Rating: 
Summary: Replaced by LaserJet 1320
Review: If you are looking to buy LaserJet 1300 (or its cheaper sibling, 1150), take a look at newly released LaserJet 1160 and 1320. They address some of 1150 and 1300's biggest shortcomings while being nicer looking. I have used LaserJet 1300 for several months and while I think it is a decent printer, I am not a fan of protruding paper tray (it reminds me of old DeskJet printers) and its output bin tends to curl papers when 50 or so pages are stacked.
After playing with both 1160 and 1320, I got 1160 (refer to my LaserJet 1160 Amazon review). Both 1160 and 1320 look more like a laser printer while still maintaining small footprint. LED status lights are still cryptic, but they are now clearly labeled. Although multifunction input tray can accept only 1 sheet at a time (1150 and 1300 accepted 10 sheets), the paper handling is improved overall and output bin is more robust. And output quality is crispier, with better defined text and graphics.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Printer, Terrible Installation
Review: It was a bad sign when autostart for the driver CD
failed. Running Setup manually didn't work either and
only returned the cryptic message, "Setup encountered a
serious error".It turns out that the setup program uses Java and needs
to have that correctly installed to work properly. I
had an incompatible version, it seems, because when I
uninstalled Java, then reinstalled, I at least got the
drivers going. The "Toolkit" software that monitors
toner level never did get installed. This took hours of
fiddling and researching on the Web to resolve. Sharing the printer on a LAN turned out to be a bit of
a headache, also. The "add printer" wizard failed to
find all the needed the files on the host computer and
I had to pick through several directories on the CD to
find them all. However, the printer itself works flawlessly. It's fast,
quiet, and has printed nicely on a variety of paper. If
I only rated the printer itself, I'd give it 5 stars. Installing a printer should not be an ordeal like this
was though, so two stars off.
Rating: 
Summary: HP did it again
Review: Let me start by telling you that I am a bit of an HP bigot. I've had Lexmark, Brother, Epson and Canon printers, but when it comes to your basic black & white laser printer HP is hard to beat. I have learned one tidbit that is relevant here, if the paper feed is vertical, stay away. Since the 1300 has a horizonal feed, keep reading. This is a solid printer, perfect for an smaller office setting. At home you could save a few bucks and go with the 1300's less expensive cousin the HP Laserjet1000, which is slower and less flexible (no manual feed, not expandable, etc.) The 1300 offers very fast printing, built in manual paper feed, and the ability to increase paper handling to a tad over 500 sheets. You can also get a networked version if you'd rather not share it indirectly through a computer. We've had our HP Laserjet 1300 for a few weeks and it is rock solid. No paper jams (the 1200, which this replaced had a good reputation too), beautiful output, and consistent results. We use the USB connection to share it off one persons computer (our primary office printer is a Laserjet 4000 workhorse with an integrated network card). You get a choice of 2 print cartridges, I would go with the higher capacity "X" version (lower capacity cartidge is "A" version) as the added cost more than makes up for the additional print capacity. This is another great printer from HP.
Rating:
Summary: Power and Noise
Review: This HP pretty much delivers its money's worth. The paper tray holds a decent sized 250 pages, but the strength of the printer remains it's speed. I use it from home and probably print 300-600 pages a week. It has no problems dealing with the output, though it does sound like there's a lawn mower loose in the house every time it kicks into action. If you live next to Benedictine Monks or a Yoga school, you're probably going to need something a little more mindful of neighbors, but otherwise, this is a powerful workhorse. Sure, it's just black and white, but if you're looking for efficiency, not a bad choice. The previous reviewer mention a problem with quality of print. I just don't see it. I tried smudging the pages with my fingers, running them underwater, giving them to the dog, but the print survived. I even do professional work off it, and still, fail to see the problem. I can't imagine finding anything better in the same range.
Rating:
Summary: Good printer, inadequate documentation
Review: This is a fine printer with many good features. I particularly like the fast start: the first copy comes out in 10 seconds. The subsequent ones arrive very quickly too. It has all the expected features, such as duplexing and booklet printing. Installation of the software was unnecessarily difficult because of the inadequate documentation. The start-up guide is completely pictorial and does not tell you how to install the software, e.g., that it should be installed without the printer connected to the computer and which one of the several drivers to install. Those instructions are found only in the on-line manual and various readme files on the CD/ROM, which I am used to reading after installation. As happens more and more often these days, the on-line manual did not answer all of my questions.
Rating: 
Summary: LASERJET 1300 IS A TOTAL PIECE OF JUNK
Review: This printer has trouble fusing toner to all types of paper, even super-smooth surface laser paper. Text quality is pathetic at smaller sizes. Letters are toothy and uneven, and that's not counting the ones that have slight smudges and streaks. Horizontal lines have fuzzy ghosting under them. You can forget about any type of letterhead--even light cockle or eggshell finish is too rough and will cause toner to flake off. Printed pages are also slightly skewed despite tightening the paper guides to maximum setting.
Rating:
Summary: HP LeaserJet 1300 Printer Review
Review: Works well. Thus far I'm quite happy with it.
I really like the 10 page manual feed `tray' that sits on top of the regular paper tray cover. Great if you need to print a booklet or a small duplex job since you don't have to take all the paper out. Also great for reusing paper that has been printed on one side for those small print jobs that you'll throw away anyway like rough drafts etc.
With the guides set properly, I haven't experienced any of the crooked printing reported by other reviewers. The manual tray paper guides slide easily so you'll need to keep an eye on them.
Some reviewers have mentioned that the print is too light. At default settings the printing is a bit lighter than my old HP LaserJet 5L however this can be easily fixed by bumping up the toner density from 3 to 4 (on a scale of 1 to 5). Note: this will increase the per page cost as you will be using more toner. Unfortunately, this feature is not very well documented in the manual. It's accessed through the HP Toolbox > Advanced Print Settings > Print Quality.
No printed manual is included so you'll have to print it yourself (172 pages). Alas, the lack of a printer manual is par for the course these days. When I first tried to print the manual, I got a fatal error (all three lights on) about 20 pages into the job and had to turn off the printer and reboot my computer before I could print again. Fortunately, this has not happed since and I've now printed a total of 476 pages. The manual is ok but could be a lot more detailed and better laid out so as not to waste paper. Some critical stuff is in the README file.
HP recommends a "software first install" which means you install the drivers first and then connect the printer when prompted during the installation.
One piece of advice: use the custom install feature and install both the PCL and PS drivers (only the PCL is installed by default). The PS driver gives substantially better results printing PDF's. With the PCL driver some PDF pages suffer from dropouts and the text looks terrible, however they print perfectly with the PS driver. You will also need the HP toolbox as it is the only way to access printer features such as Toner Density (unless you have the 1300n with the LIO print server.)
If you need to add the PS driver after you have installed the HP Printing system things get a little tricky. Read the "known issues" in the README file. Basically, if using the CD, "Be sure to select the HP toolbox and the print driver you wish to install," otherwise it will delete the HP Toolbox. This is completely counter intuitive as one figures that once the Toolbox is installed it need not be installed gain. I made this mistake and subsequent attempts to "modify the existing installation" by adding the missing components had everything installed but I still couldn't use the web update feature. Hence I removed everything and reinstalled it from scratch.
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