Test color laser: HP Color Laserjet CP1215 and CP1515n

von Ulrich Junker

HP plays along in the same league now as Samsung does, launching two low-budget color laser printers, CP1215 and CP1515n. And at the same time testing the customers´pain tolerance in regard to cost of print. Quality of print excels in this performance category, however.

Erschienen am 29. Oktober 2008 bei Druckerchannel.de, 10 Seite(n)

https://www.druckerchannel.de/artikel.php?ID=2374

Quality and speed: Text print

DC test letter

Mischdokument mit 10 Seiten: dc business 10seiten.doc.

The lab uses two documents to test print speed and quality. One, called "Dr.-Grauert-Brief", is a normal text to test the copy mode. Here we find out, whether or not the manufacturer exaggerated when referring to print speed. This letter can be found in Testdokumente.

In a second test we print a ten-page text (Druckerchannel-Business-Brief). In addition to text it contains a company logo, a small table, and a pie-chart. This letter is printed in three modes: Normal mode (no change in the driver), fast mode (lowest resolution), and best quality (highest resolution).

The following pictures show the letter "a" in the three modes mentioned above.

Quality of print: Text

For a test of print quality (text) the lab usually uses different quality modes, which both printers do not offer. They always use the "Best quality" mode. The lab gives it an additional try with "Print in grayscale"

Using a microscope and a special-purpose camera DC photographs the letter "a", which is 11 point in size. The magnification is 30-fold.

Quality of text print

Text print is very good in both modes.

CP1215 text print: Normal mode.

CP1215 text print: Grayscale.

CP1515n text print: Normal mode.

CP1515n text print: Grayscale.

Click an image to open the picture gallery.

Speed of text print

At the beginning the printers take a break for about a minute every 80 sheets. The display of the CP1515n shows "Cleaning" or "Calibrating". With small print jobs this happens between print jobs. With big ones the frequency of interruptions increases.

With small print jobs speed of text print is average in this price segment. Considering the breaks the printers take within bigger print jobs they fall down into the lower third.