New York, NY -- Reviewed in July 2010 by PC Magazine’s M. David Stone, the P3015dn is essentially the “little brother” of another one of HP’s Enterprise printers, the P4014dn. While the P3015dn does share many of the same capabilities as the P4014dn, it is priced almost $500 dollars less, so it doesn’t have everything. That said, it is still a reasonable printer choice for SMBs or workgroups.
Given the P3015dn’s base paper-capacity of 600 sheets, consisting of a 500-sheet drawer and 100-sheet multipurpose tray, that alone should at least get an office started. If that’s not enough you can choose to purchase an additional 500-sheet drawer for $149.99 direct from HP. According to HP, you can even add another 500-sheet drawer if necessary (that would make it a VERY tall printer). The total capacity of 1,100 sheets plus automatic duplex printing make it more appealing. If you don’t want to buy the second drawer separately, Stone recommends paying a little more money upfront and getting the P3015x, same printer, just with the second drawer standard.
In its standard configuration, the printer measures 12.4 x 17.6 x 16.2” (H xWxD), but is somewhat lighter than many lasers weighing 35 lbs. While most people would likely find that a little large for a desk, It is certainly possible. The P3015dn is networkable via Ethernet cable, though if Wi-Fi printing is what you or your company prefer, you can purchase a wireless print server for $249.
The output quality for this model was noted by Mr. Stone to be solid overall. It is the text quality that especially stands out with almost all of tested fonts readable at 8 points. Both graphics quality and photo quality were on par with most lasers. Another bonus with the P3015dn is its low cost per page of 1.8 cents if you use the high-capacity cartridges, CE255Xs, which cost $224, but yield 12,500 pages.
Overall, the P3015dn should be a very good choice as a printer for your SMB or even a home office. If you are not willing to pay the price, you can find Lexmark’s E462dtn is very similar and somewhat cheaper, though is not expandable when it comes to paper capacity.
