HP LaserJet 1500L (HP (Hewlett-Packard)-Q2488A)

Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 1500L Review

by Dan Littman

- If you're fed up with your ink jet printer's jaggy-looking text but can't switch to a monochrome laser because you need to print color documents, the LaserJet 1500L might meet your needs. It costs only $700 and delivers good print quality. As an alternative to an ink jet, the 1500L has some definite pluses. For one thing, no ink jet can match the crisp black and clean, graceful lines of the 1500L's text output. It printed text at 10.9 pages per minute--not fast for a color laser but about double the average speed of our most recently tested ink jets. On color graphics the 1500L's print quality is no match for a good ink jet. It does produce good detail and realistic coloring, but printouts are marred by a somewhat dotty texture. Its rear exit provides a straight paper path--a feature too many color lasers lack--so you can run labels and cardstock without fear of the wrinkles, jams, and sticky messes that the tight turns of a more serpentine paper path can cause.