HP LaserJet P1505

Undercutting all of the mono printers in our recent Labs, HP's impressively compact Laserjet P1505 is clearly aimed at the entry-level end of the laser market. Instead of an LCD screen it makes do with buttons and coded lights, and whereas almost half the machines in that Labs complemented the usual USB connection with an Ethernet port for multi-user printing, the P1505 is strictly a standalone device for the home office or personal desktop use.

Should network printing be a high priority, HP does offer a P1505n model with an Ethernet port, although the price leaps by an unreasonable £70. Compare this to the £129 Lexmark E250dn, with its USB, Ethernet and parallel ports and the networked HP looks an unattractive proposition. It's most likely to be used as a personal printer, so the lack of features and the paltry 2MB of onboard memory shouldn't be too off-putting. As long as print quality and speeds are up to scratch, the low price will appeal.

Alas, there was evidence of cost-cutting in our print tests. Plain text is handled sufficiently well for the likely workload - HP's spherical toner technology means we saw little to no spidering around characters - but graphics aren't quite up to scratch. Gradients, for instance, were afflicted by plenty of banding, and the maximum resolution of 600 x 600dpi - half that of our favourite small mono laser, the Brother HL-5240 - means that areas of solid grey appeared grainy.

However, if print quality is merely average, print speeds are anything but. Our ISO test document - which encompasses both text and graphics - was handled with aplomb (hitting 22ppm in both normal and draft modes), as were a slew of Excel spreadsheets. In fact, its document printing rate is on a par with the Brother and faster than several dearer printers from the recent Labs.

It's only £104, so if you're just after a fast and affordable mono laser printer for the home office, the HP Laserjet P1505 may do a job - particularly if you don't print a lot of graphics. But if you require anything more than that - top quality output or a feature set above the mere basics - you'd be better off spending a bit more on the larger, but superior, Brother HL-5240.

Author: Mike Jennings