A Laser Printer for High Volume Printing

A well-built and fast laser MFP. Photo quality could be better though.

byNg Chong Seng Jun 2016

A well-built and fast laser MFP. Photo quality could be better though.

AT A GLANCE Features Print, scan, copy, fax Print Speed 27ppm (black and color) Paper Handling 250-sheet input tray, 50-sheet MP tray Interface USB 2.0, Ethernet, Wi-Fi Price $899

HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdw

While it weighs a good 23kg, the HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdw is - as far as color laser multifunction printers go - a fairly compact device for personal use, but its ambitions are much greater.

Let’s talk amenities ﬁrst. For a start, M477fdw comes with a 250-sheet paper input tray and a 50-sheet multi-purpose tray. You can buy another 550-sheet tray for $239 to further increase capacity too. 256MB of RAM comes as standard, and that isn’t upgradeable.

If you scan a lot of multi-page documents, the 50-sheet ADF is more capable than those found on cheaper printers, with singlepass two-sided scanning. I also like that I can print documents or save scanned digital copies directly via a USB drive. The 4.3-inch touchscreen is large and easy to use, too.

To get onto the network, you can either use a wired or wireless connection. Both Apple AirPrint and Google Cloud Print 2.0 are supported, as do wireless direct printing (including Mopria-certiﬁed Android devices) and NFC touch-to-print. The last point simply means you can print by touching an NFC-enabled mobile device to the printer.

The M477fdw has an advertised A4 print speed of 27ppm, for both black and color documents. Automatic duplex printing also comes as standard. That said, the actual experience depends on the types of documents you print and their complexity. For reference, with my standard test suite, I got a range of about 22 to 25ppm. By all accounts, this is very fast, but it’s also worth pointing out that recent Epson WorkForce and Canon Maxify inkjets Hardware have proven that fast print speeds are no longer a laser printer exclusive.

Still, printed documents displayed sharp and full-bodied text so I’ve no qualms recommending it for churning business reports. Photos were a hit-and-miss affair though: with some color inaccuracy and lack of ﬁnesse in handling details.

So, is it worth getting the HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdw? The sturdy built quality, fast print speeds, mobile printing options and security features like LDAP authentication and authorization are several things that HP has gotten right with this printer. However, at $899, I’m a bit surprised that it didn’t outright blow away even the newest inkjets in terms of print speed and quality.