Hi, I'm Justin (Yu?), printer editor for cnet.com with your first look at the HP Laserjet pro 100 printer.
The industry is starting to see more and more laser printers come to the consumer and small business market.
But I'm recommending this unit for personal use based on it's higher than average ink cost and mediocre print speeds.
Still, it performs on a professional level and even gives you a scanner, copier and an auto document feeder built in.
So let's take a look.
The $350 color laser printer is pretty compact but heavy.
The 4-toner cartridges inside add weight.
But this is also one of the first printers to feature HP's rotating carousel cartridge loader.
See this multi colored button on the front control panel here, well, the printer rotates the feed cartridges based on each press of that button and it's really easy to use.
This color laser also gets two additional functionality by way of unique HP features, e-print and (smart?) install.
So e-Print lets you send jobs from the Cloud to the laserjet pro 100 from any computer using its unique e-mail address.
All you need is a Wi-Fi Internet connection and you'll be able to send articles, photos, e-mails and anything else for output.
It also works with apps that already had integrated e-mail sharing systems in place like G-mail and Google Reader.
Smart install on the other hand, makes the set up process a lot easier by eliminating the separate driver disk.
All the drivers are actually pretty bundled into the printer's firmware.
So all you got to do is connect a USB cable from the printer to your computer and it will do the rest.
It also saves time when you wanna install this printer on multiple computers but it only works for Windows machines.
So unfortunately, Mac users will need to install drivers the old fashioned way.
Our bench marking tests show a slight drop in speed compared to competitive laser printers but you won't likely notice the difference unless you're out putting a lot of huge documents, so in terms of print quality the laser jet pro's default quality setting (??) general everyday printing isn't the best, but it's certainly fine for general office task.
Color laser printers still have ways to go before their photo quality can compete with ink jets.
But if you're looking for a simple printer for everyday memos, e-mails, web articles or professional handouts, the HP Laserjet pro 100 definitely delivers and I recommend it.
.You can read more in my (??) view on cnet.com.
But that's it for me.
I'm Justin Yu.
You just take a first look at the HP Laserjet pro 100 color multi function printer.
Thanks a lot.
