The compact HP LaserJet 1160 is a good choice for light-duty home use or a single-person home office. It has a relatively small footprint, including a self-contained paper tray, so it's easy to squeeze into tight spaces.

However, the limited paper capacity makes it a less-than-ideal choice for small business or other heavy-use environments. Like most modern printers, the 1160 is easy to set up and operate. It offers USB 2.0 and parallel port connections (cables not included), so it will work with older systems as well as newer ones.

The 1160 supports printing resolutions of up to 600X600 dpi. Output quality of text is great, even at small font sizes. Line art is also generally excellent, while the output quality of photos and other grayscale images is above average. Printing speeds run slightly below average, particularly for graphics-heavy pages. The 1160 ships with 16MB RAM, which is not expandable. Large print jobs, or a number of graphics-heavy documents in the same queue, may slow things down a bit.

The LaserJet 1160 accepts a variety of paper sizes and stocks, including letter, legal, plain paper, transparencies, labels, card stock, and number 10 envelopes. The paper input tray can hold up to 250 sheets of paper, while the output tray can hold up to 125 sheets. There's no option to add another paper tray. A multipurpose input slot is available for printing single envelopes or single sheets of heavier paper stocks, as well as manual duplexing.

Other optional accessories include external print servers, wireless print servers, and wireless adapters. The package includes an HP LaserJet print cartridge, Getting Started Guide, CD-ROM with drivers and other utilities, and power cord.

With good-quality laser printers becoming more commonly available for under $200, the Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 1160's MSRP is on the high side.

Pro: Print quality for text and line art is generally excellent. Print quality for photos and grayscale art is good to very good.
Con: Relatively expensive. Output speeds are slower than average. Overall, the 1160 is a very good printer, but its limited paper capacity, lack of expandable memory, lack of an automatic duplexing option, and expensive networking options limit its suitability to light-duty home or home office use.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Hewlett-Packard
3000 Hanover Street
Palo Alto, CA 94304-1185
650-857-1501
http://www.hp.com

Warranty
1 year hardware backed by HP Customer Care, service and support; 1 year technical phone support, toll-free number