with this product.

Worked great when I had XP. Now that I've upgraded to Vista, it's a $200 paperweight with collateral doorstop duties. No Vista driver, Bummer.

i was very happy with the printer under XP, great print speed & quality. Typical HP though haven't released Vista drivers - it's may 07, surely it's time? sadly it uses a specialist driver & not a generic one windows can clone.
here is what hp have to say

HP is committed to providing the best experience for HP products in the Windows Vista operating environment.
Today, a solution for your product is not available in Microsoft's Windows Vista. Some drivers will be available as early as January 2007. HP expects to complete the certification process for applicable drivers by July 2007. Drivers will be posted as they are completed.
HP aspires to provide the most up-to-date information on HP drivers and software. Please check back soon for updates.


i'd buy it again if i was running XP but other OS users beware.

I adore this printer. I got it to replace the HP LaserJet 4P, which replaced my HP LaserJet II. It is fast. I rarely jams. When it jams, it tells you what to do to unjam it. It is small. It is quiet. I'm a writer and print a lot of pages, and this puppy does the job far better than its predecessors.

The printer is fast and has enough quality to impress. The only drawback I found (probably my own ignorance) is the workaround for changing default setting A4 paper to letter.

I've had the 1012 for years and it is a solid work horse printer. No problems at all and I've banged it around a bit while travelling.

The 1020 is about the same size, a little lighter, faster! and is built rock-solid just like the 1012.

No complaints - I love these low-end HP laserjets - they're small, reliable and cheap.

I talked my boss into buying a LaserJet 1020 for me to use at work, mostly for printing work tickets and service requests for equipment that needs to go out for factory repairs. (We're a two-way radio shop.) We previously used an ink jet for this purpose. It got to the point where we were buying a $30 cartridge every couple of weeks. Sure, we tried refilled cartridges; sometimes they worked, sometimes not. Also, the inkjet was frustratingly slow, especially when we had a customer standing there waiting for their paperwork!

The 1020 has roughly the same footprint on the desk as an average ink jet unit, the print quality is a bit better and as far as speed goes it simply blows the ink jet away! Of course, it doesn't do color, but that's not a consideration in our application. We've been using the original toner cartridge that came with the printer for a few months now and it's still printing just fine. HP says it's good for about 2000 pages per cartridge, or more if you use the 'toner saver' mode, which we're using. Toner saver reduces the print quality just a bit, but we're printing service tickets, not wedding invitations.

Unlike some other budget printers, the $69 (list price) cartridge includes everything; you don't need to replace a drum (that costs more than a new printer!) after a few thousand pages. One inexpensive laser printer is well known to crunch envelopes with frightening regularity. I can tell you from personal experience that the 1020 handles envelopes just fine. The print won't smear if your envelope catches a few raindrops on the way to the mailbox, like certain inkjets.

The only cons I can think of is that it's just a little bit noisy and it's somewhat slower than the big machines in the front office. No big deal in either case, especially considering the price. All in all, I liked it enough that I bought one to use at home. The only thing that annoys me about that is that it's suddenly about $40 less than I paid! Oh, well... By the way, the printer is manufactured in China, but isn't everything these days.

I've had this printer going for the last 3 weeks, and printing 5 to 15 pages a day. Yes it works, and works well! I would order this printer again.

This is a very nice printer and a good upgrade from an inkjet printer. It is fast, quiet, and produces good results. However, it lacks a Vista driver so it no longer works with my upgraded Vista computer. HP is really dragging their feet on providing a driver.

Aside from being compact & 15ppm fast, the Hp 1020 printer does a great job of printing checks and deposit slips when used with any checkmaking software and a MICR toner cartridge from checksnet.

Tried a few toner cartridges from several sources for my Hp 1020 and discovered that some MICR toner is not as dark, flakes off paper and my checks were unreadable when tested at bank. Went back to checksnet cartridges, everything fine again and better page yield.

I have bought this for about 8pp in my office for their Black and White desktop printer. So far NOT ONE problem. The toner is long-lasting and affordable. Great quality- small desktop footprint. Does a great job with envelopes, labels and even light cardstock.

I would highly reccommend to anyone.

If you need a home light duty printer that provides professional laser printed documents perhaps say for a small home business or a private laser printer for an executive's office this is perfect. It is not for huge jobs or big projects but for the little jobs that need professional flair.

I like this printer a lot and would probably have given it 5 stars, but it gets a major demerit thanks to the fact that it does not work with computers running Vista. HP will not be releasing the drivers until July of this year. So if you want to print now and not wait six months, and you've already upgraded to Vista, I recommend getting a different printer. Hopefully HP will get the message and release some drivers. Vista has been in beta for a long time, so I find this delay to be inexcusable.


This little printer prints fast and clearly. I always thought a laser printer would be out of reach for me, cost-wise, but Amazon's price was quite reasonable (in fact it's still the lowest I've seen, a month later). Most of the things I print are in b&w anyway and I love not having to wait while my inkjet printer grinds out a page. I recommend this printer wholeheartedly.

nice printer, good DPI. doesn't have the bells and whistles of a more procy printer like color or automatic printing on both sides. It meets everything it claims though.

I bought this printer strictly for traveling. I need to print hundreds of pages when I go to Las Vegas. I shipped the printer there, opened it, printed about 600 pages, and shipped it back home. It's just like the 1010 I have at home, it works great. Easy decision...

If you just use this as a local printer connected through USB, it works great. If you try to network it using a print server, it has big problems. I do light printing on this particular printer and the original toner has lasted me since August... pretty good. It's warms up fast and prints at a good pace. Pretty good for the price. Although Samsung and Brother sometimes run specials for lower priced laser printers.

Printer works great, good quality and economic. However, the paper cover tray was not included which I thought was part of the printer.

I've had this printer for several months, and I highly recommend it. It's small and fast and very reliable. I bought it because of the price, but I have been very pleasantly surprised by its other features as well.

I have bought this printer for my personal use at home.
It is good and reliable printer for the price.

Somehow, it arrived with software instalation CD in a forein language which was a big inconvenience.

The white color chose by manufacturer is a questionable. It is a white spot in a room and I bet for many households it can be a problem.

Also, lack of any controls buttons is inconvenient to restart a job even after paper reload.

After reading a recent negative, I was compelled to leave a review. I've used this printer daily for over two years and it is "the" one low price HP monochrome printer that I recommend to all of my customers without reservation.
The positives:
* Reliable
* Versatile paper use
* No compatibility problems (as experienced with non-HP printers)
* Fast - 10 seconds to first page output
* Low cost - There are lower priced printers but I recommend this one
* Small footprint, lightweight: great for travel too
The Negatives:
* The toner doesn't last long enough.
* There is no indication that the printer is low on toner so if you're in the middle of a large print job and your low on toner, you could waist a lot of paper



Printer is of solid construction, works great, and is plenty fast for my personal business/home needs.

Well after my printer almost lasted one year, and completely became useless just out of the warranty time...started searching the web for the 1020 support group.
I see probably what we all see when our wonderful 1020 dies.
Well, it doesn't DIE, it slowly comes apart, the piece of gray film, called TEFLON starts coming apart. Your printing will be sloppy, then your printer will start eating paper. Then you will look on here and see that you should
have bought the DELL monochrome, OR you SHOULD DEFINITELY BY AN EXTENDED WARRANTY. Buttttt,,,,what is up with those laser cartridges. They do not
list any yield size. I'm not happy with HP right now, can you tell?

Okay, I have only printed 10 pages so far, so the stars are based on those great prints, the 5th star taken away because I am a MAC user! Here is my experience and I HOPE it helps all of you other Mac OSX users out there! I spoke with an HP rep for over an hour at a retail store, he sold me on this VERY affordable laser to replace my ink sucker Epson, all was great until he finds out I am a Mac user. As you all know, this is a problem. After some thought and reading the 58 reviews before me and other websites, I decide to take the plunge. I try to install it using the 'cheat' HP 1022 method to absolutely no avail! Now, exteremly frustrated, trying every 'trick' in the book, I google this problem. I stumble into the [...] and there is a review from "fpc". I was a little leary but this is my last hope. It tells me how to do this once and for all. Not thinking it would actually work, I download his provided link (which apparently is the 'original' link before HP pulled it and reloaded a non-working one for Mac). And IT WORKED!!!! I followed his instructions which took 3 minutes and I am printing perfectly... I ALMOST sucked up the 15% store restocking fee, but thanks to "fpc" I can print again!!!! SO for all of you who want this printer and not the headache, visit fpc's review and follow his instructions! GOOD LUCK! And to HP (and that friendly rep, you know who you are).... WHY? Why make us have to do all of this? Seems rediculous doesn't it??????????

Bought this and just to test if I would keep it, I printed a huge database file of 16,000 pages which took me almost 20 hours between personal breaks and only five cartridges. The guide says don't do that, but I did it, and this 1020 printer did not fail once. Wow! (Needless to say, I kept it!)

This HP Printer has lasted me throughout my freshman and sophomore year of college. I have not yet needed to change my ink cartridge: I've printed most likely 1000 pages of text. I've never had a hardware or software issues. When I recieved the product, there was no usb cable, as most printers do not include them (quite lame). I recommend this product to any person who does not need color. Great product and great price!

Apart from the crappy instructions and lack of supplied USB cable, this is fantastic printer. VERY quiet and efficient. Some have mentioned the paper curl problem. I found that using proper laser paper greatly reduces curl. And some brands (Domtar, for example) are better than others so experiment. Improved text as well.

Much to my chagrin, my new HP s7320n desktop computer began locking up as soon as I connected this printer to it. After two working days of diagnostics, restarts, and even taking the computer back to where I bought it for an exchange, an arcane service bulletin said that this printer is not compatible with this computer.

A sign of how far down HP has slid...an HP printer (which is otherwise a pretty good printer) that is not compatible with an HP computer.

Seriously.

So, before you buy one of these, make sure it will work with your HP computer...

This printer has been working flawlessly. This is the second one I have purchased. We decided to put one on each of our computers. No problems whatsover. If you want B&W laser prints without any problems, this printer is perfect and well priced.

I don't normally go out of my way to write reviews, but I do appreciate reading them before I buy....so here's one for those considering buying this for their "second office" application. I've had this printer for 3 months now, and it's great for my home office (where I work when I'm not in my office office). Footprint is tiny, no problems with paper feed (like prior top-feed printers I've had), print quality good and crisp, and printouts appear instantly. Good work HP.

Went out and got one of these from Staples (an Amazon partner ahem) on special for ninety nine bucks. For that, it's a great deal. I use it on my computer running Ubuntu Linux (Dapper Drake 6.02) and it works great. Had to figure out how to use foo2zjs (foo2zjs dot rkkda dot com has the perfect workable answer to installation...I donated a few dollars for the help), but once you follow the instructions and load that all-important firmware, you are in business, even allowing you to set the printer to toner-saver mode, etc.

We also use tonerrefillkits dot com extensively and just refill the cartrdige over and over until the head starts wearing. By then we have saved tons of money using a refilled laser printer vs. buying the cartridges or god forbid using a color inkjet (eek expensive).

Good stuff, love HP, thanks!

I must have got a lemon, because all the googling in the world doesn't help me with my problem. My printer goes to sleep mode and never wakes up, even after a cold restart (I'm using WinXP Pro SP2). Print jobs live indefinitely in the spooler and half the time need to be removed by restarting the spooler service. No one else seems to have the problem. However in debugging the issue, I've had to go through 4 online chat sessions with HP, totalling almost 6 hours, each session being less useful than the previous. I've tried different USB cables, different hubs, different ports, different drivers, and different computers. I've tried printing directly, bypassing the spooler, and various print processor options. All at their recommendation and assurance that it would fix the problem (they must have scripted responses they copy/paste into the chat because all the English and grammar is consistently bad).

Finally they decided to replace the printer. They asked for my email address, mailing address, phone number, time of day to contact, and credit card number that will be on record in case I don't return the defective unit. The request for the ccard number is via a phone call, not asked for online. During this call, they conclude my printer is out of the 1-year warranty. I bought this printer about 4 months ago, and its manufacturing date isn't even a year out yet. Now I have to dig up my proof of purchase and fax it to them. They gave me a fax number and nothing else. I had to ask if some kind of reference number would be needed and was first told no, then the rep put me on hold and came back with a case # that I have to put on the fax. This is asinine coming from a company such as HP.

Terrible. Unacceptable. Can anyone recommend a non-HP brand that I can have some kind of perceptible competence at customer service, let alone product quality? I am so sorry I ever laid eyes on this product. The defective unit is one thing, but the hoops I have to jump through when something goes wrong will keep me FAR away from any of HP's products.

Bought this model today. Light, compact and blazing fast, with razorsharp text/images and dense opaque blacks. I got it to print my black line artwork illustrations and occasional text. I compared it to the comparably priced Brother models, and chose the HP for one reason; the drum is part of the toner cartridge versus the Brother, which requires their separate drum part replaced after 10,000 prints. The Brother drum is pricey, costing more than the printer. So I went with the HP with its 10 dollar higher cartridge, but no prospect of expensive drum replacement.

Oh, I also ran into an installation glitch for XP, but if you go to the Hewlett-Packard site they provide an error resolvement page which clears up and finishes the installation in minutes.

Outstanding value, easy to set up and delivery was excellent.
Very satisfied with the printer and the quality.

I am a homeschooling parent who prints ALOT, sometimes 100 pages at a time, certainly 100 pages a week, minimum. And I also work at home, and print business letters and envelopes. This printer has taken all the drudgery away. Its fast, good quality print appearance (although I print in draft by default to further save on toner). The setup under XP was a breeze (using my old USB cable). I have been using it for about 7 months now, still on the same cartridge.



If you don't print a lot of photos at home, and you are tired of wasting money and time trying to keep your inkjet running, BUY THIS PRINTER! This printer is ideal for school as it is fast, cheap to operate and the print quality is superb.

The LaserJet 1020 is a fine printer for use with older operating systems. It produces high quality output when attached to my Windows 98SE box. But it doesn't print at all when attached to my new computer with its XP Pro x64 operating system. The problem is there's no compatible driver available, not on HP's LaserJet 1020 installation disk and not on the HP website. I emailed HP Tech Support about the problem and they suggested two workarounds, using x64 drivers for other HP printer models, but neither worked. Tech Support now says to try working the problem via online chat. I'll try that next time I have a block of several hours free, unless I give the printer away first.

Bought this as replacement for an earlier LaserJet. Fast, precise, excellent, cheap. I'd give it five stars but they changed the upper feed for checks, and it isn't as precise and quick as it used to be. Otherwise, the ideal small office laser.

This is a small foot print and highly functional printer. It was a bit confusing to set up but I have not had any problems with it; I have used it everyday since the end of June.

Overall, a very good printer. Some reviews state that the printer curls the paper. It's true, but it curls so little that I cannot believe anyone would complain about it. The curls (what little there is) disappear soon after printing.

My only issue with the printer is card stock. Beware of card stock. We recently tried out a few types of cardstock on the printer and it did have some problems. The paper went through, but for the more textured cardstock, the toner didn't "stick" to the paper very well. It did, however, work for smooth cardstock.

One other complaint I've read said that you have to purchase an expensive USB cord. Not true. A regular USB cord will work; I just used the cord from my last printer (an inkjet).

Otherwise, the printer has been great, especially for printing on regular paper.


This printer is a bit noisy, but otherwise works well. A good price/value relationship.

This replaced a huge HP LaserJet 4 Plus from 1994. The 1020 is a fourth the size, but faster and with better print. My only complaint is the handling of envelopes: it insists on a manual click to finish, and you can only do one envelope at a time, unlike the old LaserJet Plus.

Overall, a fine printer for the money, but I doubt I will get 12 years of constant service with it as I did with the Plus - they don't make 'em like that anymore, sadly.

Based on the reviews here, in particular the one pointing out the $10 driver CD, I purchased the 1020. After checking all of the driver download pages (both for 1020 and 1022) and confirming the lack of a driver for OS X, I ordered the $10 CD off of the 1022 page.

Once the CD arrived, it had nothing to install on my MacBook Pro and the printer remained useless. It took 3 calls to HP support to get credited for the $10, at least returning the printer to Amazon was easy. One HP support person even tried to argue with me that the "1020 Series" title used on the CD driver page didn't actually refer to the 1020 itself! Finally, the 3rd support person stated that their page had a typo and credited me back for the $10.

I've since replaced the hp 1020 with a brother HL-2070N. It installed just as you'd expect and works great with both my Power PC and Intel based Macs. Only warning with that printer is that it makes an audible buzzing sound even when sitting in standby.

Found out too late that this printer is host based. That means it has to be connected to a computer to print.

You cannot use a network print server (wired or wireless).

This is from HP's tech support web site.

I've been using an LJ 1012 very happily for a couple of years, and was recommending the new version, the 1020, to my sister for her Mac ... until I started evaluating it. Reading Brett Oyler's review ("HP has pulled 1022 driver from Website") was not warm-fuzzies making, so I went to the HP website. (Google on "hewlett packard support printer") Enter lj 1022, and you get taken to a page where you can choose drivers for several operating systems. For various stripes of Windows, you can download the drivers and software directly. For Mac OS X, you have to order a CD -- you get taken to a CD Rom Ordering Page, for a generic "HP LaserJet 1020/1022 series printing software CD". It costs $10 plus shipping. And it's not even clear this has the Mac drivers ... wouldn't this be the same disc included with the printers, including the 1020? Well, I'm sure sufficient cleverness can turn up the 1022 Mac driver, but why does HP have to make it such a PITA.

Overall, I'm unimpressed with the new model 1020 compared with the 1012. The significant differences seem to be the opposite of improvements --
-- USB 2, versus 1.1? for most use does this really increase pages per minute? or is it just that the old tech is not available any more?
-- lack of Mac connectivity
-- they've removed the useful Cancel and Go buttons! Perhaps, if you have installed the HP bloatware, as opposed to the simple drivers, you can mouse around to acomplish the same tasks (meanwhile another 5 pages of that print job you want to cancel pop out). I know this makes it cheaper to make, but they've also increased the price. Hmm.
-- if there's even a minor improvement in the print quality, I haven't seen any mention of that in any review or promotional material. (I wanted to print a test page for the 1020, but .. well, gee, what happened to the Go button which did that?)

So, I'm wondering if I want to get a 1020 for myself, and give the 1012 to my sister .... and all I can think is do I love her enough to take what seems to be a downgrade for myself?

Yesterday, HP pulled the Mac OS X driver for the 1022 from its website, most likely because of Mac users buying 1020s and installing the driver to workaround it. I have not spoken to any HP people to confirm this, but I did download the driver on Tuesday, and after deleting it, found out I needed it again. Only today the driver is gone and the date the page was updated was May 18th! Nice job, HP!

I have the predecessor of this printer, the HP 1010 and never have I had a more reliable printer. I have had it for three years now and day after day it churns out prints that are always consistently excellent in quality. Furthermore for a while it was in a very dusty environment but despite making some strange noises it never faltered.If the 1020 is anything like the 1010 I can strongly recommend it.



Overall, this printer is great for light-duty office use (I bought it for a small office workgroup). We have a mix of Linux and Windows PCs. The printer is shared through a Server2003 box and all works well. You have to go and find linux drivers for this printer (try http:\\foo2zjs.rkkda.com for a GREAT linux walkthrough) but after installing the new drivers, it works great.
One small issue that I have is that I can't get a Windows 2000 PC to duplex print. The driver doesn't pop up the "continue" message to get it to print on the other side of the page...

I'm a Graphic Artist and can use the expensive color laser at work when I need to print photos. At home, I mostly print text with some simple graphics. After my ink jet printer wore out, I decided to try a low cost laser printer.
I looked at the Samsung and Brother printers because they are very cheap. But thank goodness for Amazon Reviews. After reading them, I decided against those printers.
I picked the LaserJet 1020. Contrary to the listed specs, it works great with a Macintosh running OSX. For info on how to use this printer with a Mac go to Yahoo or Google and search for the phrase "laserjet 1020 macintosh".
Here's an overview of the setup I did: Download LaserJet 1022 driver (had to change the name so it ended with .dmg), install driver, connect USB cable and switch on printer, open Printer Setup Utility and click Add Printer, choose USB from popdown Menu, select LaserJet 1020, ignore error message No Driver Found, Utility searches for a minute and gives dialog box "Would you like to reload the browser?", click YES, open an application and print a page.
I made a page with several typefaces in a variety of sizes. All the text printed dark with well-defined edges. Looking at the text under an 8X magnifying glass I could see a light halo of toner at the bottom of each letter. I'm sure most people would never notice it. The text seemed to print better as it got smaller. Looking at the tiny 4 point type under the 8X glass, I could only see a couple stray specks of toner.
This printer does not have Postscript. But it still does a great job of printing gradients and vector curves from programs such as Adobe Illustrator.
Photos also print well with nice tones, good shadow detail, and no blowouts (no holes) in the light areas.
It might be a good idea to test some options in the Print dialog box under the headings Paper, Paper Quality, and Print Options. They might affect the photo printing.

Printer Pros: small, lightweight, quiet, low cost, excellent print quality, very easy to set up and use.

Printer Cons: minor curling at top edge of paper, some Paper Type settings cause more curling, I took one star off for bogus Mac info from Hewlett Packard.

It seems like Hewlett Packard is taking advantage of the fact that Macintosh users are accustomed to paying more for computers by forcing them to buy the more expensive LaserJet 1022. Shame on you HP!

Very severely curls papers that are heavy/thick/quality. If you use thick paper this printer will not do, as I have learned the hard way. A review in pcmag or pcworld also states this. very huge drawback.

Even if you're just printing it for personal use, sheets get so curled that I have to take time to roll them up the opposite and try to get them flat.

Quiet, reliable, and fast. Highly recommended for the price.

My old laser printer was quite an antique. I paid megabucks for it and finally it died after 8 years of service. I was immediately impressed by the price of this HP printer. When it arrived, I was impressed with how easy it was to hook up with USB-2 and Windows XP. Then it networked effortlessly to my girlfriend's computer, something I could never get my old printer to do. Finally it delivered fast and clean printouts. If you need color, this printer is not for you, but if you just want nice reliable black and white prints, that won't run when you drip water on them, this may be the nicely priced printer for you. I'm waiting to see how long one toner cartridge lasts, but if my old printer is any indication, I hope that it to lasts over a year.

I agree with the poster about HP not providing USB cables. Kinda chincy, but in my case, I have about 6 of these in the attic and its nice to get use one of them and not pay a higher price for an included one that I don't need.

I just bought this printer for my PowerMac G3, entirely trusting the advice of the other reviewers here who claimed that this machine really does work with the macintosh. And, lo and behold, they are right. It was incredibly easy to set up, but it took me a half hour since I am always terrified of breaking something or screwing something up.

I've just printed two test pages: one of text and one a large graphic. The text printout is beautiful, and the graphic is fairly decent too. I wouldn't recommend this printer if you are looking to print super sharp images. But, in my judgment, it is great for everything else.

I'll update this review in month or so after I've had the printer for a while; for now, it looks great.

--UPDATE: Yup, this puppy runs absolutely perfect. I haven't had a single problem with it after a month. And I'm still using the original toner cartridge that came in the box.

During the past 2 years I've gone through 2 inkjet printers. One was a Canon that could never print an entire page aligned. It took me till after my warranty was out to realized that it wasn't me, it was the printer. Sadly, the other was the HP5650, which had terrible software issues and finally started misfeeding the paper. I didn't know what I was going to do for my next printer.

I finally came to my senses and realized that since I hardly ever use color, I should start looking at LaserJets. Much to my surprise, I found this one for less than many of the photo-capable InkJets. Unfortunately, my computer became a little fussy during setup, but after that, it's worked like a charm.

The pages come out extremely fast, the print is crisp and dark, and it's not too loud. None of the "cajunk, cajunk" sound you get with the ink jets either. Also, the footprint is smaller than the HP inkjet I am now going to smash to bits. It's like a little chunk on my desktop instead of a big long log! What more could you ask?

I still think HP is a cheap, crappy company for making us buy our own USB cables, and for not supplying a manual, but until Canon and Epson get up to speed on reliability, I'll stay with HP anyway.

June 2006 addition --- YES there IS a problem with this thing curling the paper. The lasers get the paper warm and then there are 2 plastic tabs the paper passes by on its way out, and they curl the paper. Downgrade this rating a full star!! This doesn't happen on my friend's older business HP laser model!

I ordered this from Amazon for $130 after the discount for getting their credit card, of course with free shipping. I am extremely pleased with this printer all the way around: price, performance, and appearance on my desk.

With the volumes of paper needed to ditribute a genealogy report an ink jet just would not be efficient. I selected this printer for ease of use and reported durability by other known users. It was easy to set up in our LAN system and has quickly become the printer of choice on the network of 5 printers. It is fast and produces excellent quality work.
At this time we have not used it long enough for durability issues however it has been trouble free and did a great job on label printing for a mailing also.

Had the printer for a while. It is very fast, high quality, and was quite cheap. It is easy to load paper etc.

As with most printers these days you kinda wish there were more status lights or buttons to get it to do things, but hey, that's why its cheap.

The primary problem I've had is trying to get this printer to work through a print server. I have tried USB print servers from both LinkSys and Netgear with no luck. Sounds like the printer relies heavily on the Windows driver to function, which means it won't work with other OS's like Linux. Perhaps as a result I never got it working with any of the various print servers I tried, even after numerous swaps, time on tech support hold, upgrades to the firmware in my router, etc etc.

As long as you hook it up via USB, perhaps even a long USB cable (I've seen them up to 15 feet or so) it seems to work just fine.

I bought this printer for our office to replace a HP Inkjet that went kaput after only 1 year. Plus the inkjet was needing the black ink replaced once a month (That's expensive!)

This has been a great printer for us for the two months we've had it so far. We've had no problems. We do a lot of printing and (knock on wood) have not run out of ink yet. With our last HP Deskjet we would have replaced the black ink twice already. The quality is as good as any laserjet printer I've used and the speed is fast. I want to get one for home.

Also, the shipping speed was unsurpassed! We ordered on Jan 9th and we had it in our office before noon on Jan 11th! Awesome!

This was my first laser printer, which I have had for over 2 months. It prints flawlessly and it prints faster than our color HP laserjet in my office. I am in graduate school and have used this to print countless papers, articles, and research for school. I have printed over 700 pages and the original ink cartridge is in it. I bought a spare ink cartridge to have handy, and was surprised that I easily found it at Staples and Office Max for around $60. One cartridge should print over 2,500 pages, which is great cost per page considering inkjets at best print a couple of hundred. Great product, great price, great performance. I'd buy a dozen more if I needed them.

My first laser printer cost over $1,000, was frustratingly slow, and had good but not great print quality. Fifteen years and about as many printers later, I now have this little 1020 for less than one-fifth the price. I set it up in exactly two minutes. It runs dead quiet (nice in an office environment of so many fans and hums). It has great first page response - and when I'm done typing the letter, I slap the envelope in the manual tray, print it, and I'm done. The print quality is as good as it gets. It is not the fastest printer in the world, but it is more than competitive in this price bracket. And small? Smallest footprint of any laser I've owned, which is also important to me. I can't say enough about this printer - finally, someone got a small printer exactly right for small business.

I had been tipped off by a professional friend of mine that he has 5 of these HP 1020s in use in his accounting business. He claims other printers have failed him but this model has withstood heavy use. That was sufficient recommendation for me - but you know what? He is correct! I'm quite happy with mine and rate it high for quality and value!

I've had this for about one month now. So far so good. I've printed probably 200 pages with it and have had no problems. I won't give it better than four stars at this point since it hasn't really been tested. Time will tell if 4 stars was too generous...or not enough.

The HP 1020 is a fine printer at a reasonable price for small business printing needs. It's compact size fits most anywhere and the printing speed is most acceptable for the cost.

I have a home office that is used by 5 people, 3 of whom are teenagers who require printing for school assignments, university work, flyers and newsletters. I have had 2 ink-jet printers in the past and was able to keep the cost down by refilling the black ink myself. Somehow, the quality was never quite the same after refilling despite what the bulk ink salespeople say.
I have a HP LaserJet 1300 at work and am very impressed with its performance. So it was time to give a laser printer a go at home as the overall cost per page is significantly less than ink. At the time of purchase there were several models on sale and after reading the reviews on the net, the range was narrowed down to either the Samsung ML 1610 or a HP LaserJet 1020. The Samsung came with a free toner cartridge which clinched the deal as this would have made the cost of ownership significantly cheaper than the HP. However, as soon as the Samsung was set up, I realized this was not the machine for me. Most of our work involves a combination of text with some form of small graphics/photos included on the page. The text was clear enough however, the graphics/photos were too light with insufficient contrast. Even after selecting a darker print mode they were not good enough. So the Samsung went back and was exchanged for the other choice, a HP LaserJet 1020.
I am very happy with this machine. The HP LaserJet 1020 does everything so well. The text is bold and clear, the printing speed is good, the startup time is short, the machine is very quiet, it has a small footprint on the desk and graphics/photos have sufficient contrast. I have had the HP LaserJet 1020 for about a month now and it meets my expectations for a home office machine and I therefore recommend it to anyone who needs a small laser printer for the home or small office.


Great deal, great delivery, great packaging, great printer! Reviews were all correct - this is truly a fast printer. I have been using an older, much larger HP laser printer but needed a smaller one. This printer is even faster. This is one of my better buys - it truly is worth the money - and more!

This printer is perfect printer for the home office. I've been using an Epson All-in-One for a few years now and after using some bad ink cartridges plugged the jets. Realizing that most of what I print doesn't need to be in color, I started pricing the LaserJet 1012 on a friend's recommendation. I found that apparently the 1020 is the 1012 replacement after some research.

The installation was really simple. I opened the box and started looking for a manual. It's all on the CD with step by step pictures of each step. I'm used to the typical steps of hardware installation that typically aren't difficult, but for a first timer may be challenging. The installation CD had the most thorough walkthrough that I've seen so far.

Print quality is what is expected for what I need and for the price that I paid(less than the price of a new toner cartridge), a super bargain.

I researched far and wide for reviews on this printer. At the time there were very few and I struggled on whether to get it. Well, I gave in and purchased it. Boy am I glad I did! It was easy to set up and use. Worked like a charm right out of the box. My wife has a consulting business where she needs to print hundreds of pages a month and it has worked without flaw every time. She even uses it to print on card stock paper for her scrapbooking hobby. With windows printer sharing, its a snap to use it on your windows home network with windows xp. No need for a network adapter. Well worth the money. Highly recommended to anybody.

I purchased this H-P LaserJet printer through Amazon for about $88.00 at an "open box" sale. Amazon was adamant that I should know EXACTLY what I was buying and if had ANY DOUBTS, I should cancel my order. How's that for being "up front" (Amazon is a great company to deal with).
The printer arrived tightly boxed in mint, unused condition, although the toner cartridge had already been installed. So "yes" the box had been already been opened (exactly as stated before the purchase). I installed the H-P printer software in my home assembled computer and the printer was now ready to roll. My Windows XP Operating System detected the printer immediately. I printed out a test sheet and the black and white laser print was perfect. I will soon be using this printer to print out thousands of pages of my family history (genealogy) and I won't have to worry about running out of ink in the middle of my project. The laser printer "melts the toner onto the paper so the ink is bound tightly to the paper and won't "run" (like inkjets) if there's a little moisture around. The H-P software will also allow me to do manual duplex (both sides of the paper) printing which is necessary for doing hundreds of pages that will be bound into a book. H-P knows how to design great laser printers and this is one of them. And the price has taken a tumble recently. Look for a good deal. Downside?...Gosh, does everything have to be built in Communist China these days?

This printer far exceeded my expectation, virtually no warm-up time, and I've never seen a cleaner print, also handles envelopes without wrinkling. Some complain about the sheet capacity, it's a non-issue for home use. It does have less memory than many models, but this has cause no problems at all, even when printing photos. Although there is no ethernet support, I have 4 computers connected through windows networking, and that works flawlessly, as long as the main computer is on.

Some complain that when it runs out of paper, it will start the job from the beginning when new paper is added, this is not the case with my unit. There is no cancel job button on the printer, but it's a laser under $150, I don't think that is a reasonable expectation. Pictures aren't photo quality, but they're about as good as it gets for laser printers. The only real con with this printer is that you can't legitimately refill the toner, however none of the lasers in this category can be legitimately refilled, and the cost per page is pretty good with this unit.

I would recommend this printer to anyone, it is worthy of the praise

This printer prints quickly, is quiet and would probably make an excellent home printer; BUT, it is one of the few HP laser printers that do not have PCL drivers, meaning it cannot print DOS based data. As it was not 'defective', we could not return it, so ended up paying for 2 printers to get one that would in an office environment.

This was a simple install. I installed this printer on a PC running Windows XP Home Edition. It only took about 5 minutes, and I was up and running. I have shared the printer out to all the other PCs and laptops on my home network, and all the connections were painless and simple.

I thank everyone who wrote in before me to explain how great this inexpensive little laser jet printer is and especially to the Mac people who wrote in about how to use the 1022 driver to work it. I did what they said--the driver was easily found on the HP website. I was grateful to the posting that said that the printer must be plugged in first before asking the set up application to add it.

A laser printer is so much better than an ink-jet. It is fast and never seems to strain overdoing large print jobs. I, also had to copy the PDF manual from the HP website as it wasn't included in the box.

I bought this printer to replace my HP Laserjet III, which was approximately 18 years old and only needed service once. The printer was delivered a few days earlier than I expected it. Even though the USB cable didn't come with it, I looked around at home and found that I had a spare one. I preloaded the software supplied with the printer and it was fully functional in under 15 minutes.

I'm more than pleased with my selection. I hope this one lasts as long as the HP III did.

I bought this printer in October 2005, after my husband's old HP Laserjet 4L, which he'd had for 12 years, finally died in the middle of a fairly large print job. We needed something reliable that would survive printing at times up to hundreds of pages per day, but that would not break our budget. After reading some reviews and looking around, we bought this HP, and we have been completely satisfied with it. Hooking it up was easy, its relatively small footprint made it a good fit in our already-overcrowded study, and the print quality is excellent. While the 1020's pages per minute (15) is somewhat slow compared to other laser printers currently on the market, I've been more than satisfied with this printer's output (it seems lightening fast compared to the 4 ppm of the old 4L). I have only two complaints. The first is that the USB cable needed to connect the printer to the computer is not included; you have to buy that separately (mine cost around $20). The second, and this is very minor, is that, unlike our old printer, the 1020 does not power up on its own when you hit "print" and does not power down when the job is finished; you have to use the on-off switch on the back. But that's a very minor complaint. Overall, we've been very satisfied with this printer.

Linux users beware. This is not a standard HP laserjet. Cups drivers aren't yet available in most distributions which means no plug and play. If you are daring (or cheap) and you get this machine, I was able to use the information on this page to get it working in Ubuntu (which should match for all Debian based distributions):
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=78272

It was time to replace my aging inkjet which was never suited for high volume output. I looked at all the low cost laser printers on the market but they all had negatives. Many were noisy and/or slow in printing the first page. The cartridges often cost more than the new printer!

After reading all the reviews, I finally settled on the HP 1020 and have found it to be perfect for my use. First of all, it's quiet. The only noise is when it's actually printing and even then it's quieter than the usual laser hum. The first page completes printing in 11 seconds (from clicking on the print icon to when the bottom edge of the printed page clears the printer). The type itself is well formed with no evidence of jagged edges even at 5x magnification. A replacement cartridge was $70 but I've been using the one supplied with the printer for the past month (several hundred pages so far) with no indications of low toner.

You do have to supply your own USB cable but that seems to be the norm anymore. Hook up to the computer went without a hitch after pre-loading the software driver supplied by HP. I was up and printing in less than 10 minutes, including unpacking the printer.

HP certainly knows how to make laser printers.

This printer is inexpensive and fast but does not seem to work with either Linksys (WPS54G) printservers, DLink printservers (DP-G310), or Hawking printservers (HWPS1UG). I went through several phone calls with excellent support people at both Linksys and Hawking Technology to no avail. I upgraded firmware and installation programs but as far as the printservers are concerned the HP does not exist on the network.

I have no idea what the problem could be but the HP1020 is not printserver friendly as far as I can tell. It is not as if I am running some obscure printservers either. The printerserver's company's products are well known and stable.

I can't believe how fast this printer is, or how quickly I was able to get it up and running. I also have a mac, and after a quick download of the 1022 drivers from the HP site I was up and running-- 4 minutes box to printed page, tops. I love it.

I got tired of paying for ink cartridges for my injet printer, and also of waiting for it to slowly print my material, so I decided to replace it with a laser printer. Since I don't print pictures, a black and white printer is sufficient. I couldn't be happier with the HP 1020. It's very compact (actually smaller than my Epson), unbelievably fast (though it takes a little while to get going), and the result is crystal clear. One important note, though: I'm a Mac user and this printer isn't intended to support Macs. But I learned from other reviewers on this site that you can solve this problem by downloading the printer driver from HP for the HP Laserjet 1022, which does support Macs. I did this, but the other reviewers left out an important bit of information: the directions that come with the printer say to wait until instructed to plug in the computer and attach it to your computer via a USB cable. But this is NOT what you do in the case of using the 1022 driver for this machine. Instead, after downloading the driver from ther HP website (which you can do for free, afte going to their support page), connect the 1020 to the power source and to your computer; then go to Printer Utility, select Add Printer, and the Mac will do the rest (it automatically uses the 1022 driver to support the 1020). Once my partner did this (I was in a muddle until she did so!), it all went very smoothly. For the very low price that Amazon is asking, now even Mac users can enjoy this outstanding printer.

I purchased my HP 1020 laser printer at Office Depot for $129.99. This was a good bargain even compared to online shopping prices. I know that if you are patient, and you perform a bit of due diligence, you can get this printer "new, never opened, and unrefurbished" on eBay for around $100-120 (I know this because I bought a secnod one as a Christmas present for $105 on eBay). Note however, it does not come with a 2.0 cable - so you will have to buy one to connect it to your computer ($25 in the retail stores and $5-7 on eBay). I am one of those shoppers that "does his homework" before making purchases. I was buying this to replace my miserable Brother HL-1440. I say miserable despite its generally good ratings because the poor LONG-TERM value of this printer clearly outweighed the initial features. What I mean by this is that the Brother requires not only the replacement of a toner cartridge at, what $60 per shot? But also, an EXPENSIVE DRUM every 4-5 toner cartridges. The drum alone cost about $130!! You might as well buy a new laser printer - which I DID. Printer manufactureres are like drug dealers in a way- they sell the printer itself for cheap to lure you in...the hit you hard when it comes to the cartridges (and/or drum).

The beauty of the HP-1020 is that it is very inexpensive, efficient, blazing fast (as advertised - 353% faster) from the time you click "print" to when the printer actually spits our your document (about 4-5 seconds) even when the printer is not "warm." Also, THIS PRINTER DOES NOT REQUIRE A DRUM REPLACEMENT. The cartridges cost $70 if you pay full price, but I found new, original HP nonrefurbished cartridges for $55 (including the shipping cost) - never buy them in a store, always buy online from a reputable retailer like "New Egg".

Anyway, this prints very clean documents, and set-up could not be easier, even for a non-techie. I actually set this printer up on my home network so my wife could print from her (wireless internet connection) laptop, directly to the HP-1020 which I connected to my desktop computer. It is pretty cool.

FREE ADVICE: Don't listen to the untrained computer store high schoolers help who tell you (or me) that you need a network enabled printer to set up a network printer whereby you can share the printer with other computers or laptops on your network - you DON'T. Just search online for directions on how to set it up (and make sure your firewalls are DISABLED on all computers to add the new printer - you will know what I'm talking about once you try to set it up).

As for the specs of the HP-1020, don't let the 600x600 dpi mislead you. It prints equally as well if not better than as those "1200 x 1200" dpi printers - you will NOT be able to see a difference. If you can think you can, set up an appoinment with your optomotrist. In other words, why waste away your hard-earned $$$, which can be as much as an extra $50-100, just for useless specs that do not represent the true and actual print quality of documents you will receive? Put that $$$ towards a back-up toner cartridge. Besides, Hewlett-Packard utilizes some sort of "dpi enhancement" on the HL-1020 to maximize its 600x600 dpi to give you a 1200x1200 type print quality.

There was a newer model, i.e., HP-1022 with "better" dpi specs and more memory (8mb versus 2mb on the HP-1020). Again, don't let this mislead you into paying more than you have to. The memory supplied in the HP-1020 is PLENTY. Trust me, I am one of those guys that always wants the "best AND MOST features" on electronics - so if I thought it was necessary, I would have purchased the HP-1022.

The funny thing is, every time I would print on my old Brother HL-1440, my computer would ALWAYS give me an irritiating "not enough memory"-type pop-up everytime I printed, despite the fact I had over 24 MB of memory in the printer itself! NOT ANYMORE! This HL-1020 printer works flawlessly with 2 mb of memory. Also, if you are thinking about buying the HP-1022, the ratings I've seen online as not nearly as good as the HP-1020. In fact, the HP-1020 has received nearly perfect 5-star ratings from about 12-15 reviewers I've seen on the internet from different review websites. Plus, the HL-1022 costs about $70 more! For what?

In sum, I would HIGHLY recommend the HL-1020 printer for home or even small business use. It's truly a value, and you will not go broke once you get through the first toner cartridge. Thus, TWO thumbs up and FIVE stars. Oh by the way, I did look at other brands, HP seemed to be favored over others in reliability, quality, etc.

I hope this helps your shopping decision.



I bought this printer in mid October, and it is much better than I thought it would be. I am used to using inkjet printers and with this printer 15 pages per minute really is 15 pages per minute. It does a great job on text and graphics and does a much better and quicker job on envelopes than any inkjet printer I have ever used. The by-pass tray couldn't be easier to use. Changing paper is easy because it is right up front and installation was a breeze. Small, quick and quiet.

(Updated in late February) I wanted to speak to the review from the reviewer who said this printer requires a proprietary printer cable. It doesn't. It uses a standard USB A-B printer cable and supports USB 2.0. No printers in this price range I am aware of are shipping with printer cables unless they are sold through club stores (Costco, Sam's Club, etc.) It is also NOT true that it ships with a half full toner cartridge. It ships with a full cartridge with the same amount of toner as the replacement cartridges. One of its competitors (Samsung) in this price range does ship with a "short" cartridge and notes that on the box of their printer.

I am still extremely happy with this printer it does more than I expected at this price.

I bought this for use with my new Mac mini and was surprised to find that HP does not have any Mac drivers for the LJ 1020. (In the spirit of full disclosure, the box does list only Windows systems under the minimum systems requirements - I just didn't look since it did not occur to me that they would not have Mac drivers) I traded e-mails with HP and they indicated that I should return the unit for a refund since it was not designed to be Mac compatable. I then Googled a bit and found out that users were having success with the LJ 1022 drivers (as Amazon Lover indicates here) so I tried these and it worked like a charm. (December 2006 Update - It seems HP has updated the drivers on their website to delete functionality of the 1020 using the 1022 drivers. Not to worry - just Google HP 1020 Mac OSX and it will bring up sites that have the old drivers). I really don't know why HP Tech Support wouldn't know this. I like the unit as it has a small footprint on my desk, starts up fast, has excellent print resolution and a good capacity for the paper tray. I replaced an aging HP LaserJet 5P at about one quarter the cost and am very pleased with the unit.

I bought the Laserjet 1020 needing a second printer. I have a 1012 already, and my only complaint is that it produces warped printouts. But I like that it's fast, quiet, and Mac-friendly. The 1020 is all of the above, and it doesn't bend the pages. Just download the 1022 Mac driver from hp to get it running. I'm thinking of replacing the 1012 now with another 1020. Two thumbs up.

The HP LaserJet 1020 did not dissapoint me. It is a good laser printer. I bought it for office tasks and it does a very good job. I only wish the package came with a USB cable it needs. It took some time for me to locate one.

I have a model 1012 at work and liked it so much I bought a 1020 for home (the 1012 was unavailable at the time.) They are virtually the same machine. I have found these to be easy to use and pretty fast printers. I like the manual paper feed slot and use it often for envelopes and labels.
And, unlike Golden Comet, who either has a dozen printers at home or is in HP Marketing writing advertisements disguised as reviews, I am a regular customer with no bias towards or against HP products.


Really nice printer, it's black and white ink, but does the job better than my higher quality printer,

My rating is arbitrary, because I haven't had time to really use this yet, but I wanted to say this DOES work with Vista.

I almost didn't buy this based on some people not getting this to work with Vista, but i found it on sale at Best Buy ($100) by accident, and decided to try it.

Technically, it should NOT work with Vista. As of June 2007, I checked HP's site, and they do NOT list this as Vista compatible, and the general driver HP says it has made available for SOME printers is not applicable for this one.

Well, I have a SONY Viao that has never been loaded with anything but Vista....and it worked fine the first time I loaded it from the set up CD, and I have already printed something.

It was a 10 minute setup. The software loading was a little confusing--I can't remember exactly what happened, but it almost seemed like I had to load it twice...maybe that is throwing people off--but it ultimately loaded and worked.

And yes, you do need a cheap USB cable. Mine cost like $5 at the grocery store and is working like a charm.



I have had this printer at work for some time now, and just bought a second one for home. Having had other laserjets in the past, I am very happy with this one - quick to set up straight out of the box, and a fantastic printing speed.

i just duel booted my lappy with xp and vista, (6-15-07), and as long as you use the cd that comes with it to install it and then plug it in when it asks, it will work perfectly. i hope this helps with any vista compatability issues, and good luck.

this printer is GREAT!!!

The HP4L performed flawlessly for over 10 years. Lightning took it out.
This one is considerably faster with a larger paper tray at a fraction of the price.

I bought this to replace my original HP 4L Laser jet after 15 years. This seems to do a great job so far, much faster downloads and clean print,BUT BEWARE.... IT DOES NOT COME WITH A USB CORD TO CONNECT, so if the printer your replacing has the old stle connecter (as mine did) be ready to spend another $35.00 for a usb cord. That is why I gave it 4 instead of 5 stars.

I got the Laserjet 1020 printer for my father; I decided it was time for him to upgrade to a laser printer from his slow as molasses Officejet ink printer. I selected the 1020 because of the superior reliability and quality of HPs and the great reviews this particular model received. Not to mention, I have owned a HP Laserjet 6L printer since 1998 and it is still churning out print jobs, albeit it squeaks a bit now, but it's still doing its thing with precision and speed. So I figured if HP can make a printer that can last almost 10 years so far, with HEAVY printing, then I better stick with them. My 6L got me through thousands of pages of law school research/writing, and years well beyond.

The 1020 is extremely fast and has exceptional print quality. Hit print and it is printing with hardly any delay in between. (Note: I haven't tested it out printing graphics just text).

The 1020 connects to your computer via a USB cable. Unfortunately the 1020 doesn't come with one but I bought mine here on Amazon for $10: Belkin F3U133-10-GLD 10' USB 2.0 A/b Device. If you want even cheaper get this one for $8: Belkin Pro Series USB 2.0 Device Cable (USB A/USB B, 10 Feet). I prefer Belkin but there are other brands that sell USB cables even under $8. I don't know why HP doesn't include a USB cable but it's not a big deal; you don't have to spend an arm and leg on one.

Unlike what other reviews have indicated, a brand new, factory-sealed HP 1020 printer DOES indeed come with a toner cartridge. So if yours didn't, you need to take that up with your seller and find out why the box was opened and toner cartridge removed because you aren't getting what you paid for. (Be sure to purchase from a reliable seller.) The toner cartridge slides easily into the printer.

Installation only requires you to put in the installation CD (before you connect the printer) and your computer will do the rest. However, I did run into a snag. I didn't delete the prior Officejet 600 software thinking I didn't have to. But once I loaded the 1020 software, the computer would only recognize it as software for the Officejet 600 printer and not for the 1020. My only solution was to delete all the Officejet software and reload the 1020 software. Only then did the computer fully recognize the 1020. I must have erred somewhere in loading the 1020 because it shouldn't have been a problem to add another printer, but since I knew my father was never going to use the Officejet again, it was just easier to delete all remnants of it from computer and start from scratch loading the 1020. (I only have the patience to research computer issues when it is absolutely necessary. Otherwise, "delete" or "system restore" is my preferred resolution method.) After software was loaded, I plugged in the USB and power cord and I was printing seconds later.

There are two things I don't like about the 1020:

1. It doesn't have a stand-by/hibernate mode; it's either on or off controlled by a power switch. My 6L will automatically power down after a certain amount of inactivity without having to manually turn it off. And, as soon as I hit "print" again, it wakes up and seconds later it is spitting out my print job--no having to flip power switches. I guess I am spoiled but I don't like having to flip the power switch on the 1020 to turn it on/off because I probably would forget to turn it off.

2. The 1020 feeds paper from the front of the printer via a pull-out tray. Thus, you have to free up space in front of the unit to make room for the tray. My 6L feeds from the top and doesn't require any additional desk space apart from the unit itself. If you have plenty of desk space then it's an irrevelent issue but it sometimes space is in short supply.

All in all, I am very pleased with the 1020. For the average user, I cannot see why the 1020 wouldn't suit your needs very well. The 1020 is worth far more than $99 (on sale) at Staples. And please don't pay more than $100 because it is on sale every week at any given office/computer store--at least in my area. My 6L printer cost me over $600 back when I got it and it is nice to know $100 can buy its equal today.

I agree with the reviewer who said it was inexcusable that HP still has no Vista driver for this printer.

It worked great when I had XP, but then I was forced to upgrade to Vista due to other issues and of course the printer has been sitting like a lump under my desk for two months now!

I'm quite unhappy with HP's timetable of releasing a driver by JULY. Come on guys, Vista was in beta for how long? It's not as if you didn't know it was coming.

And I tried using the original CD that came with the printer to install on Vista, the way another reviewer suggested. I couldn't get it to work no matter what.

For that one week between getting the printer and installing Vista, it was great. I would have given it 4 stars out of 5.

It took a while for me to find a decent printer to replace my antique HP InkJet 500 series printer, but am glad that I waited this long for the HP LaserJet 1020 printer. It took less than 15 minutes for me to remove packing materials, insert the ink cartridge, and have its configuration software installed onto my laptop computer (Incidentally the ink cartridge is designed to produce up to 2,000 pages.). For most of the installation I used the very easy to view installation manual (which comes with the computer on a CD that also contains the installation software) that has both still and motion picture images to demonstrate how one can easily assemble the printer and have it running in a very short period of time. Afterwards I tested the printer by printing two pages; these are the best printed pages I have seen from a laser printer - or rather, from any printer - that I've used previously. I have no doubt that this small, excellent printer will be an invaluable workhorse lasting for years.

These laserjets are well designed, work well and are easy to use. (We use 5 of the similar 1012 model and they are good workhorses.
The 1020's installation disk is great -- with good pictures, easy instructions that any normal person could follow. Much better than the manuals written in engineering language. HP should be complimented.

It's not true. when I received the printer, I found that the printer did not have any cartridge. so, I had to buy the cartridge. the information is not true. be careful. I was very upset.

Should have purchased this printer long ago. It is compact, performs great and does not require the high cost of constantly having to buy ink-jet cartridges. I highly recommend this printer to anyone who works from home and needs a reliable, affordable printer to "get the job done"!

A number of reviewer have reported what HP's support site reports - that the LaserJet 1020 does not work on Windows Vista. Just use the original driver CD that comes with the printer and run the installation on Vista. The installer automatically detects the printer and installs the driver. This printer works perfectly with these drivers on Windows Vista Home Premium edition.

This is a small bodied laser printer which "flies" and is a cost saver for the everyday text printing that needs no fancy color etc. Very happy, easy to use, easy to install, cartridges life makes for inexpensive running. Perfect for the student, home office and personal use. A good looking unit.

This is an excellent product at an outstanding price. It makes laserjet qualty affordable and there should be no question of whether or not it is a good value. I have recommended this to several friends who have already purchased this laser jet printer

Well made and nice text output. The only criticism I have of this printer is the paper tray. While these have a very small footprint, to load paper, you need to open the tray which sticks out and takes up more space the tray stays open as long as you need to print. Also the paper is exposed, so its subject to curling, fading, etc. Not big issues, but my personal preference is a drawer style. Overall a great printer. Got a great deal on it at Amazon.

The Canon Laser Jet is easy to install and produce the pictures you need. The footprint is small and so can fit in most available spaces. Very pleased with this product.

Worked great when I had XP. Now that I've upgraded to Vista, it's a $200 paperweight with collateral doorstop duties. No Vista driver, Bummer.

i was very happy with the printer under XP, great print speed & quality. Typical HP though haven't released Vista drivers - it's may 07, surely it's time? sadly it uses a specialist driver & not a generic one windows can clone.
here is what hp have to say

HP is committed to providing the best experience for HP products in the Windows Vista operating environment.
Today, a solution for your product is not available in Microsoft's Windows Vista. Some drivers will be available as early as January 2007. HP expects to complete the certification process for applicable drivers by July 2007. Drivers will be posted as they are completed.
HP aspires to provide the most up-to-date information on HP drivers and software. Please check back soon for updates.


i'd buy it again if i was running XP but other OS users beware.

I adore this printer. I got it to replace the HP LaserJet 4P, which replaced my HP LaserJet II. It is fast. I rarely jams. When it jams, it tells you what to do to unjam it. It is small. It is quiet. I'm a writer and print a lot of pages, and this puppy does the job far better than its predecessors.

Aside from being compact & 15ppm fast, the Hp 1020 printer does a great job of printing checks and deposit slips when used with any checkmaking software and a MICR toner cartridge from checksnet.

Tried a few toner cartridges from several sources for my Hp 1020 and discovered that some MICR toner is not as dark, flakes off paper and my checks were unreadable when tested at bank. Went back to checksnet cartridges, everything fine again and better page yield.

I have bought this for about 8pp in my office for their Black and White desktop printer. So far NOT ONE problem. The toner is long-lasting and affordable. Great quality- small desktop footprint. Does a great job with envelopes, labels and even light cardstock.

I would highly reccommend to anyone.

If you need a home light duty printer that provides professional laser printed documents perhaps say for a small home business or a private laser printer for an executive's office this is perfect. It is not for huge jobs or big projects but for the little jobs that need professional flair.

I like this printer a lot and would probably have given it 5 stars, but it gets a major demerit thanks to the fact that it does not work with computers running Vista. HP will not be releasing the drivers until July of this year. So if you want to print now and not wait six months, and you've already upgraded to Vista, I recommend getting a different printer. Hopefully HP will get the message and release some drivers. Vista has been in beta for a long time, so I find this delay to be inexcusable.


This little printer prints fast and clearly. I always thought a laser printer would be out of reach for me, cost-wise, but Amazon's price was quite reasonable (in fact it's still the lowest I've seen, a month later). Most of the things I print are in b&w anyway and I love not having to wait while my inkjet printer grinds out a page. I recommend this printer wholeheartedly.

This printer is the best computer peripheral I have ever bought. It's been 6 months since my purchase. I have printed hundreds of pages. It works flawlessly. Printing quality is 99.9999/100. It starts printing just when you press the print button of your application. It still uses its original cartridge. Installation was very easy. It's elegant. Its small size lets it fit everywhere. In short, it's a winner.

I have been using this printer at work for a couple of years and it has always been fast and reliable, especially considering its compact size. When I decided to buy a laser printer for our home I read some reviews but decided to stay with what has proved to be a great printer. It is easy to install and I expect to have years of use from it.



its not a bad printer but after printing about 3 mins later it would make a sound as if it were going to print again it comes out of the blue and sometimes startles me other than that its a good printer
speed wise-i cant really say much because i dont printer alot at a time

I decided to finally get rid of our color inkjet and give a B&W laser a try.I got tired of replacing the color cartridges and realized that I didn't need color 98% of the time. The HP 1020 meets all expectations. First copy is a little slow but after that speed is more than acceptable. Print quality is VG.

If you don't need color, this is the laser printer for your home needs. I don't know how it would hold up in a business with heavy use but for home use it is fine for me. I could not ask for better, clearer prints. It's great for forms, letters, etc. Great little laser printer.

nice printer, good DPI. doesn't have the bells and whistles of a more procy printer like color or automatic printing on both sides. It meets everything it claims though.

I bought this printer strictly for traveling. I need to print hundreds of pages when I go to Las Vegas. I shipped the printer there, opened it, printed about 600 pages, and shipped it back home. It's just like the 1010 I have at home, it works great. Easy decision...

If you just use this as a local printer connected through USB, it works great. If you try to network it using a print server, it has big problems. I do light printing on this particular printer and the original toner has lasted me since August... pretty good. It's warms up fast and prints at a good pace. Pretty good for the price. Although Samsung and Brother sometimes run specials for lower priced laser printers.

Printer works great, good quality and economic. However, the paper cover tray was not included which I thought was part of the printer.

I've had this printer for several months, and I highly recommend it. It's small and fast and very reliable. I bought it because of the price, but I have been very pleasantly surprised by its other features as well.

I have bought this printer for my personal use at home.
It is good and reliable printer for the price.

Somehow, it arrived with software instalation CD in a forein language which was a big inconvenience.

The white color chose by manufacturer is a questionable. It is a white spot in a room and I bet for many households it can be a problem.

Also, lack of any controls buttons is inconvenient to restart a job even after paper reload.

After reading a recent negative, I was compelled to leave a review. I've used this printer daily for over two years and it is "the" one low price HP monochrome printer that I recommend to all of my customers without reservation.
The positives:
* Reliable
* Versatile paper use
* No compatibility problems (as experienced with non-HP printers)
* Fast - 10 seconds to first page output
* Low cost - There are lower priced printers but I recommend this one
* Small footprint, lightweight: great for travel too
The Negatives:
* The toner doesn't last long enough.
* There is no indication that the printer is low on toner so if you're in the middle of a large print job and your low on toner, you could waist a lot of paper



Printer is of solid construction, works great, and is plenty fast for my personal business/home needs.

Well after my printer almost lasted one year, and completely became useless just out of the warranty time...started searching the web for the 1020 support group.
I see probably what we all see when our wonderful 1020 dies.
Well, it doesn't DIE, it slowly comes apart, the piece of gray film, called TEFLON starts coming apart. Your printing will be sloppy, then your printer will start eating paper. Then you will look on here and see that you should
have bought the DELL monochrome, OR you SHOULD DEFINITELY BY AN EXTENDED WARRANTY. Buttttt,,,,what is up with those laser cartridges. They do not
list any yield size. I'm not happy with HP right now, can you tell?

Okay, I have only printed 10 pages so far, so the stars are based on those great prints, the 5th star taken away because I am a MAC user! Here is my experience and I HOPE it helps all of you other Mac OSX users out there! I spoke with an HP rep for over an hour at a retail store, he sold me on this VERY affordable laser to replace my ink sucker Epson, all was great until he finds out I am a Mac user. As you all know, this is a problem. After some thought and reading the 58 reviews before me and other websites, I decide to take the plunge. I try to install it using the 'cheat' HP 1022 method to absolutely no avail! Now, exteremly frustrated, trying every 'trick' in the book, I google this problem. I stumble into the [...] and there is a review from "fpc". I was a little leary but this is my last hope. It tells me how to do this once and for all. Not thinking it would actually work, I download his provided link (which apparently is the 'original' link before HP pulled it and reloaded a non-working one for Mac). And IT WORKED!!!! I followed his instructions which took 3 minutes and I am printing perfectly... I ALMOST sucked up the 15% store restocking fee, but thanks to "fpc" I can print again!!!! SO for all of you who want this printer and not the headache, visit fpc's review and follow his instructions! GOOD LUCK! And to HP (and that friendly rep, you know who you are).... WHY? Why make us have to do all of this? Seems rediculous doesn't it??????????

Bought this and just to test if I would keep it, I printed a huge database file of 16,000 pages which took me almost 20 hours between personal breaks and only five cartridges. The guide says don't do that, but I did it, and this 1020 printer did not fail once. Wow! (Needless to say, I kept it!)

This HP Printer has lasted me throughout my freshman and sophomore year of college. I have not yet needed to change my ink cartridge: I've printed most likely 1000 pages of text. I've never had a hardware or software issues. When I recieved the product, there was no usb cable, as most printers do not include them (quite lame). I recommend this product to any person who does not need color. Great product and great price!

Apart from the crappy instructions and lack of supplied USB cable, this is fantastic printer. VERY quiet and efficient. Some have mentioned the paper curl problem. I found that using proper laser paper greatly reduces curl. And some brands (Domtar, for example) are better than others so experiment. Improved text as well.

Much to my chagrin, my new HP s7320n desktop computer began locking up as soon as I connected this printer to it. After two working days of diagnostics, restarts, and even taking the computer back to where I bought it for an exchange, an arcane service bulletin said that this printer is not compatible with this computer.

A sign of how far down HP has slid...an HP printer (which is otherwise a pretty good printer) that is not compatible with an HP computer.

Seriously.

So, before you buy one of these, make sure it will work with your HP computer...

This printer has been working flawlessly. This is the second one I have purchased. We decided to put one on each of our computers. No problems whatsover. If you want B&W laser prints without any problems, this printer is perfect and well priced.

I don't normally go out of my way to write reviews, but I do appreciate reading them before I buy....so here's one for those considering buying this for their "second office" application. I've had this printer for 3 months now, and it's great for my home office (where I work when I'm not in my office office). Footprint is tiny, no problems with paper feed (like prior top-feed printers I've had), print quality good and crisp, and printouts appear instantly. Good work HP.

Went out and got one of these from Staples (an Amazon partner ahem) on special for ninety nine bucks. For that, it's a great deal. I use it on my computer running Ubuntu Linux (Dapper Drake 6.02) and it works great. Had to figure out how to use foo2zjs (foo2zjs dot rkkda dot com has the perfect workable answer to installation...I donated a few dollars for the help), but once you follow the instructions and load that all-important firmware, you are in business, even allowing you to set the printer to toner-saver mode, etc.

We also use tonerrefillkits dot com extensively and just refill the cartrdige over and over until the head starts wearing. By then we have saved tons of money using a refilled laser printer vs. buying the cartridges or god forbid using a color inkjet (eek expensive).

Good stuff, love HP, thanks!

I must have got a lemon, because all the googling in the world doesn't help me with my problem. My printer goes to sleep mode and never wakes up, even after a cold restart (I'm using WinXP Pro SP2). Print jobs live indefinitely in the spooler and half the time need to be removed by restarting the spooler service. No one else seems to have the problem. However in debugging the issue, I've had to go through 4 online chat sessions with HP, totalling almost 6 hours, each session being less useful than the previous. I've tried different USB cables, different hubs, different ports, different drivers, and different computers. I've tried printing directly, bypassing the spooler, and various print processor options. All at their recommendation and assurance that it would fix the problem (they must have scripted responses they copy/paste into the chat because all the English and grammar is consistently bad).

Finally they decided to replace the printer. They asked for my email address, mailing address, phone number, time of day to contact, and credit card number that will be on record in case I don't return the defective unit. The request for the ccard number is via a phone call, not asked for online. During this call, they conclude my printer is out of the 1-year warranty. I bought this printer about 4 months ago, and its manufacturing date isn't even a year out yet. Now I have to dig up my proof of purchase and fax it to them. They gave me a fax number and nothing else. I had to ask if some kind of reference number would be needed and was first told no, then the rep put me on hold and came back with a case # that I have to put on the fax. This is asinine coming from a company such as HP.

Terrible. Unacceptable. Can anyone recommend a non-HP brand that I can have some kind of perceptible competence at customer service, let alone product quality? I am so sorry I ever laid eyes on this product. The defective unit is one thing, but the hoops I have to jump through when something goes wrong will keep me FAR away from any of HP's products.

Bought this model today. Light, compact and blazing fast, with razorsharp text/images and dense opaque blacks. I got it to print my black line artwork illustrations and occasional text. I compared it to the comparably priced Brother models, and chose the HP for one reason; the drum is part of the toner cartridge versus the Brother, which requires their separate drum part replaced after 10,000 prints. The Brother drum is pricey, costing more than the printer. So I went with the HP with its 10 dollar higher cartridge, but no prospect of expensive drum replacement.

Oh, I also ran into an installation glitch for XP, but if you go to the Hewlett-Packard site they provide an error resolvement page which clears up and finishes the installation in minutes.

Outstanding value, easy to set up and delivery was excellent.
Very satisfied with the printer and the quality.

I am a homeschooling parent who prints ALOT, sometimes 100 pages at a time, certainly 100 pages a week, minimum. And I also work at home, and print business letters and envelopes. This printer has taken all the drudgery away. Its fast, good quality print appearance (although I print in draft by default to further save on toner). The setup under XP was a breeze (using my old USB cable). I have been using it for about 7 months now, still on the same cartridge.



If you don't print a lot of photos at home, and you are tired of wasting money and time trying to keep your inkjet running, BUY THIS PRINTER! This printer is ideal for school as it is fast, cheap to operate and the print quality is superb.

The LaserJet 1020 is a fine printer for use with older operating systems. It produces high quality output when attached to my Windows 98SE box. But it doesn't print at all when attached to my new computer with its XP Pro x64 operating system. The problem is there's no compatible driver available, not on HP's LaserJet 1020 installation disk and not on the HP website. I emailed HP Tech Support about the problem and they suggested two workarounds, using x64 drivers for other HP printer models, but neither worked. Tech Support now says to try working the problem via online chat. I'll try that next time I have a block of several hours free, unless I give the printer away first.

Bought this as replacement for an earlier LaserJet. Fast, precise, excellent, cheap. I'd give it five stars but they changed the upper feed for checks, and it isn't as precise and quick as it used to be. Otherwise, the ideal small office laser.

This is a small foot print and highly functional printer. It was a bit confusing to set up but I have not had any problems with it; I have used it everyday since the end of June.

Overall, a very good printer. Some reviews state that the printer curls the paper. It's true, but it curls so little that I cannot believe anyone would complain about it. The curls (what little there is) disappear soon after printing.

My only issue with the printer is card stock. Beware of card stock. We recently tried out a few types of cardstock on the printer and it did have some problems. The paper went through, but for the more textured cardstock, the toner didn't "stick" to the paper very well. It did, however, work for smooth cardstock.

One other complaint I've read said that you have to purchase an expensive USB cord. Not true. A regular USB cord will work; I just used the cord from my last printer (an inkjet).

Otherwise, the printer has been great, especially for printing on regular paper.


This printer is a bit noisy, but otherwise works well. A good price/value relationship.

This replaced a huge HP LaserJet 4 Plus from 1994. The 1020 is a fourth the size, but faster and with better print. My only complaint is the handling of envelopes: it insists on a manual click to finish, and you can only do one envelope at a time, unlike the old LaserJet Plus.

Overall, a fine printer for the money, but I doubt I will get 12 years of constant service with it as I did with the Plus - they don't make 'em like that anymore, sadly.

Based on the reviews here, in particular the one pointing out the $10 driver CD, I purchased the 1020. After checking all of the driver download pages (both for 1020 and 1022) and confirming the lack of a driver for OS X, I ordered the $10 CD off of the 1022 page.

Once the CD arrived, it had nothing to install on my MacBook Pro and the printer remained useless. It took 3 calls to HP support to get credited for the $10, at least returning the printer to Amazon was easy. One HP support person even tried to argue with me that the "1020 Series" title used on the CD driver page didn't actually refer to the 1020 itself! Finally, the 3rd support person stated that their page had a typo and credited me back for the $10.

I've since replaced the hp 1020 with a brother HL-2070N. It installed just as you'd expect and works great with both my Power PC and Intel based Macs. Only warning with that printer is that it makes an audible buzzing sound even when sitting in standby.

Found out too late that this printer is host based. That means it has to be connected to a computer to print.

You cannot use a network print server (wired or wireless).

This is from HP's tech support web site.

I've been using an LJ 1012 very happily for a couple of years, and was recommending the new version, the 1020, to my sister for her Mac ... until I started evaluating it. Reading Brett Oyler's review ("HP has pulled 1022 driver from Website") was not warm-fuzzies making, so I went to the HP website. (Google on "hewlett packard support printer") Enter lj 1022, and you get taken to a page where you can choose drivers for several operating systems. For various stripes of Windows, you can download the drivers and software directly. For Mac OS X, you have to order a CD -- you get taken to a CD Rom Ordering Page, for a generic "HP LaserJet 1020/1022 series printing software CD". It costs $10 plus shipping. And it's not even clear this has the Mac drivers ... wouldn't this be the same disc included with the printers, including the 1020? Well, I'm sure sufficient cleverness can turn up the 1022 Mac driver, but why does HP have to make it such a PITA.

Overall, I'm unimpressed with the new model 1020 compared with the 1012. The significant differences seem to be the opposite of improvements --
-- USB 2, versus 1.1? for most use does this really increase pages per minute? or is it just that the old tech is not available any more?
-- lack of Mac connectivity
-- they've removed the useful Cancel and Go buttons! Perhaps, if you have installed the HP bloatware, as opposed to the simple drivers, you can mouse around to acomplish the same tasks (meanwhile another 5 pages of that print job you want to cancel pop out). I know this makes it cheaper to make, but they've also increased the price. Hmm.
-- if there's even a minor improvement in the print quality, I haven't seen any mention of that in any review or promotional material. (I wanted to print a test page for the 1020, but .. well, gee, what happened to the Go button which did that?)

So, I'm wondering if I want to get a 1020 for myself, and give the 1012 to my sister .... and all I can think is do I love her enough to take what seems to be a downgrade for myself?

Yesterday, HP pulled the Mac OS X driver for the 1022 from its website, most likely because of Mac users buying 1020s and installing the driver to workaround it. I have not spoken to any HP people to confirm this, but I did download the driver on Tuesday, and after deleting it, found out I needed it again. Only today the driver is gone and the date the page was updated was May 18th! Nice job, HP!

I have the predecessor of this printer, the HP 1010 and never have I had a more reliable printer. I have had it for three years now and day after day it churns out prints that are always consistently excellent in quality. Furthermore for a while it was in a very dusty environment but despite making some strange noises it never faltered.If the 1020 is anything like the 1010 I can strongly recommend it.



Overall, this printer is great for light-duty office use (I bought it for a small office workgroup). We have a mix of Linux and Windows PCs. The printer is shared through a Server2003 box and all works well. You have to go and find linux drivers for this printer (try http:\\foo2zjs.rkkda.com for a GREAT linux walkthrough) but after installing the new drivers, it works great.
One small issue that I have is that I can't get a Windows 2000 PC to duplex print. The driver doesn't pop up the "continue" message to get it to print on the other side of the page...

I'm a Graphic Artist and can use the expensive color laser at work when I need to print photos. At home, I mostly print text with some simple graphics. After my ink jet printer wore out, I decided to try a low cost laser printer.
I looked at the Samsung and Brother printers because they are very cheap. But thank goodness for Amazon Reviews. After reading them, I decided against those printers.
I picked the LaserJet 1020. Contrary to the listed specs, it works great with a Macintosh running OSX. For info on how to use this printer with a Mac go to Yahoo or Google and search for the phrase "laserjet 1020 macintosh".
Here's an overview of the setup I did: Download LaserJet 1022 driver (had to change the name so it ended with .dmg), install driver, connect USB cable and switch on printer, open Printer Setup Utility and click Add Printer, choose USB from popdown Menu, select LaserJet 1020, ignore error message No Driver Found, Utility searches for a minute and gives dialog box "Would you like to reload the browser?", click YES, open an application and print a page.
I made a page with several typefaces in a variety of sizes. All the text printed dark with well-defined edges. Looking at the text under an 8X magnifying glass I could see a light halo of toner at the bottom of each letter. I'm sure most people would never notice it. The text seemed to print better as it got smaller. Looking at the tiny 4 point type under the 8X glass, I could only see a couple stray specks of toner.
This printer does not have Postscript. But it still does a great job of printing gradients and vector curves from programs such as Adobe Illustrator.
Photos also print well with nice tones, good shadow detail, and no blowouts (no holes) in the light areas.
It might be a good idea to test some options in the Print dialog box under the headings Paper, Paper Quality, and Print Options. They might affect the photo printing.

Printer Pros: small, lightweight, quiet, low cost, excellent print quality, very easy to set up and use.

Printer Cons: minor curling at top edge of paper, some Paper Type settings cause more curling, I took one star off for bogus Mac info from Hewlett Packard.

It seems like Hewlett Packard is taking advantage of the fact that Macintosh users are accustomed to paying more for computers by forcing them to buy the more expensive LaserJet 1022. Shame on you HP!

Very severely curls papers that are heavy/thick/quality. If you use thick paper this printer will not do, as I have learned the hard way. A review in pcmag or pcworld also states this. very huge drawback.

Even if you're just printing it for personal use, sheets get so curled that I have to take time to roll them up the opposite and try to get them flat.

Quiet, reliable, and fast. Highly recommended for the price.

My old laser printer was quite an antique. I paid megabucks for it and finally it died after 8 years of service. I was immediately impressed by the price of this HP printer. When it arrived, I was impressed with how easy it was to hook up with USB-2 and Windows XP. Then it networked effortlessly to my girlfriend's computer, something I could never get my old printer to do. Finally it delivered fast and clean printouts. If you need color, this printer is not for you, but if you just want nice reliable black and white prints, that won't run when you drip water on them, this may be the nicely priced printer for you. I'm waiting to see how long one toner cartridge lasts, but if my old printer is any indication, I hope that it to lasts over a year.

I agree with the poster about HP not providing USB cables. Kinda chincy, but in my case, I have about 6 of these in the attic and its nice to get use one of them and not pay a higher price for an included one that I don't need.

I just bought this printer for my PowerMac G3, entirely trusting the advice of the other reviewers here who claimed that this machine really does work with the macintosh. And, lo and behold, they are right. It was incr