With so many All-in-Ones and specialised colour printers on the market, you might wonder why there would still be a need for monochrome printers in the home or office. Well, sometimes it's a matter of budget but there are also enough clients who have relatively modest printing needs; and most of them are for standard documents and maybe some envelopes.It's to this ‘small horizon' market that HP has aimed its P1006 laser printer. It's small and compact (347 x 224 x 194 mm) and won't put your back out at a mere 4.7kg. Just because it's small doesn't mean it can't also be stylish, so HP has given it the current cool chic silver and black makeover.
One initial surprise when you take the machine out of the packaging is that there's no physical set-up manual, so you have to use your own judgment about which tapes and tabs have to be removed in what order. This will be annoying for newcomers as you'll find the instructions on the installation CD or via HP's Web site.
That aside, set-up is comparatively simple, with a drop-down input tray at the front that holds 150 sheets of A4 and a fixed 10-sheet multipurpose tray above it that is designed to hold special media (including envelopes, labels, postcards and vellum). The printer cartridge slides in effortlessly at the top and there's a simple On/Off button at the front and a Cancel button on the top. Apart from the USB 2.0 port and power input at the back, that's your lot.
Working at a maximum resolution of 600 x 600dpi, the P1006 functions at a reasonable processor speed of 266MHz, uses 8MB of memory and has a top (quoted) print speed of 16ppm, with the first page emerging at around 9 seconds. There's no duplex capability so you'll have to turn the sheets around manually if you want double-sided printing and, as the recommended monthly page volume ranges from a meagre 250 to 1,500, this is clearly not the printer to use if you have large documents to produce on a regular basis.
In terms of quality, various font sizes and types emerged with crisp, clear detail and there was no noticeable break-up on relatively complex diagrams and schematics. As you'd expect, the results were significantly better than any comparably-priced inkjet printer and print noise is around average for a machine of this size and weight - i.e. perfectly acceptable. It might be worth bearing in mind if you're attracted to this printer that for only a small amount more, the P1500 model offers network connection.
