Printer Reviews – Hp, Xerox, Dell and More

The Dell 1125 is a monochrome laser printer with multifunction capabilities, designed for the small or home office user.  While very affordable, and sporting a solid feature set, it is marred by some cost-cutting measures and design missteps.

The multifunction features of the 1125 include printing, scanning, copying, and faxing.  In fact, copying, faxing, and scanning can all be done without a connection to a PC, making it a true replacement for separate devices.  Although the printing mechanism is monochrome, scanning and faxing can be done in color.  The scanning mechanism support 24-bit color scans at resolutions up to 600 dpi resolutions. 

The design of the Dell 1125 is somewhat awkward.  The unit is not particularly bulky or heavy, especially for a multifunction device, but the paper tray sticks out from the bottom front of the unit in a very strange way and increases the footprint of the device considerably.  The LCD panel is also difficult to read at some angles, and precludes users from placing the printer to high for fear of making the LCD unreadable.

Print speed is fairly good at around 14 pages per minute.  Text printing quality is quite good, though extremely small fonts tend to lose detail and readability.  Graphics printing quality is fairly poor, but this is typical for a multifunction laser printer. 

While the main draw for the 1125 might be its affordable price, Dell only includes a “starter” toner cartridge with the unit, with a capacity of 1,000 pages.  Higher-yield cartridges are available, with capacities of 2,000 pages each, but the starter cartridge will likely run out very quickly for most users, balancing out its affordable upfront cost with more toner costs in the long run.  This is certainly a downside.

Overall, the Dell 1125 is a solid multifunction printer with some problems to overcome.  Its features are impressive, and so is its price, but it is difficult to overlook its design flaws and cost-cutting shortcuts.