HP LaserJet P1505n review

HP claims its LaserJet P1505n measures 243mm front to back, but this figure ignores the paper tray that flips down at the front.

You also need to flip out a support to catch printed output, but despite these points the HP remains a small printer.

The main tray hold 250 sheets of paper and the upper surface of the tray can support ten more sheets that feed into the priority feed slot. The trays are open to the elements, so the paper may get dusty over time.

The top of the printer hinges open to give access to the introductory toner cartridge, which has a life of 1000 pages, after which you'll pay £44 (inc. VAT) for a 2000-page CB436A cartridge which works out to 2.2p per page.

Economy mode

On the left-hand side there are four status lights and two control buttons (Go and Job Cancel), with a power button on the front.

You have to open printer properties in the Control Panel to change the resolution from 600dpi to 1,200dpi.

We tried both settings and found there was little noticeable difference as the quality of the HP output is superb by default. The other option in the drivers is to use EconoMode which may save print cartridges in the long run.

Loud but speedy

HP uses the same 266MHz processor in the slower LaserJet P1005 and P1006 models, but manages to crank the P1505n up to a claimed speed of 23ppm that we measured at a true 19ppm.

On the downside, this is a noisy machine. We could clearly see paper handling marks along the length of the paper, largely due to the combination of the small size of the printer and the high speed at which it prints.

The basic LaserJet P1505 sells for £82, so the addition of 10/100 networking on this model doubles the price to £155 and you don't get an Ethernet cable included.

There's no doubt the HP is a competent printer, but you can get quieter and faster networked printers for a similar price from Epson.