Art-ology

Taking the measure of the HP color LaserJet 1500l printer using Color LaserJet 1500L cartridges will quickly reveal that one is looking at a very nice and low priced laser printer that could be an excellent choice for almost any business that will need a nice printer but at a price that won’t break the bank. This particular model comes with a very nice print speed and quality that matches that speed. It’s also designed for true workgroup networks and comes with excellent connectivity.

When it comes to that print speed, Hewlett-Packard rates the 1500l is being able to produce about 16 pages per minute of product, which is excellent in terms of monochrome printing capability. Color pages per minute is reduced down to four, but it is clear that Hewlett-Packard intends for this printer to be more of a workgroup printer that needs to do black and white and not color, so much.

Connectivity is through standard USB, with no other option available. In today’s wired world this is really no big issue. The printer doesn’t come standard with the USB cable, though, so keep that in mind when considering purchase of the 1500l. There’s a fair chance any business looking for a printer in this end of the market won’t have an IT specialist, but the connecting software makes the job easy enough to do by just about anybody.

When it comes to page quality as far as printed product is concerned, the end result will be generally excellent across the board. This is because Hewlett-Packard has given it standard 600 dpi resolution quality using HP Color LaserJet ink and toner, which is usually more than enough for a workgroup or a single computer user who just needs clean and crisp print copy. HP manages this by including one of its image enhancement programs.

RAM in the 1500l is typical for a printer in this segment, and its 16MB can’t be upgraded, either. It’s smart to take stock of the kind of print tasks and how many of them will need to be done at nearly the same time before settling on a printer at this low-end rating when it comes to RAM. There’s nothing out-of-the-ordinary, though. A standard 150MHz microprocessor keeps everything organized and flowing well enough.

The printer can print out on a wide variety of media types, including envelopes and transparencies and plain paper. It holds about 125 sheets of paper, so keep that in mind if the aim is to find a high paper storage printer. The maximum number of media types that can be stored can be as much as 375 pages in total, though it’s more likely that the 125-page capacity will be standard operating procedure.

As far as the durability of the 1500l, most experts rated this printer as excellent and with a monthly duty cycle of 30,000 pages, maintenance visits will be few and far between. Keep in mind that this is a true laser jet, meaning that an occasional replacement of its four printer cartridges will be required. It also runs on several different Mac OS and Windows-based operating systems, meaning it’s fairly versatile.

All in all, there seems to be much to like about the HP Color LaserJet 1500l printer. It certainly will work well enough for most small business workgroups that don’t need a printer with the capability to handle huge print files and it can also be found for less than $150 from retail online stores, which is actually an exceptional price for a real network printer. It also prints at about 16 pages per minute, though color is only at four pages per minute. When you are in need of compatible toner cartridges, search for HP toner cartridge online.  Just make sure to purchase HP Color LaserJet 1500L toner cartridges so it will match your printer.