The HP LaserJet Pro 100 is a very sleek looking printer. The compact design will fit into what ever corner you can find for it, and due to its easy to setup networking options you may never physically connect it to a computer. On the front left side of the printer you will find the controls and display. The top of the printer has a document feeder for the scanner, as well as a flat bed to scan with if needed. The paper tray is a separate piece that sticks out of the bottom on the front of the printer. The tray can hold up to 150 sheets of paper, but even full it feels like it may fall off if not supported by a flat surface. The back of the unit has an Ethernet jack, a USB-B port, and the power adaptor port. Unfortunately the LaserJet Pro 100 does not have a built in fax. HP also put the paper jam door on the back of the unit, meaning you may have to pull it out of the corner for another reason from time to time. I will say that in all the printing we did there was never a jam.
When setting up through a network or using the USB cable, HP made it easy to configure the printer and start printing. My first installation was tethered using the USB cable. After only a few minutes with the HP setup wizard from the included CD the printer was up and running. The only time I ran into an issue during the setup was when trying to use the wireless connection. Once I configured the printer using USB I was only given the option to connect wirelessly using WPS. Unfortunately WPS is disabled on our office network, and using the HP software to change settings from the computer would not allow me to manually enter the SSID and password for the connection, so I had to do a little digging. Going to my programs list I found an HP icon to run the printer setup again. From this screen I was then able to setup using wireless or a network instead of choosing the USB option. I then chose an option to manually enter my network name and password. If you have the ability to use the WPS feature then simply pressing the WiFi button on the printer will cause the display to prompt you to press the WPS button on your wireless router. Once you have done that printer is connected to the network. Had I just used the wireless network setup option to begin with there would have been no issues at all.
Concerned that mapping the networked printer on all your computers will be too difficult or time consuming? HP has come up with an easier way to print through a network connected printer called ePrint. After installing your printer you browse to the ePrint website . Once on the website you will be prompted register your printer and choose an email address for it. All you have to do now is email the printer what ever you want to print. It will print exactly what is typed into the body of the email as well as any attachments, as long as they are in a supported format. All of the standard document and image formats are supported, as well as HTML, PowerPoint, and Excel files. So the printer will not waste toner on junk mail the ePrint center online also allows the administrator to filter email addresses that can through the ePrint feature. Up to 500 can be stored at a time in an allowed senders list; emails from anyone else will be ignored. It will also store a log of any items sent to the printer, and the status of that print job. This will also integrate your printer on the ePrint app for Android devices, or AirPrint on an Apple iOS device so you can print from your phone now, and pick it up later.
The scanner handled every job we threw at it with ease, and did so rather quickly. High resolution images were copied with very minimal burring and distortion only in the finest lines, and documents are almost as sharp of the original with no obvious signs that it was a copy.
My biggest gripe with the printer is the high cost of toner. At $49.99 for 1200 pages of black toner and $55.99 per color for 1000 pages of toner your wallet will suffer when its time to replace cartridges in this printer. Breaking down the pricing further it works out to 4.2 cents per black and white page and 20.4 cents per color page. The page per minute printing speed also feels lacking. With the HP pumping out only 17 pages per minute when printing in black and white, and a mere 4ppm in color. A full page high-resolution picture took a full minute to print. This is not a big surprise though. These speeds are on par with the specifications of the printer.
If you are on the market for a low cost color laser printer for a small or medium office that doesn’t print often but needs a quality printer then the HP LaserJet Pro 100 is an excellent choice. Combining the ease of setup and the extensive cloud-based printing options with the excellent print quality this printer is a great addition to any office. However, if your printer is going to see high volume or if you need an auto-duplexer in the printer then you should explore other options.
