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HP Color Laserjet CP1518NI

74

Good

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Pros
Inexpensive; crisp text quality
Includes media-card slots
Cons
Slow; skimpy, 150-sheet input tray
Some flimsy construction

$229.99 - $489.37
From 25 Merchants

Pricing: Inexpensive: $399 (12/16/2008)
Performance: Fair: 63
Features: Good: 71
Design: Good: 73

Find out how these four scores, and their relative weights, combine to produce the PC World Rating.

Pricing

Inexpensive: $399

Standard-Capacity Black Cartridge - $70

Standard Cyan Ink Cartridge/Toner Cost - $64

Standard Magenta Ink Cartridge/Toner Cost - $64

Standard Yellow Ink Cartridge/Toner Cost - $64

Performance

Fair: 63

Text Printing (Plain Paper, Normal Settings)
Tested Text Speed (ppm)	11.2
Three-Page Word Document (secs)	46.65
Ten-Page Word Document (secs)	69.87
Text Output Quality	Superior

Color Printing (Plain Paper, Normal Settings)
Tested Color Speed (ppm)	2
Two-Page Excel Document (secs)	40.55
One-Page Webpage (secs)	31.82
4 by 6 Color Photo (secs)	45.22
Color Output Quality	Very Good

Color Photo Printing (Glossy Paper, Best Settings)
Tested Glossy Photo Speed (ppm)	1
Sports Action Shot (secs)	61.11
Color Photo Quality	Good

Grayscale Printing (Plain Paper, Normal Settings)
Tested Grayscale Speed (ppm)	1.7
4 by 6 Grayscale Photo (secs)	35.74
Grayscale Output Quality	Good

Grayscale Printing (Glossy Paper, Best Settings)
Grayscale Glossy Output Quality	n/a

Lineart Printing (Plain Paper, Best Settings)
Tested Lineart Speed (ppm)	1.8
300dpi Line Art Image (secs)	33.66
Line Art Output Quality	Good

Scan Tests (in seconds)
Overall Scan Quality	n/a

Copy Tests
Copy Output Quality	n/a

Features

Good: 71

Memory (in MB)
RAM Installed	96
Maximum Amount of RAM	352

Dimensions
Dimensions	15.7 by 17.8 by 10
Weight (pounds)	45

Vendor Rated Speeds
B&W Pages per Min.	B&W PPM:12
Color Pages per Min.	Color PPM:8

Resolutions
Max. B&W dpi	600-by-600

Language & Emulation
Printer Emulation Type	PostScript
PCL Emulation	PCL6
PostScript Type	Standard

Interfaces
Parallel Port	No
Serial Port	No
USB 1.1	Yes
USB 2.0	Yes
Ethernet	Yes
Media Card Readers	CompactFlash, Memory Stick, SD Card, xD-Picture Card
PictBridge	Yes
Other Interfaces	10/100

Drivers
Macintosh	Yes
Windows XP	Yes
Linux	No

Power
Maximum Power Draw (watts)	295
Standby Power Draw (watts)	6.2

Multifunction Printer Specs
Fax Memory (pages)	0

Paper Handling
Number of Input Trays, Standard	1
Number of Input Trays, Maximum	1
Tray Capacity, pages	150
Maximum Sheets With Optional Paper Trays	150
Manual Feed Slot	Yes
Maximum Paper Size	Legal
Output Tray Capacity	125
Auto Duplexer	No

Warranty & Support
Labor Warranty (years)	One
Parts Warranty (years)	One
Weekday Support Hours	24
Saturday Support Hours	24
Sunday Support Hours	24
Toll-Free Support	Yes

Cost of Operation Inside of Warranty
Cost per Page, Black	$0.09
Cost per Page, Color	$0.17

Vendor-Supplied Data (in Pages)
Monthly Duty Cycle	0
Monochrome Ink/Toner Yields	2200
Standard Cyan Ink Cartridge/Toner Yield	1400
Standard Magenta Ink Cartridge/Toner Yield	1400
Standard Yellow Ink Cartridge/Toner Yield	1400

Bundled Items
Included Hardware	Power cord
Included Software	Print Driver and User's Guide, Marketing Starter Kit

Reliability & Service
Summary of results for all of brand's products in this category	More bad news for HP: below-average grades for out-of-box problems and significant problems with its printers. Readers aren’t thrilled with HP’s phone support either.

Reliability of brand's products in this category
Reports of products arriving with problems	Worse than Average
Reports of products with any significant problems	Worse than Average
Reports of problems that render a product unusable	Average
Buyers' rating of products ease-of-use	Average
Overall satisfaction with reliability of brand's products in category	Average

Service & Support Quality
Time spent holding for phone support	Average
Overall quality of vendor's phone support	Worse than Average
Reports of problems unresolved after contacting service	Average
Overall quality of service	Average

Design

Good: 73

HP Color LaserJet CP1518ni Color Laser Printer Review

by Susan Silvius and Melissa Riofrio

- HP's Color LaserJet CP1518ni is a low-cost color laser printer with a decent design. Compared with such similarly priced printers as the Brother HL-4040CN and the Dell Color Laser 1320c, however, it's a lot slower and has limited paper handling. It's best suited for use in a home or a fairly small office.

Read Complete Review »

User Reviews for HP Color Laserjet CP1518NI

Reviewed by: Squirrell

Duration of ownership: 6 Months

Strengths: It works.

Weaknesses: Only got 100 pdf pages out of the supplied yellow cartridge. Each page printed reduces the toner pages remaining count by about 10 pages. Pictures are too dark, but there is no printer control panel to adjust the setting. To get a good image print it is necessary to manually adjust image brightness in an editor and then print the image several times to get the correct result. With pdf's and web pages there is no way out. Could not print black text Word document when out of yellow toner. The print driver did not have a setting for the type of HP's own laser paper used here.

Overall Evaluation: Avoid this one if images are important.
Reviewed by: rusblue

Duration of ownership:

Strengths: Image quality is sharp and crisp. Colors are pretty accurate. Networking is a plus.

Weaknesses: Cartridges are expensive and do not come in high yield. Slightly bulky and heavy.

Overall Evaluation: Prints okay. photo quality is not great. looks darker, lower resolution, & less glossy compared to inkjet printer. Since it's a laser printer, large scale photo doesn't look as nice as inkjets, but still does a decent job.The toner usage is the downside. Price is right!