HP CM1312NFI Color LaserJet Printer Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This is NOT in the same class as the much more expensive 3500 series color MFPs, and it is not supposed to be. At a cost of 1/5th the bigger printers, you need to lower your expectations, but you still get a lot of printer for the money. I've had many inkjet printers and installed many color and BW laser printers. The first laser printer I used was an Apple LaserWriter in about 1987, so my experience with these devices is quite extensive. I have this installed in a home office networked via a simple wireless router and print/scan with XP, Vista, and Win7-64.
Positives:
+ Much faster and sharper printing than even high-quality inkjets when printing typical office documents
+ Prints evenly and consistently even large areas of highly saturated color on plain paper, unlike the banded printing from inkjets on plain paper
+ Easy to install on XP, Vista, and Win7 64 as both a USB and network printer
+ Quiet
+ Sheetfeeder is convenient and reliable
+ Prints at the same speed and quality regardless of how long it sits idle or off, unlike an inkjet printer that often needs cartridges replaced or cleaned after sitting idle for a couple of weeks.
+ Doesn't spew gobs of ink on paper at random intervals, which many inkjets do, especially after they've been sitting idle for some time
+ EXCELLENT print output - very sharp even at small print sizes and fine lines
Negatives:
- I have the same problems as others when scanning using the sheetfeeder: Scans always come out as 8.5 x 14.
- Low paper capacity. Why doesn't EVERY printer come with a 500 sheet bin? Do manufacturers really save any money by making the smaller bin?
- Manual feed is not easy to use. Basically, you need to pull out the drawer and put what you want printed in the regular drawer.
- Scanning from front panel isn't working for me, which should be easy to do. Perhaps this is the problem others indicate when they say it is hard to set up. Scanning is fine when you start it from the computer.
- Won't email without talking to a computer. I really like that feature in the more expensive models, and it shouldn't be that difficult to implement.
- Wont' print truly photo-quality as well as a photo inkjet, but the prints on photo paper are still VERY good.
- Do I REALLY need a THREE HUNDRED megabyte package of drivers and software just to print? How about a light-weight software option HP? Better yet, how about building the drivers into the printer's built-in web server so that I don't have to get those monster packages from the Internet? Why can't I manage ALL settings from the built-in web pages?
-+ I wasn't satisfied with the default scan settings, but after tweaking to boost the image quality, I am happy with the scan quality and speed.
Regarding the price of prints: Although a set of cartridges sets you back about 260 bucks, that will not get you anywhere near the $1.00+ price per page others talk about. My conservative estimate at cost is about $0.15/page in color including paper, less in B/W. If you force B/W printing for most output, you will be closer to $0.04/page. Having spent a ton of money on ink cartridges for inkjets, only to waste much of the ink on cleaning and reprints when gobs of ink land on my output, I think the overall cost of ownership will be close to even or better when compared to a typical inkjet. Counting the cost of time and frustration in the cost of using an inkjet will further weigh the cost per print in favor of the CM1312nfi.
Some other "negative" points are speed, lack of duplex scanning/printing, and some other bells and whistles mentioned in other reviews. I don't count these negative points against this printer since these are features that you really can't expect in this price class. I looked long and hard at the HP CM2320, but the much higher cost of entry didn't seem to pay off for me. Including a set of cartridges, the 1312 costs 30-50% less than the 2320.
I compared this printer to Brother and Samsung MFPs at a local office supply store. The output quality, speed, and overall build quality are significantly higher than similarly priced competitors. The output quality of a color brochure copied on each of the brands is what sold me on the HP - the CM1312 output is MUCH better than the other brands. I also expect to be able to service and purchase supplies for an HP long after Samsung and Brother are forgotten about.
I'd give this printer a solid 4 stars if I could get the scanning from the front panel and the auto page size recognition to work. I won't count things against this printer that it really isn't designed to handle, like true photo quality and high speed. Anticipating being able to work out the bugs with scanning and page size, I'll give this a 3.5 and round up to 4 stars.

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