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 offers both a 250-sheet capacity input tray and a 10 sheet multipurpose tray, costs however have been pared in the design of this second tray, as the guides are very small and being set well into the input path are difficult to move. More signs of cost cutting can be found with the flimsy extension to the output tray and with the design of the control panel. This panel is a very simple affair of buttons and lights that are used to indicate faults, the array however is confusing and it is not an easy task to determine by the display exactly the nature of the fault. The lack of a hard copy of the documentation does not help either, the instructions are all only visible on screen, for all the cost of a proper booklet, and this seems a cost cut too far
Cartridges
Do not be overly concerned if you are quickly required to renew the toner cartridge on this machine. It is factory fitted with a small capacity starter cartridge that is limited to 1,000 pages. The only available replacement cartridge (HP CB436a) is good for double this amount, although at £42 is not very good value, giving a cost per page of over 2p. The other problem with this toner cartridge is the fact that it is a new design and is currently only used in a total of three models. Unless it is introduced into more new printers, it is unlikely that cheaper compatible cartridges will be commonly available in the near future, leaving you with high print costs.
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.