HP LaserJet P1505
Undercutting all of the small laser printers recently tested, the HP LaserJet P1505, with a price tag under Rs.9,999/-, is aimed at the budget end of the laser printer market. Lacking an LCD screen, it makes to do with buttons and coded lights and it boasts of a connectivity of USB2.0 port and HP targets the entry-level laser printer market with the impressively speedy LaserJet P1505 monochrome printer.
The LaserJet P1505 is fast: In our tests, it averaged 26.1 pages per minute printing text, and 9.9 ppm printing photos – output speeds that are mong the highest we have seen to date. On the other hand, the text samples had a heavy, slightly imprecise look. And while photos are not the forte of any monochrome laser, the LaserJet P1505’s looked even worse than we expected: grainy, blotchy, and unnatural.
In contrast with its speed, the physical design of the printer is spare – and sometimes irritating. A front panel folds out to become the 250-sheet, letter/legal-size input tray. The paper guides are small, unmarked, and can be hard to move – especially the width guides, which are located deep within the recesses of the input path. You position a footed plastic panel over the input tray to form a combination cover and manual-input area – with similarly deep-seated width guides. The output tray has a flimsy fold-out extension. The control panel consists of an inscrutable array of lights labelled with icons; you have to consult the on-screen documentation to figure out what most of the light sequences mean.
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.
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 is not up to par. Gradients were afflicted by plenty of banding and the maximum resolution of 600600 dpi is half of that available from some other budget printers. 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 Rs.9,999/-, the HP Laserjet P1505 may just fit the bill.
Minimum System Requirements
Microsoft Windows 2000, XP Home or XP Professional, 1 GHz Processor, 512 MB RAM Windows Vista Ready, 128 MB RAM (256 MB recommended), 120 MB free Hard Disk Space, CD-ROM Drive, USB Port
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