Widely respected for both its consumer and business printing solutions, even Hewlett-Packard can make a misstep every now and then. One of its latest missteps is the workgroup-stye HP Colour LaserJet CP1215 laser printer.
Design
It is likely that HP was trying to make a cost-effective entry level printer for workgroup environments when it settled on what to include and leave behind with the Colour LaserJet CP1215 laser printer. The problem, however, is that they seem to have significantly miscalculated what was essential for an effective printer. Unlike many comparable models currently on the market, the LaserJet CP1215 completely lacks an LCD screen, making it hard to know what's going on with the printer if you can't access its status via computer. HP decided, somewhat inexplicably, that this function would be better replaced with a simple control panel of push-buttons on the outside of the device.
Another curiously lacking feature from this laser printer is that it does not support Mac OS X environments at all. It simply does not include any kind of driver software for Macintosh computers, and the company has not provided drivers to Apple as part of the company's "included" drivers program. There is simply no reason to exclude the world's second-largest desktop computing platform from compatibility.
Advantages
Um, we're struggling here, each page looked great after it finally exited the HP CP1215, but it simply took too long for that to happen. Busy users will not want to wait for this printer to finish the job.
Disadvantages
As far as actual printing goes, the HP Colour LaserJet CP1214 is sluggish. It can print roughly 8 pages of black-and-white text per minute, which puts it far below other workgroup printers - even those offered by HP. When colour printing is involved, the printer dramatically slows down. Colour graphics dropped the printer to just under 6 pages per minute, and colour text registered about five pages per minute. That's not to detract from the quality of the prints, however.
It's hard to see how HP managed to stray so dramatically from its usual path of offering solid, efficient printers to both the consumer and business markets. With its slow printing speed, combined with its lack of an LCD screen and no support for Mac OS X, this printer isn't good for consumers or businesses.
