HP LaserJet Pro CM1415fn review

MFPs aren’t usually a hotbed of innovation, but HP’s LaserJet Pro CM1415fn brings something genuinely new to the table with its brilliantly simple full-colour touchscreen control panel. This integrated interface is easily the best we've seen on a laser device. The touchscreen makes printing, copying, faxing and scanning directly from the CM1415 incredibly simple. It also has a HTML interface that lets you remotely monitor and configure the printer via a sleekly designed set of tabs. You can use it to control the printer’s network settings, add numbers to the fax phone book and enable and disable web services.

Driver installation was a breeze, and the installer quickly and simply auto-detected the printer's network connection. It also prompted us to set up the CM1410’s ePrint features, which lets users send files to the printer directly via email or a mobile phone app. To enable ePrinting, you have to visit http://eprintcenter.com, set up an account and enter a rather long code generated by your printer. We'd have preferred a QR code. Once you've created your account, you can customise your printer's email address (this is well worth doing because the default is a jumble of characters), create a whitelist of addresses that are allowed to email files to the printer and enable printing via Google Cloud print or from HP's smartphone apps.

If you want to scan documents, HP's standard business scanner interface is reliable and uncomplicated. It comes with a number of handy presets that include scanning to PDFs and JEPGs. It's also easy to create your own scanner shortcuts. You can choose your resolution and file type in advance, after which you can then scan at the touch of a button. Your shortcuts are also accessible from the scanner's onboard touchscreen interface, which also makes it easy to scan to the MFP’s host USB port. As soon as you insert a USB drive, a menu appears on the printer's touchscreen display that gives you the option of viewing and printing photos from the disk, printing documents stored on the disk or scanning directly to it. The CM1415fn’s scan quality is excellent, providing perfect colour and detail, even at low resolutions.

Unusually, the printer doesn’t have a special media slot. The standard tray can be used for envelope printing, and our envelope was only slightly curled by the printing process. Also, you can’t upgrade the CM1415fn with additional paper trays, firmly placing the unit in the personal and home office market. It’s priced accordingly, however, and £299 is fantastic value for such a feature-packed device. Unfortunately, it can be expensive to run. It’s good value for money if you don’t print very much, but the print costs soon start to bite if you’re a heavy user thanks to its low-yield and high-cost toner cartridges. The result is print costs of 2.8p per mono page and 15p per colour page.

Its print speeds are nothing to write home about either, being 7ppm for mono and 6.8ppm for colour. Some inkjets are faster than that. Its print quality, however, is truly excellent, having rich, glossy colour and fine detail, even on the tiniest of fonts. Shading and reproduction of low-contrast tones are also excellent.

Despite its relatively high print costs and lack of an automatic duplexer, this is an excellent personal laser MFP. Its print quality, scans and ease of use are among the best we’ve ever seen and its purchase price is reasonable. If you require high print yields it’s a very poor choice indeed, but it is one of the best we’ve seen for home or small office use.