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

Cost of print

We do not count on information given by manufacturers. Our lab checks the cost of print by using standardized documents. A complete set of cartridges is used until empty or the printer refuses to continue printing.

If a printer has several exchangeable cartridges, we determine the unused toner with a precision scale, and consider their value when calculating the cost of print. Other consumables are included, determining the proportionate use.

Test document for Black: dc_Leerdruck_5p.pdf.

Test document for colors: dc_Fotoyield.tif.

• dc_leerdruck_5p.pdf (left side) is used to check out the range of ink or toner printing text.
• dc_fotoyield.tif (right side) is used to check out the yield of ink or toner printing a photo.

Cost of print: Text

The black toner cartridge 125A with a supposed yield of 2.200 pages is available for approximately 58 Euros (MSRP). Yield is calculated according to ISO/IEC 19798 , with a coverage of less than five percent per page.

DC´s test document dc_leerdruck_5p has a coverage of exactly five percent.

If you calculate cost of print for a single page without a test using available data (2.200 pages cost 58 Euros) the result is somewhat more than 2.6 Cents per page. Using DC`s test document we print 1.521 (CP1515n) respectively 1.513 (CP1215) pages, before the printers quit working. Result: Expensive 3,8 Cents per page. Average in their price segment is 2.8 Cents, range of cost per page is 1.8 to 3.8 Cents.

Cost of print: Color

The supposed yield of the color toner is 1.400 pages for each cartridge. This is valid, however, for a coverage according to ISO/IEC 19798, and that is less than five percent.

DC uses an A4 testdocument dc_fotoyield.

After printing 211 pages A4 the printer stops, prompting "Toner yellow empty". There is toner left in all other cartridges, after inserting a new cartridge with yellow toner you could continue printing.

Considering the empty yellow toner cartridge and the proportionate usage of the other toners a color print costs an expensive 55 Cents.

In the same price and performance segment cost of color print ranges between 33 and 57 Cents. A somewhat more powerful model, Konica Minolta Magicolor 2530DL, does the same job for 25 Cents only.