HP Color LaserJet CM1312 MFP

Print shop quality comes to the 1312 multifunction at a price, though that price is very slight when one stops to think about it. To get that quality, one must be prepared to accept about 12 pages per minute of monochrome printing and eight pages per minute of color printing capability. While the machine is no speed burner, that probably won't be the aim of most users of this particular HP printer.

Print resolution as far as the copier is concerned is handled at about 600 dpi. Anything that emerges from 1312 will come out looking sharp, crisp, clean and clear. As a copier, the machine can enlarge any copy up to four times its size or reduce it down to one quarter of its size with no trouble at all. For best results, print with HP toner.

Print time from tasking to emergence of the first sheet is 25 seconds in black-and-white. It will take an additional 6 seconds longer than that for something to be done in color. While this isn't particularly speedy, this machine will certainly deliver print quality that will be more than acceptable, which is probably what Hewlett-Packard meant to do in slowing things down a bit.

Keep in mind that this is a multi-function printer, meaning that also can scan, copy and print. As a compromise, when it comes to doing all three functions, this particular Hewlett-Packard LaserJet-type machine does it all very well, especially when one considers its low price. It can scan at 1200x1200 dots per inch resolution, which will deliver extremely sharp documents when final rendering is completed.

Standard memory is also fine -- especially for a multifunction printer -- at 120 MB. There is no capability for memory upgrade, but that is usually the case for most multifunction units sold by this company in this particular market segment. It's easy enough to hook the printer up to either a PC, Mac or even to a small network, as it uses a high-speed USB connection port. No other wired connectivity capability is available.

"It's a fairly robust machine in that it has a monthly duty cycle of 30,000 impressions. When talking about a multifunction printer, ""impressions"" refers to its printing and copying capabilities the. The 1312 will be able to hold around 150 sheets of paper and it can handle a wide variety of media types, including envelopes, labels, transparencies and most sizes of paper. There is almost no Mac or Windows-based operating system the 1312 can't run off of, by the way."

There really isn't much to dislike about the HP Color LaserJet CM1312 printer, it seems. As a multifunction goes, this one certainly delivers a great deal of confidence and at a nice price, which it currently features at about $350 for a really nice, clean unit. Just about any home office or small office entrepreneur will certainly like the relative quality and durability of this particular printer. Hp toner will be needed for this unit. The compatible toner cartridges needs to be changed occasionally but its easy to do.