HP 3015d mono laser

Fast, reliable but expensive

Wed 23 Sep 2009 // 12:02 UTC

In use, the P3015d is fast and reliable, while the printer drivers are clear and easy to use. In our speed tests, a simple Microsoft Word document took just 7 seconds to output, while 10 copies took just 21 seconds. Double-sided printing is only marginally slower: the first sheet took 12 seconds, and 10 sheets took 34 seconds. HP’s rating of 40ppm is more than justified: based on our results, in terms of raw engine speed, we reckon it could reach 42ppm.

Another £95 buys you a lower paper cassette to boosts the printer’s capacity by 500 sheets

Print quality is very good, if not quite first class. We achieved excellent results with text and line graphics, all reproduced cleanly with fine detail intact. Photo images were good but suffered from a little too much grain in gradients and continuous tones, to be considered excellent. However, this is not supposed to be a photo printer, but a general purpose one, and it excels at handling a wide variety of ‘visually rich’ documents such as PDFs, web pages and presentation slides.

Verdict

We get to see a lot of printers, but there is still a great deal about the HP LaserJet P3015d to make it stand out from the crowd. It is a solid performer, actually achieving the speed rating quoted by the manufacturer (astonishing, really) and offering a clutch of extra features that will go down well with workgroups, such as automatic duplex printing, PIN-protected stored print jobs, easy-to-use drivers and ‘walk-up’ USB printing of PDF documents.

However, two problems diminish the P3015d’s ‘wow’ factor. First, the lack of an Ethernet port is inexplicable in what is so obviously not supposed to be a personal printer. Does HP seriously think we are likely to plug it into a USB port on a wireless router, then mess about setting up sharing rights? Second, a desktop A4 mono laser costing £450 is expensive, even with duplex and 40ppm output. It is a great printer but all that high quality is going to cost you. ®