HP LaserJet Pro MFP M426fdw

BY M. DAVID STONE

The HP LaserJet Pro MFP M426fdw ($449.99) monochrome laser multifunction printer (MFP) is capable enough to serve as a shared printer, but small and inexpensive enough to consider for heavy-duty personal use. It’s also one of the more impressive MFPs in its category, with fast print performance, excellent paper handling, a full set of MFP features, and extras like mobile and cloud printing. Its text quality is at the low end of what we consider typical for the breed, but it’s easily good enough for most business use. All this makes the M426fdw our Editors’ Choice monochrome laser MFP for heavy duty use in a micro office.

Among the M426fdw’s strongest competition are two other top picks: the Canon imageClass MF6160dw$406.22 at Amazon and the OKI MB471. All three of these printers offer similar paper capacities, with the M426fdw delivering the highest capacity, albeit by a meager 20 sheets. It’s also the fastest of the three on our tests by far, and it’s the only one with such conveniences as Wi-Fi Direct and single-pass duplex scanning.

Basics and Beyond
Basic MFP features for the M426fdw include the ability to print and fax from, as well as scan to, a PC, and the ability to work as a standalone copier, fax machine, and direct email sender (for sending scans as attachments directly, without having to send them to an email client on a PC first). In addition, it can both print from and scan to a USB memory key.

Paper handling for printing is suitable for up to heavy-duty use in a micro office or light- to medium-duty use in a small to midsize office. The printer includes a 250-sheet drawer, a 100-sheet multipurpose tray, and an automatic duplexer standard. You can also add a 550-sheet drawer ($139) for a maximum 900-sheet capacity.

For scanning, the M426fdw supplements its letter-size flatbed with a 50-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF) that can both scan legal-size pages and scan in duplex. Most inexpensive MFPs that scan both sides of a page use a duplexing ADF instead, which takes longer, since it scans one side, turns the page over and then scans the other side. As with most MFPs that can both print and scan in duplex, the combination lets you copy both single- and double-sided originals to your choice of single- or double-sided copies. Oddly, however, you can’t scan in duplex when faxing.

If you connect the M426fdw to your network, using either its Ethernet or Wi-Fi connector, it will also let you print through the cloud, as well as connect a phone or tablet through a wireless access point on your network for printing from and scanning to your mobile device. Connect the printer to a single PC via USB cable instead, and you’ll lose the ability to print through the cloud. Thanks to the printer’s Wi-Fi Direct, however, you’ll still be able to connect directly from mobile devices to print and scan. For phones and tablets with NFC, you can also establish a connection simply by tapping the device to the NFC logo on the top-front right of the printer.

Setup and Speed
At 28 pounds 6 ounces, the M426fdw is on the light side for its category. The Canon MF6160dw weighs 14 pounds more. However, it’s still heavy enough that you might want some help moving it into place. It’s also big enough, at 12.8 by 16.5 by 15.4 inches (HWD), that you probably won’t want it sitting on your desk, although you shouldn’t have trouble finding enough flat space for it, even in a small office. Setup is standard. For my tests, I connected it to a network using its Ethernet port and installed the drivers on a Windows Vista system.

HP rates the M426fdw at 40 pages per minute (ppm), which is the speed you should see when printing text files with little to no formatting. On our tests, I timed it (using QualityLogic’s hardware and software for timing) at a suitably fast 16.4ppm. In comparison, the Canon MF6160dw came in at 9.9ppm on our tests with its default duplex setting, and only 13.2ppm even for printing in simplex.

The OKI MB471 was even slower, at 9.5ppm on our tests. As yet another point of comparison, the Dell Mono Multifunction Printer – B2375dnf$269.99 at Dell Small Business was even slower, coming in our tests at only 5.9ppm. Quite simply, the M426fdw is fast for its price.

Output Quality
The printer’s output quality is typical for monochrome lasers across the board, which makes it good enough for most purposes. Its text quality is at the low end of the range that includes the vast majority of monochrome lasers, but that still makes it good enough to print highly readable text at 8-point size or smaller on our tests. Almost half of the fonts in our tests qualified as highly readable at 5 and 6 points.

Both graphics and photo output on our tests were a match for most monochrome lasers. For graphics, that makes the output easily good enough for any internal business use. You may also consider it good enough for PowerPoint handouts and the like, unless you have a very critical eye. For photos, it translates to being able to print recognizable images from photos on webpages, which is about all you can expect from a monochrome laser.

Conclusion
If you need top-quality text above all, you should consider the Canon MF6160dw or the OKI MB471. Between the two, the Canon printer offers higher text quality, as well as better speed, but the OKI model delivers better photo quality. That said, the HP LaserJet Pro MFP M426fdw offers text quality that’s well within the expected range for a monochrome laser and easily good enough for most offices. It also adds excellent paper handling, notably fast printing, and features, ranging from duplex scanning to mobile printing, that help it stand out from the crowd and make it our Editors’ Choice for up to heavy duty use in a micro or small office.

HP LaserJet Enterprise MFP M527dn

BY TONY HOFFMAN

The HP LaserJet Enterprise MFP M527dn ($1,799.99) is a fast workhorse monochrome multifunction printer (MFP) for small to midsize offices. The M527dn’s speed, good paper handling, and a low running cost are key strengths, although it’s pretty much neck and neck in all these areas with the Dell B3465dnf Multifunction Laser Printer$1,099.99 at Dell Small Business. What keeps the Dell B3465dnf as our Editors’ Choice monochrome MFP for heavy-duty printing in up to a midsize office are its lower price and the inclusion of fax capabilities, which the M527dn$998.99 at Amazonlacks.

Design and Features
Although somewhat small for a heavy-duty laser MFP, the M527dn is still big enough that you will want to set it on a table or a bench of its own. It measures 19.6 by 19 by 19.5 inches (HWD) and weighs 48 pounds. It has an 8-inch color touch screen that tilts forward, and an easy-to-use menu system. This machine can print, copy, and scan (but not fax, which is available as a $299 option). It can scan to a folder, to email, to Internet fax, to an FTP site, or to a USB thumb drive (and print from a thumb drive as well).

Standard paper capacity is 650 sheets, split between a 550-sheet main tray and a 100-sheet multipurpose feeder. Up to three optional 550-sheet paper trays ($199 each) are available, for a maximum paper capacity of 2,300 sheets. The printer comes with an automatic duplexer for printing on both sides of a sheet of paper.

Built for heavy-duty printing, the M527dn has a maximum monthly duty cycle of 150,000 pages and a recommended monthly duty cycle of up to 7,500 pages. This matches the paper capacity of the Dell B3465dnf, although the latter has a higher recommended monthly duty cycle of up to 15,000 pages, with the same 150,000-page maximum.

For scanning, the M527dn has both a flatbed and an automatic document feeder (ADF). The latter fits up to 100 sheets, and can scan both sides of a document on a single pass. This compares favorably with the Dell B3465dnf, whose ADF holds up to 50 sheets and must flip each page over for two-sided scanning.

The M527dn is the base model in HP’s M527 series of monochrome laser MFPs. The HP LaserJet Enterprise MFP M527f ($2,099.99) adds fax capability, plus a 500GB secure hard drive. Although you can buy a fax module ($299) separately for the M527dn, you’re better off getting the HP M527f instead, because for the same money you in effect get the hard drive thrown in for free. The HP LaserJet Enterprise Flow MFP M527z ($2,599.99) adds workflow solutions, such as a pull-out keyboard and HP’s EveryPage ultrasonic scanning double-feed protection, plus Wireless Direct and NFC capabilities.

This MFP can connect to a computer via USB, and to a network by Ethernet. I tested this printer over an Ethernet connection with drivers installed on a computer running Windows Vista. Drivers include PCL 6, PCL 5 (available as a download), and HP’s PostScript emulation.

Print Speed
The M527dn is speedy, though not unusually so. I timed it on our business applications suite (using QualityLogic’s hardware and software for timing), at 14.8 pages per minute (ppm). This is in line with its 45ppm rated speed that’s based on printing text documents without graphics or photos—our test suite includes text pages, graphics pages, and pages with mixed content. The speed is just short of the Dell B3465dnf, rated at 50ppm, which we timed at 15ppm. Some other printers are considerably slower, such as the OKI MB562w$699.99 at Amazon, rated at 47ppm, which we tested at 8.4ppm.

Output Quality and Running Cost
Output quality for the M527dn is typical for a monochrome laser, with text, graphics, and photo all falling in the average range. Even average text quality for a laser is very good, though, and suitable for any business use short of demanding desktop publishing applications that use very small fonts. With graphics, the M527dn did well in displaying thin lines, but performed poorly in differentiating between similar tones in several test illustrations. Graphics should be fine for in-office use, and basic PowerPoint handouts. Photo quality is okay for printing out images from webpages and the like, but not for marketing materials.

Based on HP’s prices and yields for consumables, the M527dn has a running cost of 1.6 cents per page. That’s reasonably low, matching the OKI MB562w’s cost, and a tenth of a penny more per page than the Dell B3465dnf.

Conclusion
The HP LaserJet Enterprise MFP M527dn is a strong choice as a monochrome laser MFP for heavy-duty printing in a small to midsize office, provided that you don’t need your MFP to send and receive faxes. The Editors’ Choice Dell B3465dnf has similar specs, but comes in at a lower price and includes fax capabilities. That said, the M527dn can do most anything else the Dell B3465dnf can, and has a more capable scanner. It’s a good workhorse MFP to handle the printing, scanning, and copying needs of a busy workgroup or office.

HP Color LaserJet Pro M452dw

BY M. DAVID STONE

The HP Color LaserJet Pro M452dw ($499.99) should be at the top of your list if you’re looking for a color laser printer for your micro or small office. It’s a little too big to share a desk with comfortably as a personal printer, but it’s small enough to find room for in an office. Its text quality is slightly subpar for a color laser printer, but more than good enough for most business use, and its graphics quality was notably better than most laser printers can manage. Add in its speed, and the M452dwBest Price at Amazon delivers enough to make it our latest Editors’ Choice color laser printer.

The M452dw is a large step up from the HP Color LaserJet Pro M252dw$249.99 at HP, our top pick for personal or light-duty micro-office color lasers. The higher price buys you significantly faster speed on our tests and much better paper handling, with two trays rather than one, plus a manual feed, and twice the capacity. However, it’s also a significantly bigger and heavier printer. So despite both being appropriate to some extent for shared used in a micro office, the HP M252dw is the obvious choice for personal use, and the M452dw is the better fit for a micro or small office.

Basics and Beyond
For paper handling, the M452dw offers a 250-sheet main tray, a 50-sheet multipurpose tray, and a duplexer. This should be enough for most micro or small offices or workgroups, but if you need more, you can get an optional 550 sheet tray ($149.99) for a total of 850 sheets. Both the standard and maximum capacities are a step up from their equivalents for the Xerox Phaser 6500/DN$331.49 at Pricefalls.com, another top pick. The Xerox model comes with a 250-sheet tray plus a one-sheet manual feed, and the option to add a second 250-sheet tray.

Like more and more printers today, the M452dw also supports mobile printing. Connect it directly to a network via Ethernet or Wi-Fi, and you can connect to the printer through an access point on the network to print from Android, iOS, and Blackberry phones and tablets. Assuming the network is connected to the Internet, you can also print through the cloud.

If you connect to a single computer via USB cable instead, you’ll lose the ability to print through the cloud, but can still take advantage of the printer’s Wi-Fi Direct to connect directly from your phone or tablet to print. If your mobile device supports NFC, you can also establish the connection simply by touching the device to the NFC logo on the top left of the printer.

Setup and Speed
The M452dw measures 11.6 by 16.2 by 18.5 inches (HWD), which is why you probably won’t want it sitting on your desk, and it weighs 41 pounds 11 ounces, which is heavy enough that you might want some help moving it into place. Setup is standard fare. I connected it to a network using its Ethernet port for my tests, and installed the driver on a Windows Vista system.

Print speed is one of the M452dw’s best points. HP’s rating for the printer—which is the speed you should see with text or other documents that need little to no formatting—is 28 pages per minute (ppm) both for black-and-white and for color pages. On our business applications suite, I clocked it (using QualityLogic’s hardware and software) at 9.8ppm. That counts as impressive for both the price and the rated speed. The Xerox 6500/DN looks pokey next to the M452dw, with a speed of 5.4ppm on our tests. Similarly, the OKI C331dn$299.99 at Amazon, which is one of the faster models in this category on our tests, managed only 6.8ppm. Interestingly, I clocked the HP M252dw at a close second to the M452dw, at 8.3ppm.

Output Quality
Output quality is uneven. Text quality on our tests was slightly worse than most color lasers manage, graphics quality was far better than most of them offer, and photo quality was at the high end of a range that includes the vast majority of color lasers. The good news about text is that most color lasers offer such high quality that even being slightly below par is more than good enough for most business use. As long as you don’t have an unusual need for small fonts, you shouldn’t have a problem with the output.

The graphics quality is among the best I’ve seen on our tests for a color laser, making it easily good enough for marketing materials like tri-fold brochures and one-page handouts. Photos were nearly true-photo quality. However, colors were a little dark on our test output, and I saw some subtle banding on a black-and-white photo.

Conclusion
If text quality is a key concern for you, consider the HP M252dw as a light-duty option, or the Xerox 6500/DN, which offers  a step up in paper capacity and the option to add a second tray. Both deliver better text quality. If you don’t need unusually high-quality text, however, the HP M452dw’s balance of speed, paper capacity, and output quality is enough to put it well ahead of the competition and make it our Editors’ Choice.

HP LaserJet Pro M402dw

BY M. DAVID STONE

Aimed primarily at a small office or workgroup, the HP LaserJet Pro M402dw ($349.99) is a strong candidate as a workhorse monochrome laser printer. Its claimed cost per page is a touch high and its text quality a touch low compared with its closest competition, but it still delivers a balance of speed, paper handling, output quality, and running cost that’s suitable for medium duty in a small office. It’s also small enough to place on a desk, making it an attractive choice as a heavy duty personal printer.

Among the M402dw’s$247.68 at Amazon direct competitors are the Dell B2360dn$189.99 at Dell and the Brother HL-6180DW$502.58 at Pricefalls.com. These two models are so closely matched that both are Editors’ Choice monochrome lasers for heavy-duty personal to medium-duty small-office use. The key differences between them are that the Brother model offers a somewhat higher paper capacity and lower cost per page, while the Dell printer delivered significantly faster speed on our tests. Unfortunately for the M402dw, it comes in behind both in two key areas, with lower text quality than either on our tests and a higher claimed running cost, at 2.2 cents per page.

That said, the M402dw comes in a close second (or third) to both top picks. It falls between the two for paper capacity, and it had better graphics and photo quality than the Dell printer on our tests, and was faster than either one. What’s more, its claimed cost per page is only 0.2 cents more than that of the Dell B2360dn.

Basics
The M402dw’s paper handling is easily suitable for moderate to heavy-duty use. The printer includes a 250-sheet drawer, a 100-sheet multipurpose tray, and a duplexer. That’s enough for most small offices, but for heavier-duty use, you can add an optional 550-sheet drawer ($139.99) for a total 900-sheet paper capacity.

Connectivity options include Ethernet and Wi-Fi. Connect the printer to a network with either one, and you can print through the cloud, as well as print from a mobile device by connecting to the printer through an access point. If you connect it to a single PC via USB cable instead, you won’t be able to print through the cloud, but you’ll still be able to use the printer’s Wi-Fi Direct to connect to it directly and print from a mobile device. You can also take advantage of the built-in NFC support to connect to the printer simply by tapping ta compatible phone or tablet to the NFC logo on the top right of the printer.

Setup, Speed, and Output Quality
At 8.5 by 15 by 14.1 inches (HWD) and 18 pounds 14 ounces, the M402dw is small enough to share a desk with easily and light enough for one person to move into place. For my tests I installed it on a network using its Ethernet connector and ran the tests from a system running Windows Vista. Setup is standard for a monochrome laser.

Speed is a strong point. HP rates the M402dw at 40 pages per minute (ppm). Even better, it came in faster on our tests than most printers with the same or similar ratings. I timed it on our business applications suite (using QualityLogic’s hardware and software for timing) at 17ppm. That makes it a bit faster than the Dell B2360dn, which managed 15ppm on our business applications suite, and a lot faster than the Brother HL-6180W, which managed only 10.7ppm.

Output quality on our tests was acceptable for most business use, but not impressive. Text output was at the low end of the range that includes the vast majority of monochrome lasers, making it good enough for most business use, as long as you don’t need small fonts.

Graphics and photo output were both at the low end of average for our tests for a monochrome laser. For graphics, that translates to being easily good enough for any internal business need. Most people would also consider it good enough for PowerPoint handouts or the like. Photos with our test files were unusually grainy, even for a monochrome laser. However, the quality was good enough to print recognizable images from webpages and the like, which is about as much as you can expect from the category.

Conclusion
The HP M402dw gets lots of points for its fast speed, but misses out on being our top pick in its category because its claimed cost per page is on the high side. That’s still enough to make it a strong contender. The Dell B2360dn and the Brother HL-6180DW remain our Editors’ Choice picks, as they have better text quality and a lower claimed cost per page. For heavy-duty printing, take a close look, in particular, at the Brother HL-6180DW, with its higher paper capacity.

HP Color LaserJet Pro M252dw

BY M. DAVID STONE

If you need a color laser printer for heavy-duty personal use or light-duty shared use in a micro office, the HP Color LaserJet Pro M252dw ($299.99) is a terrific fit. Along with fast speed and high-quality output, it offers mobile printing, both Ethernet and Wi-Fi for connecting to a network, and even the ability to print from a USB memory key. The combination makes it our Editors’ Choice personal or light-duty color laser printer for a micro office.

The M252dw’s$159.00 at BUYDIG.com key strength is that it beats most of its competition for both speed and output quality. That’s a notable feat, considering that most color lasers in this price range tend to score well in only one of those categories. When I reviewed the Brother HL-3170CDW$248.94 at Amazon, for example, I pointed out that although it comes up a little short on output quality, it made up for that with its speed. The M252dw not only delivers higher-quality text, graphics, and photos than the Brother model, it’s convincingly faster, too.

Paper handling is the one area where the M252dw can’t match some other models in the same price class. It’s not hard to find printers, including the Brother HL-3170CDW, that offer a 250-sheet page capacity plus a single-sheet manual feed. The M252dw is limited to a 150-sheet tray plus a manual feed. That’s fine for most personal use, but a little low for a shared printer, which is what makes the M252dw best reserved for light-duty shared use even by micro-office standards. One helpful extra, however, is the built-in duplexer.

Mobile Printing and More
The M252dw offers other features that go beyond the basics, including its ability to print from a USB memory key. In addition, if you connect it to a network by Ethernet or Wi-Fi, and assuming the network is connected to the Internet, you can print through the cloud and can use the front-panel touch-screen to take advantage of HP Web apps. The Web apps let you print information from select websites, including Dropbox and Google Docs. You can also connect to the printer through an access point on your network to print from Android and iOS phones and tablets.

If you connect to a single computer via USB cable, you won’t be able to use HP’s Web apps or print through the cloud, but thanks to the printer’s Wi-Fi Direct, you’ll still be able to connect directly from your phone or tablet to print. For mobile devices that support NFC, you can also establish the connection simply by touching the device to the NFC logo on the front of the printer.

 

Setup and Speed
At 9.3 by 15.4 by 16.4 inches, and a hefty 27 pounds, the M252dw is on the big-and-heavy side for a personal printer, but still small enough to share a desk with and light enough for one person to move into place. Setup is standard fare. For my tests, I connected it to a network using its Ethernet port and installed the software on a system running Windows Vista.

The print speed is a definitive strong point. HP rates the M252dw at 19 pages per minute (ppm) both for color and for black and white, which is the speed you should see with text or other documents that need little to no formatting. On our business applications suite, I clocked it (using QualityLogic’s hardware and software) at 8.3ppm. That makes it surprisingly fast for both its price and its rated speed.

As a point of comparison, the Brother HL-3170CDW has a 23ppm rating, which in theory makes it roughly 20 percent faster than the M252dw. But its speed on our tests was 6.8ppm, which actually makes it more than 20 percent slower. The M252dw is even faster on our tests than the HL-L8250CDN$308.40 at Amazon, which Brother rates at 30ppm, but on our tests managed only a leisurely 6.6ppm.

Output Quality
Overall output quality is above par for a color laser, thanks primarily to the graphics output. Text is a match for most lasers, making it easily good enough for almost any business need. Colors in graphics are a touch dark in terms of a hue-saturation-brightness color model, but still suitably eye-catching and well saturated, and a step above the norm for the category.

Photo quality falls in the middle of a tight range that includes most color lasers. From two or three feet away, you could easily mistake the output for traditional photos, especially if they’re framed behind glass. Within that context, however, they aren’t very high quality.

Colors in the M252dw’s photos tended to be a little dark in testing, as was the case with its graphics but more so. Most people would consider the text and graphics good enough for marketing materials like one-page handouts and trifold brochures. The photos aren’t really suitable for that, although you could use them if you don’t need top-tier photo quality. On the other hand, photos quality is easily good enough for any business use.

Conclusion
If you need a shared printer for medium- to heavy-duty use in a micro office, be sure to consider the Brother HL-3170CDW and the Brother HL-L8250CDN. Both offer a higher paper capacity than the HP Color LaserJet Pro M252dw, and both are fast enough for most micro offices, despite being slower than the HP printer. If you’re in the market for a personal printer, however, or a shared printer for light-duty use, and want fast speed, high-quality output, suitable paper handling, and convenience features like mobile printing and being able to print from a USB key, the M252dw is hard to beat, making it an easy pick as our Editors’ Choice.

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HP Color LaserJet Enterprise M553dn

BY TONY HOFFMAN

The HP Color LaserJet Enterprise M553dn ($599) leaves off a few of the extras found in the HP Color LaserJet Enterprise M553x$1,199.99 at HP—the new high-end model in the company’s 500 series of single-function color laser printers—but it comes in at a much more moderate price. The M553dn$599.99 at HP is an impressive beast, combining very good speed with superb output quality and an ample feature set. It is considerably faster than the HP LaserJet Enterprise 500 Color Printer M551dn$823.47 at Mwave.com, which it is replacing, both in HP’s line and as our Editors’ Choice color laser printer for medium- to heavy-duty use in a small to midsize office.

Design and Features
The M553dn measures 15.7 by 18 by 18.9 inches (HWD), so you’ll probably want to put it on a table of its own, and it weighs 60.6 pounds. It helps to have two people to move it into place. The standard paper capacity for the M553dn is 650 sheets, split between a 550-sheet tray and a 100-sheet multipurpose feeder. The printer comes with an automatic duplexer for printing on both sides of a sheet of paper. Up to three optional 550-sheet paper trays ($299.99 each) can be added, for a maximum paper capacity of 2,300 sheets.

In the M553dn’s top-right-front corner is a four-line LED, tilted for easy viewing, plus an alphanumeric keypad. On the printer’s right side, just below the top, is a port for a USB thumb drive.

The M553dn offers USB and Ethernet connectivity. It does not offer 802.11 Wi-Fi or a NFC/Wireless Direct module, the latter which the HP M553x has, although you can still print to it from mobile devices if it is on a network with a wireless access point. To that end, it supports HP ePrint and Apple AirPrint, and is Mopria-certified. Printer drivers include PCL5, PCL6, and HP’s PostScript emulation. The latter is useful because although most offices don’t need PostScript for printing, some can’t do without it. I tested the M553dn over an Ethernet connection with drivers installed on a computer running Windows Vista.

Two other models fill out HP’s M553 series. The aforementioned HP M553x adds a second 550-sheet paper tray, plus an NFC/Wireless Direct module, and instead of having a color touch screen, it has a four-line LED and keypad. The HP M553n ($449.99) is the same as the M553dn, but lacks the auto-duplexer.

Print Speed
I timed the M553dn on our business applications suite (using QualityLogic’s hardware and software for timing), at 12.2 pages per minute (ppm). That’s a good speed, considering its 40ppm rated speed for both color and black-and-white printing that’s based on printing text documents without graphics or photos—our test suite includes text pages, graphics pages, and pages with mixed content. It’s effectively tied with the HP M553x, which we timed at 12.4ppm, just a single second across all the tests separating the two printers. It beat the HP M551dn, our Editors’ Choice medium- to heavy-duty color laser printer for small to midsize offices, which is rated at 33ppm and which tested at 9ppm. The Dell C3760dn Color Laser Printer$499.99 at Dell, rated at just 23ppm, tested at 7.9ppm.

Output Quality
The M553dn’s output quality is above average, with excellent graphics, above-par text, and slightly above-par photos. Text should be good enough for any business use, even those that require tiny fonts.

With graphics, colors are bright and well saturated. There were no significant issues in our tests, and the output should be fine for PowerPoint handouts going to clients or colleagues you are seeking to impress. With photos, one test print had slight posterization (sudden shifts of color where they should be gradual), and our one monochrome test image showed a slight trace of tinting, but the rest of the test prints approached true photo quality. Taken together, the M553dn’s text, graphics, and photos should be good enough for printing marketing handouts or trifold brochures.

Running Costs
The M553dn has reasonably low running costs of 1.7 cents per monochrome page and 10.9 cents per color page, matching those of the HP M553x.

The M553dn sells for much less than the HP M553x, but includes most of that printer’s features, only lacking the latter’s touch screen, second paper tray, and NFC and HP Wireless Direct connectivity. If you must have these features, you could either go with the HP M553x, or get the M553dn and buy the paper tray ($299) and/or the HP JetDirect 3000W wireless module when it is released later this year at a price yet to be announced, and probably save a good bit of money. (The touch screen is not available separately).

Even without any of the extras, the HP Color LaserJet Enterprise M553dn is a formidable color laser and a great value, a worthy successor to the HP M551dn as our Editors’ Choice. Not only is it priced to sell, and has relatively low running costs, its output quality is good enough that it can save you the cost of having to hire a print shop for most of your marketing materials.

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HP Releases Its First 3-D Printer

BY 

The 3-D printing phenomenon is inching closer to the mass market.

It was a year ago when Boise Weekly sat down with teams of staff members from rural Idaho libraries who had convened in Boise to learn how to master 3-D printing and share that knowledge with residents in every corner of the Gem State. The librarians were even granted their own 3-D printers that had been built or repurposed with, get this, parts printed by previous incarnations of 3-D printers.

And it turns out that the Treasure Valley has had a robust 3-D printing community

“Absolutely; there are a lot of us building 3-D printers in Boise,” said Davis Ultis, general manager of Boise Reuseum, who hosts something called Open Lab Idaho at the Boise facility billed as a “community hackerspace and makerspace … for hackers, computer geeks, engineers, circuit benders, crafters, tinkerers, programmers and artists.”

Enter Hewlett-Packard, which obviously smells a major business opportunity. HP has unveiled it first commercial 3-D printer, dubbed “Multi Jet Fusion,” for about $10,000. HP revealed its device at a New York trade show. But don’t expect one under the Christmas tree. HP says its Multi Jet Fusion printer will hit store shelves in 2016. By the way, it’s as big as an office copy machine.

HP LaserJet Pro MFP M127fw

BY M. DAVID STONE

Much like the Editors’ Choice Samsung Multifunction Xpress M2875FW$235.49 at Amazon, the HP LaserJet Pro MFP M127fw ($259.99) is small enough to use as a personal monochrome laser multifunction printer (MFP) for light-duty print needs, but also capable enough to serve as a shared printer in a micro or small office. It’s not as fast as the Samsung printer or the Canon imageClass MF4770n$99.99 at Amazon, but it offers most of the MFP features most micro offices need, and it adds HP’s Web apps as a potentially useful extra.

Connection choices for the M127fw$179.93 at Amazon are essentially the same as for the Samsung M2875FW, with USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and Wireless Direct, which is HP’s equivalent to Wi-Fi Direct. Just like Wi-Fi Direct, it will let you connect to the printer from a Wi-Fi-enabled smartphone, tablet, or laptop. This is particularly useful if you don’t have a Wi-Fi access point on your network or you want to connect the printer by USB cable to a single PC, rather than connect it to a network.

Mobile printing features include the ability to print from an iOS or Android smartphone or tablet, as well as from a laptop over Wi-Fi, and print through the cloud, assuming the printer is connected to a network that’s connected to the Internet. In addition, you can use front-panel menus to print from a variety of HP Web apps, including printing postage from Stamps.com and printing forms from Biztree.com. However, you can’t scan to or fax from your mobile device using the iOS or Android apps, the way you can with the Samsung M2875FW.

Basics and Setup
The M127fw’s basic MFP features include the ability to print and fax from, as well as scan to, a PC, including over a network, plus standalone faxing and copying. For scanning, you can use either the letter-size flatbed or the 35-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF), which can handle up to legal-size pages.

HP LaserJet Pro MFP M127fw

Paper handling for printing is limited to a single 150-sheet tray. There’s no manual feed, no duplexer (for two-sided printing), and no upgrade options. The tray is enough for personal or light-duty use in a micro office, but not much more than that. If your print, copy, and incoming fax needs add up to more than about 30 pages per day, adding paper can easily turn into an annoying chore. The Samsung M2875FW does far better on this score, with a 250-sheet capacity, a manual feed, and a duplexer.

Setup is typical for a small monochrome laser. At 12.2 by 16.5 by 14.4 inches (HWD), the M127fw is a little bigger than you may want sitting on your desk, but it’s small enough so you shouldn’t have any trouble finding room for it nearby. For my tests, I connected it by its Ethernet port, and installed the drivers and other software on a Windows Vista system.

Speed and Output Quality
HP rates the printer at 21 pages per minute (ppm), which is the speed you should see for printing a text document or other file with little to no formatting. On our business applications suite, I timed it (using QualityLogic’s hardware and software for timing), at 8.9ppm. That’s enough of a difference between it and the Samsung M2875FW, at 10ppm, that you’ll notice it, but it’s not dramatic. On the other hand, it’s significantly slower than the Canon MF4770n, at 12.3ppm, and also slower than the more directly competitive Canon imageClass MF4880dw$124.99 at Amazon, which is Editors’ Choice in this class if you need fast speed. The MF4880dw’s official speed on our tests is 9.6ppm in its default duplex mode. In unofficial tests in simplex mode, it came in at 12.5ppm, essentially tying the Canon MF4770n.

Output quality for the M127fw is a touch above average overall, thanks to better-than-typical graphics quality. Text is at the low end of a very tight range that includes the vast majority of monochrome laser MFPs, making it easily good enough for almost any business need short of high-quality desktop publishing. Graphics output is top-tier for its category, putting it a step above most of the competition. It’s easily good enough for almost any business need, including PowerPoint handouts and the like.

Photo quality, like text, is typical for a monochrome laser MFP. That makes it easily good enough for printing recognizable images from photos on Web pages, but not for anything more demanding than that.

HP LaserJet Pro MFP M127fw

Despite its strong points, the M127fw is outclassed by its competition on traditional MFP features. The Canon MF4880dw and Samsung M2875FW, both Editors’ Choice models, will give you better paper handling and faster speed, with the Canon printer stronger on speed and the Samsung model offering a wider range of features.

That said, the HP LaserJet Pro MFP M127fw still offers enough to make it worth considering. Because of its low paper capacity and lack of a duplexer and manual feed, it’s a little smaller than either the Canon or Samsung models. That makes it easier to find room for if space is somewhat tight in your office. In addition, its Web apps let you print from a variety of websites using front-panel commands, a feature you won’t get with the Canon or Samsung models. If you can benefit from the small size and have only light-duty print needs, it can easily be a good fit.

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HP Officejet Pro 8630 e-All-in-One

BY M. DAVID STONE

With its 500-sheet paper capacity, the HP Officejet Pro 8630 e-All-in-One ($399.99) is clearly aimed at micro and small offices or workgroups with unusually heavy-duty print needs. More expensive than some laser multifunction printers (MFPs), including the HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M177fwBest Price at Amazon, this inkjet MFP is meant to go toe-to-toe with low-end laser MFPs and come out on top. This very capable machine can be a great fit in a small office that can take advantage of the high paper capacity.

The 8630 offers almost any feature you can think of for an MFP. Its core functions include the ability to print and fax from, as well as scan to, a PC, including over a network, and also work as a standalone copier, fax machine, and email sender. In addition, it can scan to, and print from, a USB memory key, and it supports mobile printing as well.

If you connect it directly to a network by Wi-Fi or Ethernet, you can print to it via a Wi-Fi access point on your network using AirPrint with iOS devices or HP’s free print apps with iOS, Android, and BlackBerry devices. Assuming the network is connected to the Internet, you can also print through the cloud and take advantage of HP’s Web apps. Even if you don’t connect it to a network, you can use the printer’s Wireless Direct—HP’s proprietary equivalent to Wi-Fi Direct—to connect directly with, and print from, a smartphone or tablet.

The MFP also lets you print using near-field communication (NFC), but the support is more limited than you might expect. The NFC Touch-to-Print feature in the 8630 is a new standard. According to HP, the only mobile device it will work with at this writing is the HP ElitePad 900$468.99 at Amazon. If you don’t happen to have one, the printer’s NFC support is useless.

The good news is that NFC Touch-to-Print is defined as part of the new standard from the Mopria Alliance, a group that includes HP, Canon, Samsung, Epson, and Xerox, among others. The feature should become more useful over time, as more mobile devices come out that support the standard.

Paper Handling
The 8630 earns lots of points for paper handling, starting with its 500-sheet capacity, divided into two 250-sheet paper trays. If also offers a built-in print duplexer (for printing on both sides of a page) and, for scanning, both a legal-size flatbed and a 50-page automatic document feeder (ADF) that can duplex as well.

Being able to both print and scan in duplex lets you copy from both single- and double-sided originals to your choice of single- or double-sided copies. You can also scan, fax, or email both simplex and duplex documents. Even better, the 4.3-inch front-panel color display offers a particularly well-designed menu to make it easy to find and change settings.

Not surprisingly, given the legal-size flatbed and the 500-sheet paper capacity, the 8630 is bigger and heavier than most inkjet MFPs, measuring 15.7 by 19.7 by 18.5 inches (HWD) and weighing 35 pounds. It’s also a little too big to share a desk with comfortably. Assuming you have room for it, however, setup is pretty straightforward.

Speed and Output Quality
For my tests, I connected the printer using its Ethernet port and installed the drivers on a Windows Vista system. On our business applications suite, I clocked it (using QualityLogic’s hardware and software for timing) at an impressive 5.9 pages per minute (ppm).

That makes the 8630 a lot faster than some low-cost color laser MFPs. The HP M177FW, for example, managed only 2.9 ppm. On the other hand, it’s not unusually fast for a business-oriented inkjet. The Editors’ Choice HP Officejet Pro 276dw MFP$282.00 at Amazon in particular tied the 8630 at 5.9 ppm. Both inkjet MFPs also did well for photo speed, at 48 seconds for the 8630 and 50 seconds for the HP 276dw.

Output quality is best described as easily good enough for business use, but not impressive. Text quality falls in the middle of the range that includes the vast majority of inkjets, making it good enough for most business use, unless you have an unusual need for small fonts.

Graphics quality is similarly good enough for most business use, but at the low end of the tight range where most inkjets fall. Unless you’re a perfectionist, the quality is good enough for PowerPoint handouts and the like. Photos in my tests were standard for an inkjet, making them easily a match for drugstore prints.

If you need better output quality, you’ll want to take a look at the HP Officejet Pro 276dw MFP. It not only offers better looking output, particularly for text, but it matches the HP Officejet Pro 8630 e-All-in-One’s speed and its support for the PCL printing language, while also adding Postscript, which is essential in some offices. That said, if you don’t need the extras that make the HP 276dw our Editors’ Choice, and your print needs are heavy-duty enough to make good use of a 500-sheet paper capacity, the HP Officejet Pro 8630 e-All-in-One can be an excellent fit, and may be the better MFP for your needs.

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HP Designjet 3D Printer Now On Sale

By Clay Dillow

Remember back in January when HP announced it would bring a tabletop 3-D printer to market, at a place and time to be named later? That place and time just became a quite a bit less ambiguous. Today Stratasys, the company that is manufacturing the device for HP, announced that it has shipped the first units of the HP-branded Designjet 3D fabrication machines, which will be available in May — but only in Europe.

The Designjet 3D is based on Stratasys’s Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) technology, which turns three-dimensional CAD drawings into tangible prototypes by extruding partially molten ABS plastic in extremely fine layers one atop the other, forming the entire 3-D model in a single piece from the ground up. Designjet 3D will print in ivory-colored plastic only while Designjet Color 3D will print single-color parts in up to eight different colors (we’re not sure why you can’t just put a different hue of ABS plastic in the Designjet 3D).

Aimed at businesses large and small as well as educational institutions and individual inventors, the idea is to offer a point of entry into 3-D printing for those who want to prototype in-house directly from their computers. That kind of convenience can save a lot of time and money on product development, but it also comes with a sizeable up-front cost.

In our earlier coverage to speculated that the price of HP’s printer would come in under $15,000 — the price of a similar printer recently released by Stratasys. But HP today announced that the Designjet 3D would retail starting at less than €13,000, or just under $17,500. Which means the price of entry into the 3-D club may still sit somewhere between unfeasible and pie-in-the-sky for many garage-shop hobbyists.

But the HP printer, by all appearances, seems to have one thing going for it that many commercially scaled systems do not — ease of use. A Designjet in the corner of the office would allow architects, engineers, product developers and the like to carry an idea through from concept to prototype without leaving their desks, culminating in a plastic 3-D model that they can put in the hands of higher-ups or prospective clients. It beats the alternative method of producing up various detailed drawings that are carefully crafted into a prototype by a skilled (and expensive) machinist, a process that can be a suck on time and budgets, especially if designers don’t get it exactly right the first time.

And, lest ye forget, while $17,000 is a big chunk of cash, Designjet 3D is still among the most affordable rapid prototyping systems out there for its size and capability. There are other options – the open-source, DIY MakerBot kit costs less than $1,000 and prints in the same material – but you have to build it. As far as something off-the-shelf is concerned, you’re not likely to do a whole lot better.

What’s really going to define whether the Designjet is a big step forward for 3-D printing is the quality of the prototypes, which we’ll surely hear much more about in coming weeks as the product hits desktops in the UK, Spain, France, Italy and Germany. For those of you not lucky enough to be in those inaugural markets, worry not; rest assured Designjet will be prototyping globally soon enough.

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