HP DeskJet 1010 review

When looking at printers, the cost of the printer is just one portion of your ownership cost. Shoppers should also look at the cost per print.

With the DeskJet 1010, even though the printer is affordably priced, users with high volume print needs may want to invest in a more expensive small office printer. These printers may cost more upfront, but you'll get more output from the ink cartridges leading to a lower per-page cost.

Print costs

The standard black cartridge has a 190-page yield and costs $23 (£14, AU$29), while the standard tri-color cartridge costs $21 (£13, AU$27) and has a 165-page yield. This equates to a cost of 12 cents per page for black-and-white prints and up to 25 cents per page for color prints. HP also sells a combo pack, which bundles both black and tri-color cartridges together, at a lower price of just $28 (£17, AU$36).

For users with higher volume print needs, an XL ink cartridge will cost a little more up-front, but will give you more prints in the end, resulting in lower print costs. The black and color XL cartridges cost $31 (£19, AU$40) each, with a yield of 480 pages and 330 pages respectively. With the XL option, print costs drop to just seven cents per page for black-and-white prints and 16 cents for color.

Compared to the Epson Expression Home XP-420, the per-page print cost for the DeskJet 1010 is more expensive. Using standard cartridges, the XP-420 delivers black-and-white prints at seven cents per page and color prints at 21.5 cents per page.

As long as you're just printing the occasional report or family vacation photo and not your next novel, the costs are manageable. Even so, the per-page costs don't go as low as 2.6 cents for black-and-white prints and 11.6 cents for color on the Epson Workforce Pro WF-4630 ($200, £130, AU$253) or 1.3 cents for black-and-white and 6.1 cents for color jobs on the HP Officejet Pro x551dw ($299, £200, AU$380). The costs drop further with these larger workgroup inkjets when you buy the XL cartridges.

Specifications

• Print speed: 7 ppm black-and-white; 4 ppm color
• Print cartridges: 2 (1 black, 1 tri-color; XL cartridges available)
• Print costs: Standard cartridges: $0.12 black-and-white, $0.25 color; XL Cartridges: $0.07 black-and-white, $0.16 color
• Print resolution: 600 x 600 color and black-and-white
• Paper sizes: Letter, A4, A6, B5, DL envelope (110 x 220 mm), Paper (brochure, inkjet, plain), photo paper, envelopes, labels, cards (greeting)
• Paper capacity: 60 sheets
• Compatible operating systems: Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP (SP3)* or higher (32-bit only); Mac OS X v10.6, Lion, Mountain Lion
• Connectivity: USB 2.0 only; no wireless support
• Dimensions:  17.99 x 16.22 x 10.31 inches (457 x 158 x 262mm)
• Weight:  4.4 pounds (2.00kg)

Performance

Performance of the DeskJet 1010 is on par with other inkjets from Canon and Epson. The DeskJet 1010 doesn't benefit from HP's PageWide Technology on more expensive OfficeJet inkjets. PageWide technology means that the print nozzles span the width of the page so the print head doesn't have to move back and forth.

As a result, PageWide printers are quieter when printing, and the print speed is vastly improved. The DeskJet 1010 isn't too noisy, but the movement of the print head is definitely audible.

Lacking the PageWide technology, the seven pages per minute for black-and-white prints and four pages per minute for color prints is about average. In fact, the speeds are within range of the Epson Expression Home XP-420 printer's 9 pages per minute for black-and-white and 4.5 pages per minute for color prints.

Although I didn't notice any paper jams with the rear paper feeder, the feeder sometimes doesn't pull paper in evenly. This results in misaligned prints. The problem occurred rarely, but it's something to consider.

Using Epson matte photo paper, I noticed that the ink drains much faster when the DeskJet prints photos (HP did not provide photo paper for this review). Another thing to consider when printing photos is that even though you can buy pre-cut photo paper in 4 x 6- or 5 x 7-inch sizes, the DeskJet 1010 will leave a small border around your prints as it doesn't support borderless photo printing.

Photo image quality is surprisingly good for a $30 printer. Pictures appear pleasing, though colors lack the depth, saturation and dynamic range that significantly more expensive photo printers offer.