The Dell P1500 falls into the latter category. It's an average business printer that does a good job of printing text and an average job of printing graphics, is reasonably fast (perhaps slightly above average for its class), and is reasonably priced. It doesn't offer outstanding performance or any must-have features, but its shortcomings are not out of line with its price.

Installation is easy with the illustrated set-up poster. You can connect the printer to a USB or parallel port, although you'll have to supply your own cables. An electronic user manual includes troubleshooting and maintenance tips, as well as information about the printer's features, but you won't need to consult the manual to start using the printer.

The P1500 comes with a very small paper tray (only 150 sheets) and a multipurpose tray. The printer can handle standard paper, labels, transparencies, card stock, and envelopes. An optional 250-sheet tray is also available.

Five LED lights (readiness, ink status, paper tray status, paper jams, and error) on the top of the printer keep you informed of the status of your print job and the status of the printer. The Dell Toner Management System monitors the level of toner in the printer and alerts you when it's time to replace the toner cartridge. The system is always on and visible, even with a fresh toner cartridge, which some users might find annoying.

The P1500 ships with 16MB of memory, which can be expanded to up to 144MB for faster printing of large jobs or graphics-heavy documents and to free up your computer for other tasks.

Pro: A sleek, stylish, small-office/home-office printer that delivers reasonable value at a reasonable price.

Con: Very small paper tray. No LCD panel. You'll need to learn to interpret the flashing lights in order to figure out the cause of a particular printing problem.