HP Laserjet P1505 Review

The HP Laserjet P1505 is clearly aimed at the entry-level end of the Laser Printer market and can be found for under £90. At this price you cannot expect many extras and the P1505 is indeed a very basic model only suitable as a standalone device for the home office or personal desktop use. HP does offer a network capable model, the P1505n, but the price increases by an unreasonable 50% and better options are available for less, for example the Lexmark E250dn that offers USB, Ethernet and parallel ports.

Design

The P1505 doesn’t look much, especially compared to the attractive Samsung ML-1630 and it is obvious that HP has had to cut many corners to get down to this price point. Both the input and output trays are not of the usual HP standard, with the input guides being particularly small and difficult to move. The control panel, consisting of buttons and lights can be very confusing to interpret and the lack of any printed documentation to consult is frustrating. An on screen help system is employed but personally I would prefer referencing a hard copy.

Cartridges

Printing costs are not very competitive, with cartridge costs high and page yields low. The starter cartridge shipped with the printer only has a page yield of 1,000 pages and the replacement toner cartridge available (HP CB436a) has a page yield of 2,000 pages, this is not high especially considering it costs £42. That works out at over 2p per page, not much less than a good inkjet printer. The CB436a cartridge is presently used in this printer and two multifunction machines, so until it is used in a wider range of printers, the price will remain high. With a subsequent shortage of empty cartridges, remanufactured units are likely to be scarce and not greatly discounted. High running costs seem assured for some time to come.

Performance

Unfortunately there was also evidence of cost cutting in the print tests. Plain text is handled fairly well given the likely workload, HP’s new spherical toner delivering crisp characters, however graphic performance isn’t up to par. Gradients were afflicted by plenty of banding and the maximum resolution of 600x600 dpi is half of that available from some other budget printers, like the Brother HL-5240. If print quality is disappointing, the same cannot be said for print speed. This printer hit 22ppm in tests that included both text and graphics, a result that is excellent for a budget laser printer and is faster than many more expensive printers.

If you are just after a fast affordable mono laser printer for your home office, at less than £90 the HP Laserjet P1505 may just fit the bill. But if you require a little more in the way of usable features or better quality output, you would be well advised to increase the budget slightly and look one division up, at the likes of the Brother HL-5240.