The Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 1018 is one of the smallest laser printers currently available, but it may also be one of the slowest. It delivers relatively good value for home and home office use, as long as you're not in a hurry.

Most home offices are short on space, but the LaserJet 1018 is compact enough to squeeze in almost anywhere. Setting it up is easy, although you must supply a USB cable. The installer will do the rest. The package includes a starter toner cartridge that should print up to 1,000 pages. A normal toner cartridge prints up to 2,000 pages, although the cost is somewhat high at 3.5 cents per page.

The paper tray holds up to 150 sheets of plain paper or 15 envelopes, which is unimpressive, but it's one of the tradeoffs you make for the compact size. The output tray has a 100-sheet capacity. The LaserJet 1018 ships with 2MB of RAM, which is not upgradeable.

Output quality was generally good, although the quality of photos and graphics weren't quite good enough for client presentations or final product sheets. Output quality of photos and graphics was perfectly satisfactory for correspondence, in-house newsletters and drafts of presentations, brochures and other documents. Output quality of text was very good to excellent, with text appearing sharp and readable, even at small font sizes. Line art was generally clean and unbroken, even with fine-lined images, although grayscale images were subject to some banding.

Output speeds were on the slow side. The LaserJet 1018 is rated for speeds of up to 12 pages per minute, which isn't all that great to begin with, but it never reached those speeds in real-world situations. This probably isn't a deal breaker, however, unless you plan to print lots of large jobs. And if you were, you wouldn't be considering this printer.

The HP LaserJet 1018 is a good choice for a home or home office with low- to moderate-volume printing needs.


Pros: Very good to excellent quality output for text, good output quality for photos and graphics, lightweight and compact design fits in anywhere
Cons: Slow print speeds, somewhat high per-page printing costs

Warranty
1 year limited on hardware, backed by HP Customer Care, service and tech support; 1 year tech phone support