Pros & Cons
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- Low price.
- Reasonably good output quality across the board.
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- Slow.
- No fax support.
- No automatic document feeder.
- Maximum scan area is letter-size.
HP Color LaserJet CM1015 MFP Specs
| Color or Monochrome | 1-pass color |
| Connection Type | USB |
| Cost Per Page (Color) | 12.4 cents |
| Maximum Scan Area | 8.5" x 11" |
| Maximum Standard Paper Size | Legal |
| Monthly Duty Cycle (Maximum) | 35000 pages per month |
| Number of Ink Colors | 4 |
| Rated Speed at Default Settings (Color) | 8 ppm |
| Rated Speed at Default Settings (Mono) | 8 ppm |
| Scanner Optical Resolution | 1200 pixels per inch |
| Scanner Type | Flatbed |
| Standalone Copier and Fax | Copier |
| Type | All-in-one |
The most notable thing about the HP Color LaserJet CM1015 MFP is its price. At just $499.99 (direct), it's no more expensive than some high-end ink-jet all-in-ones (AIOs). More important, the low price, combined with reasonably high-quality output, brings the cost of a color laser AIO within reach of even the smallest home office. That makes the CM1015 worth considering for a home office or personal AIO slot in a larger office, despite its notably slow speeds. Unfortunately, HP has cut corners on two features I'd argue are all but essential for any office AIO, even one that's meant as a personal AIO connected to your PC with a USB cable. There's no built-in fax modem and no automatic document feeder (ADF).
The lack of a fax modem means that the CM1015 doesn't offer a standalone fax capability. It's limited to printing, scanning, standalone copying, and scanning to e-mail by way of the e-mail program on the PC it's connected to. The lack of an ADF means there's no easy way to handle multipage documents. Your only choice is to scan pages on the flatbed, one at a time. Since the flatbed is only letter-size, not having an ADF also leaves you without a way to scan legal-size pages, something almost any office has a need for, at least occasionally.
That said, if you can do without the ADF and fax capability, the CM1015 offers a good mix of features. It provides more than enough paper capacity, between the standard 250-sheet input tray and 125-sheet multipurpose feeder and an optional 250-sheet additional tray ($149 direct).
The CM1015 weighs 45.5 pounds, which is relatively light for a color laser AIO. At 20.7 by 17.25 by 20 inches (HWD), it's small enough to fit comfortably in a small office, but a little too imposing to share a desk with. Setup is typical for sub-$1,000 color laser AIOs—remove the packing material, load paper, plug in the power cord, run the fully automated installation software, and connect the USB cable.
The best I can say about the CM1015's performance is that if you're used to printing on inexpensive ink jets, it may (or may not!) be an improvement. HP's low-end color laser printers tend to be slow, and the CM1015 is no exception. On our business applications suite (timed with QualityLogic's hardware and software, www.qualitylogic.com) it took a total of 33 minutes 39 seconds. The next slowest color laser AIO I've tested in the past year, the
The good news is that the CM1015's output quality is up to color-laser standards. Its output is a bit better than both the 2480MF's and the L7680's. Its text is at the low end of typical laser quality (though still high quality), and with graphics and photo quality both typical of the breed.
With the possible exception of the most demanding desktop-publishing needs, the CM1015 should be able to handle any text you want to print. Almost half of our test fonts qualified as easily readable with well-formed characters at 4 points, and well over half qualified at 5 points. One highly stylized font with thick strokes needed 20 points, but that's not unusual.
Graphics quality was easily good enough for any internal business need, including PowerPoint handouts and the like. I saw a slight unevenness in the way solid blocks of color reflected light from some angles (because of uneven pile height, meaning that the toner varied in thickness), and I also saw visible dithering in the form of both graininess and relatively subtle patterns in fills, but there were no killer flaws. Depending on how much of a perfectionist you are, you may consider the quality good enough for things such as trifold brochures.
Photos also showed dithering, as well as a tendency for objects with similar colors—such as an orange and grapefruit in a fruit bowl—to merge into each other. Although I'd call the output well short of photo quality, it was more than good enough for things such as printing client newsletters, Web pages with photos, or even photos intended for an office bulletin board or a refrigerator door.
If you're in the market for an inexpensive color laser AIO, the HP Color LaserJet CM1015 MFP is worth a look. Be sure, though, to consider whether you'd rather have the CM1015's better-looking output or would prefer to sacrifice a little output quality to get a faster machine such as the HP Officejet Pro L7680 All-in-One.
Benchmark Test Results
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