Dell has once again set the standard in terms of value for money. Not only is the Laser Printer 1100 the lowest priced monochrome laser printer currently on the market, but it also delivers relatively high performance and very respectable print quality, making it ideal for the home or small office. There are some big issues you should consider, though: the printer doesn't work with Macs, there's no built-in networking potential or parallel port, and automatic duplexing isn't supported. Paper handling is also relatively basic and large files may struggle with just 2MB of RAM. Nevertheless, bargain hunters looking for a greyscale printer should find all they need with Dell's Laser Printer 1100.

Pros: Excellent value; USB cable supplied; online toner ordering
Cons: Macs not supported; basic paper handling; no built-in networking


Laser printing for home and home office customers has become more affordable with the introduction of Dell's A4 Laser Printer 1100. Based on Samsung technology the wholly-white Laser Printer 1100 is Dell's lowest-cost laser, and at just £69.99 (ex. VAT and delivery) is the lowest priced product of its type currently available. Price-conscious customers should also appreciate the printer's space-saving design (358x299x217mm, 5.5kg), relatively fast print speed and decent mono text printing.

The Laser Printer 1100 is designed for small and home offices, but it's also destined to end up on students' desks. Technical features of the printer are relatively basic, although you can't be too hard on a printer that costs so little in terms of initial financial outlay.

Having said that, a native print resolution of 600x600dpi is actually very respectable (for text-based documents at least), and the ability to print on A4, A5, A6, envelopes, thin card and transparencies at up to 160gsm is quite accommodating. Paper handling is basic, comprising a single 150-sheet capacity (at 75gsm paper weight), and there's just a single USB 1.1 port and no option to connect a wireless device.

The printer is powered by a 150MHz processor and has built-in support for Windows Graphical Device Interface (GDI), which means it relies on the host computer to rasterise pages. GDI is used by most Windows applications to display images on a monitor, so when printing from a Windows application to a GDI printer, there is no need to convert the output to another format such as PostScript or PCL.

The downside to this is that you can't guarantee good compatibility with all Windows applications. There's no controller language for electronic forms, fonts and barcode printing either, and you can forget about support for an optional CompactFlash card slot/reader.

Small-business users or individuals will find the Laser Printer 1100 ideal for printing letters and other occasional black-and-white documents, but those looking for a robust and versatile workhorse will be left wanting. In particular, the Laser Printer 1100 does not support automated two-sided printing (either as standard or with an optional extra), it doesn't work with Macs or Linux, and there's no built-in networking potential (there's not even a parallel port!).

A skimpy 2MB of RAM also means the printer struggles with large images and fancy fonts (most budget lasers carry at least 8MB), so you shouldn't be seduced by the price tag if you plan to subject the printer to heavy use.

On a more positive note, the Toner Management System monitors cartridge and paper levels, notifies you before supplies run out, and provides a direct link to Dell's Web site for easy reordering. Through the Dell Recycling programme, Dell will also pick up and recycle your old printers and toner cartridges, regardless of the manufacturer. This programme covers most Western European countries.

In our tests, the Laser Printer 1100 was a good performer. The printer warmed up almost immediately and had a quick time-to-first-page of around 10 seconds. We also managed to achieve a maximum throughput rate of 13ppm, just one page short of Dell's claims. The printer breezed through the rest of our tests too, knocking out a 6x4in. photo in just 12s, A4 photo in 19s, 12-page text file in 1m 1s, 12-page PDF in 1m 3s and a 20-page presentation in just 1m 48s. In fact, the Laser Printer 1100 put some printers costing over twice as much to shame in terms of print speed.

Print quality was also surprisingly impressive. Text was relatively deep and rich, but appeared fuzzy on close inspection. Feathering was especially evident on large headings and presentations. White text on a black background was very good, with no toner sneaking into the character areas, but photographs and graphics exhibited horizontal banding and dithering typical of monochrome laser technology.

Overall, the print quality from the Laser Printer 1100 was praiseworthy given its low cost - we were expecting much lower quality and throughput speeds. Bargain hunters on the prowl for a greyscale printer should find all they need with Dell's Laser Printer 1100.

About our tests:
BIOS uses a range of popular office-type documents to test the image quality and speed of printers and all-in-one devices. Our test suite comprises an A4 photograph (34MB, PSD format), 6x4in. photograph (5MB, PSD format), 12-page text file (90KB, RTF format), 12-page PDF (1.2MB) and 20-page presentation (2.5MB, PRZ format). For our throughput test we print a single dot onto multiple A4 pages. Unless otherwise indicated, printers are tested using default print settings. In all but the throughput test, the higher the number, the slower the printer. Print quality is subjectively analysed by the reviewer, based on experience and comparisons to printers we've previously tested.

BIOS, Jul 04, 05 | Print | Send | Comments (0) | Posted In Printer