HP LaserJet 1020

If most of your printing comes from office documents and internet pages, and you're not bothered about colour, mono laser printers are by far the most economical option available.

The HP LaserJet 1020 is a budget model and works out to around 2.5p per page (based on its toner cartridge producing around 2,000 pages of text and costing £50).

It comes with one full toner cartridge and can print at a maximum resolution of 600dpi. HP also includes a FastRes 1200 dpi option (what HP refers to as 1200dpi-like quality), but this didn't make any noticeable difference to images or text.

What we got in our tests was readable text at font sizes as low as 2pt and crisp edges on larger fonts. Black letters and graphics were well defined with no unsightly streaks or 'banding' even on plain A4 paper.

What really stood out about the HP, though, was its printing speed. Because it doesn't need to warm up after being switched on (an annoying trait of most laser printers), your first page will pop out 11 seconds after pressing print. Then you'll get 14 pages per minute, which is very good for this price.

The only slight annoyances are that the printer had to be operated entirely by software and that it lacks a USB cable, which adds an extra £5 to the overall price.