HP Color Laserjet CP1215

While colour inkjet printers are common, colour laser models remain more expensive, but they usually offer greater speed and more permanent prints, which are both water- and light-fast.

The Color Laserjet CP 1215 is HP’s latest cheap colour laser printer.

It was quick and simple to set up and use, with an impressively small footprint, meaning it doesn’t take up too much room on a desk. Its simple design has a large curve to the front edge that breaks up its boxy appearance. The minimalist control panel has no screen, instead relying on light indicators, including four for colour toner levels.

There’s a single 150-sheet paper tray, which is just about OK for a personal printer, but there’s no single-sheet feeding slot for putting in things like envelopes or letterheads. Also, the only connection to the machine is a single USB socket at the back: there’s no network socket and no option for a wireless network connection.

The only driver support is for Windows, from 2000 onward – there’s no option for Linux or, more surprisingly, for Mac computers.

Print speeds are quoted by HP as being 16 pages per minute (ppm) for black prints and 12ppm for colour, but we could only get 9.5ppm and 5ppm respectively, under test conditions. These are respectable speeds for this class of machine, but some inkjet printers, such as HP’s own Officejet 6000, can match it with a lower up-front cost for the printer (ink costs may not be as cheap).

Running costs are down to the four combined toner-and-drum cartridges, each of which cost around £50. This gives a cost per page of around 2.5p for black pages and 13p for colour. The colour cost is a bit on the high side, though the black cost is very competitive.

Print quality was generally good, with clean, sharp black text and bright business graphics. Colours are impressively vivid, though this didn’t help when reproducing photos, which had a tendency to appear over-saturated and a bit picture-postcard-like. If photos will be a large part of what you print, any colour laser may not be the best option.