HP Laserjet P1505 Review

Undercutting all of the small laser printers recently tested, the HP Laserjet P1505, with a price tag under £90 is aimed at the budget end of the laser market. Lacking an LCD screen, it makes do with buttons and coded lights and although it boasts a USB2.0 port, there is no Ethernet port for multi-user printing. If network printing is a high priority, HP does offer the P1505n model that incorporates an Ethernet port, but the price rises by an unreasonable £50.
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
The printer is supplied with a starter cartridge with a limited capacity of 1,000 pages, so it will not be long before you are forced to buy a replacement. The only cartridge suitable for this printer is the HP CB436a with a capacity of 2,000 pages and is not intended for heavy-duty use. This cartridge type is currently only used in this machine and two multifunction printers and costs a hefty £42. This yields a cost per page of over 2p, so it is not particularly economical. Compatible toner cartridges have not reached the market yet, so you cannot rely on this avenue for cost savings.
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 600×600 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.