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Output quality was well above average, with good dense blacks for text and consistent black and greyscale fills in business graphics. Even photo reproduction, an area where office laser printers are not expected to excel, produced a fair result, though tones were rather light by default and there was a little banding evident.

Normal print output is at 600dpi, which is fine for text and most graphics, but if you need it, full 1,200dpi printing is available in the printer's highest-quality mode. hp's proprietary REt technology is included for resolution enhancement too.

Both PCL 6 and PostScript level 2 print languages are supported, though the PostScript is in emulation. 16MB of internal memory copes with most text and mixed text and graphics documents, though for some high-resolution graphics you may need to supplement this.

Running cost works out 1.84p for an ISO page – which is roughly five per cent coverage, but includes simple graphics such as a company logo and a bar graph too – is pretty good. In recent personal laser group tests, page costs have ranged from 1.4p to 3.5p, so the LaserJet 1320 sits at the lower end of that range.

If you duplex your prints, you halve the paper costs, but at typical office paper prices you’ll only save about 0.2p per page. Possibly of more benefit, though, is the reduction in paper clogging up office shelves and drawers. More can be saved by printing two pages to the sheet, of course.

Verdict

Overall, the LaserJet 1320 is a robust, well designed printer, but not quite the value statement that hp would have you think. This basic machine has a high throughput and a design with no protruding trays. However, that’s true of most of its competitors too, and there’s no networking facility in the basic package – something you have to pay quite dearly for as an extra.

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