HP LaserJet Pro CM1415fnw colour laser multifunction

The HP LaserJet Pro CM1415fnw is a multifunction colour laser printer with a fax and integrated wireless networking. It’s not the fastest document printer you can purchase for your office, but it is fully featured and easy to operate.

HP LaserJet Pro CM1415fnw: Design, setup and operation

The HP LaserJet Pro CM1415fnw is a bulky printer. It’s as tall as it is wide and deep, with a bottom-loading 150 sheet A4 paper tray and a top-mounted A4 flatbed scanner. A swinging door on the front provides easy access to the toner cartridges — there are four, with a monochrome cartridge joined by individual magenta, cyan and yellow inserts.

While larger offices will likely opt for the more secure and reliable wired Ethernet connection, the HP LaserJet Pro CM1415fnw has integrated 802.11b/g/n wireless networking which might be of interest to smaller or more tech-savvy offices. USB 2.0 is also included for direct PC connection.

The HP LaserJet Pro CM1415fnw has a 3.5in colour touchscreen display. Navigating through menus and using the printer’s scan/copy/fax functions are simple thanks to an intuitive, icon-based interface.

HP LaserJet Pro CM1415fnw: Print speed and quality

HP quotes print speeds of 8 colour A4 pages per minute in Normal mode and 12 ppm when printing monochrome. We achieved these speeds when printing documents of 50 pages or more, but the LaserJet Pro CM1415fnw is hamstrung by its long pause before the initial page is printed. If you’re only printing off a single page document, it takes around 30sec before the process is completed — which is slow even by comparison to budget laser printers like the Fuji Xerox Phaser 3160N.

Print quality is impressive. Text is clean and very smooth until 6pt sizes are reached. Similarly, colour documents are reproduced with smooth colours and no visible banding. If you want to produce high quality reports or documents the HP LaserJet Pro CM1415fnw’s output is more than acceptable. As you’d expect, printing photos with the HP LaserJet Pro CM1415fnw does not produce results comparable with a high quality inkjet like the [artnid:359641|Canon PIXMA MG5150 inkjet multifunction]].

HP LaserJet Pro CM1415fnw: Consumable cost and environmental policy

The HP LaserJet Pro CM1415fnw uses four separate toner cartridges — HP’s 128A CE320A black, CE321A cyan, CE323A magenta and CE322A yellow. Buying all four will set you back $386.23, which translates into an overall running cost of 5c per A4 page for monochrome and 7.3c per A4 page for colour documents. High volume users will be pleased with a rated duty cycle of 30,000 pages per month.

HP runs a number of environmental initiatives including recycling of empty toner cartridges. The company's environmental policy claims that it aims to minimise its products' energy consumption to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, with yearly goals and updated progress reports.

Conclusion

The HP LaserJet Pro CM1415fnw produces good-looking A4 monochrome and colour documents. It is good for direct printing, scanning and copying thanks to a useful touchscreen interface, but its output speeds are eclipsed by cheaper printers. As a business all-in-one colour laser printer it is generally competent.

Become a fan of PC World Australia on Facebook

Follow PC World Australia on Twitter: @PCWorldAu

Stay up to date with the latest news, reviews and features. Sign up to PC World’s newsletters