Dell Laser Printer 1110

Dell entered the printer market somewhat later than other vendors, but has rapidly carved out a niche for itself, particularly in the SOHO marketplace. The 1110 is more of a personal laser, at an MSRP of around $100, but comes with some nice capabilities despite its low price.

To use the Dell 1110, you have to fold the front cover down to catch output.

Dell's latest generation of printers features what the company calls its Toner Management System, which tracks toner levels and provides automatic notification when levels get low. It even provides a built-in online order form, so busy users can order refills right on-screen, then get back to work. This printer is pretty petite, with dimensions of only 11.7" x 8.5" x 14.1" (29.72cm x 21.59cm x 35.81cm; with the front cover up) and a weight of 12.12 lbs (5.5 kg) with a toner cartridge installed.

The unit includes a 150-sheet multipurpose paper tray that can accommodate a wide variety of paper and envelope sizes (A4, B5, letter, Executive, Folio and Legal). An optional 550 sheet drawer is also available ($229), as is an optional duplexing unit for two-sided printing ($199). Standard memory is 2 MB, with no expansion capability.

A standard black toner cartridge outputs up to 2,000 pages and costs $65, and a two-pack bundle is also available for $120. Dell does not include a USB cable with the printer, so you'll want to buy one if you don't have a spare lying around. If you print relatively few pages per month, and don't need lots of bells and whistles, this printer outputs clean, sharp text and does okay with halftones and graphics, and is very inexpensive.