What They're Saying About: The Dell Laser Printer 1100

Price: $99
Type: Monochrome laser printer
Print Speed: 15ppm
Print Resolution: 600dpi

Dell made headlines when it introduced its new Dell Laser Printer 1100 monochrome laser printer for $99. Built around the same printer engine as the Samsung ML-1610, this is the first laser printer to be available for such an incredibly low price. Dell didn't seem very confident about its product, though, because it decided not to make review units generally available to media. Two journals that managed to obtain printers, however, report that while the Dell Laser Printer 1100 is certainly basic, it performs quite well for its price, and is suitable for students and home offices.

BIOS Magazine Review

Rating: N/A

Liked: Small-business users or individuals will find the Dell Laser Printer 1100 ideal for printing letters and other occasional black-and-white documents. Print quality was also surprisingly impressive. The printer warmed up almost immediately and had a quick time-to-first-page of around 10 seconds. We also managed to achieve a maximum throughput rate of 13ppm, just one page short of Dell's claims.

Disliked: There's no controller language for electronic forms, fonts and barcode printing either, and you can forget about support for an optional CompactFlash card slot/reader. The printer struggles with large images and fancy fonts (most budget lasers carry at least 8MB), so you shouldn't be seduced by the price tag if you plan to subject the printer to heavy use. Feathering was especially evident on large headings and presentations.

In Short: Overall, the print quality from the Dell Laser Printer 1100 was praiseworthy given its low cost - we were expecting much lower quality and throughput speeds. Bargain hunters on the prowl for a greyscale printer should find all they need with the Dell Laser Printer 1100.

Full Review of Dell Laser Printer 1100

PC Magazine Review

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Liked: Small size. Excellent text. Better graphics than most monochrome lasers. Reasonable speed for a personal printer.

Disliked: Low input capacity (150 sheets) is both standard and maximum. Starter toner cartridge prints only about 1,000 pages.

In Short: : The first laser printer with an official price below $100, the Dell Laser Printer 1100 takes up no more space than a typical ink jet. More important, it delivers excellent text quality, better-looking graphics than most monochrome laser printers, and reasonable speed.

Full Review of Dell Laser Printer 1100

PC Pro Review

Rating: 5 out of 6

Liked: Plain text quality was perfect, and that's really what these units are designed for. The doors hiding the toner and fuser units have a reassuringly solid feel to them, and the paper tray doesn't have a door enclosing it, simply a removable dust guard, further simplifying matters.

Disliked: Returned poor photos, and struggled with even basic mono graphics. We saw an ugly mix of stepping, banding and overly obvious dithering in our tricky image tests.

In Short:: They struggle with graphics, but the speed and features of these diminutive printers are available for an impressive price

Full Review of Dell Laser Printer 1100