To set up the HP LaserJet 1012 printer, you will first have to hook it up to a USB port on your Macintosh, and then install the software. Once the installer is finished, you will be able to add the printer to your list of printers, and be ready to print in minutes.

The biggest reason for buying a laser printer is the speed of printing. That is why you will always see the Pages Per Minute on the top of the features list for any laser printer. This laser printer is no different. HP advertises this printer as printing at 14 pages per minute, with the first page being done in only 8 seconds. I clocked this printer by printing a 36 page PDF with text and graphics. The resulting print time was 2 minutes, 32 seconds which comes out to 14.2 ppm, right on with the advertised speed.

Another big selling point to laser printers is the lower cost per page than standard inkjet printers. On average, the cost of ink alone for inkjet printers is 10 cents per page. With this laser printer, the cost per page is only 2.8 cents, meaning you can print almost four times as many pages for the same price. This is a tremendous savings when your page count gets up into the thousands.

While this printer covers both of the main selling points of any laser printer, it does have some unique features. Most notably, the size of this printer is smaller than all other laser printers, and even some inkjets. With a footprint of only 14.6 x 9.1 inches, this printer can fit practically anywhere. This is perfect for a home office or a dorm room where space is at a premium.

But don't let its small size fool you, this printer delivers some high quality printouts. The printer does not have PostScript capabilities built in, but the text printed out with this printer is spectacular. All text is very crisp, clean, and easy to read. Seeing as this is a black and white only printer, the graphics cannot be expected to look spectacular. For gray scale graphics, they look all right, but you will fair better with an inkjet if you want to print high quality images.

Another nice feature to this printer is the priority media slot. This 10 page capacity slot is perfect for printing to special media such as envelopes, transparencies, address labels, card stock, specialty papers, and more. The printer will always look to the priority tray, to see if there is any paper there. If it finds some, it will use it, otherwise, it will grab the paper it needs from the main paper tray. I really enjoy the priority slot, as it allows me to print envelopes and such without having to swap paper in and out of the main paper tray. A great time saver.

The one downfall to this printer is the lack of configuration software for the Mac OS. There is no way to do such tasks as checking the printer status, changing settings, and viewing troubleshooting information among other things. To determine how many pages have been printed, one has to print out a configuration page, instead of simply launching some software. It would be nice if HP would get some software together for us Mac users, but this is in no way a deal breaker. The printer still works perfectly fine without it.

I had no problems with using this printer.

This printer makes the perfect companion to an inkjet printer. It prints at lightning fast speeds, and takes up less room than some inkjets. At a sub $200 price point, this printer is the perfect fit for all your text needs.

Pros	Cons
Very fast printing Priority media feeder is very handy Prints out thousands of pages with just one toner Very compact Excellent looking text, good looking graphics Fast warm up time Adequate memory Inexpensive	USB connection only No configuration software for Mac
10/10 stars