Review: Dell Laser 1110 printer

Dell may not be most people's first thought when they're looking for a printer, but it has been selling its own brand for the last three years and most of the models in the range offer good value for money.

Several of the company’s printers are manufactured by Lexmark and the design and shape of the Dell Laser 1110 suggests this entry-level laser is one of them.

The printer has a very small footprint, particularly when it's not in use.

Fold in the paper support on the top cover and close the front cover, which also acts as a paper tray when the device is in use, and it takes up very little room. Even then, fitting the single piece cartridge shows that there’s a lot of space inside – in future, Dell's printers might be even smaller than this one.

For A4 prints, the paper feeds from the folded-down front cover and they arrive at the top next to the very simple control panel, which comprises just two indicators and a cancel button.

Connection to the PC uses a USB 2 socket which is located at the back of the printer, and software installation is very simple, with just a driver, user guide and consumables tool to install. The last of these encourages the user to pay Dell £46 for a new cartridge, every 2,000 pages.

In line with a growing and regrettable trend, the Laser 1110 is supplied with a half-full cartridge to begin with, which is good for just 1,000 pages. Page costs come out at around 2.7p, which is high, even for an entry-level laser.

Print quality is generally good, with clean black text, and pages coming through with very little curl. Block graphics, such as diagrams and charts, are also even and show only a little banding. Photographs, never the forte of mono laser printers, are also pretty reasonable, though with more noticeable bands in areas of changing grey, such as skies.

The Laser 1110 produces a 600dpi text page in around six seconds, giving a real-world print speed of 10ppm, against the claimed 16ppm. Photo prints take twice as long, but 5ppm is still a very respectable throughput for an entry-level machine.

Overall, this low-cost laser is well worth considering alongside the more obvious names.

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