HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M281fdw - Review 2022

HP's LaserJet Pro MFP M281fdw ($429.99) is an entry-level color light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation all-in-one (AIO) printer similar in chapters, features, and price to our Editors' Choice Canon Color imageClass MF634Cdw. The M281fdw is smaller and lighter than the Canon model, and its running costs are a little lower. However, the Canon MF634Cdw prints better and comes with a stronger feature set up, including a larger bear on screen and an motorcar-duplexing automatic document feeder (ADF), which the M281fdw lacks. Nonetheless, the M281fdw prints well overall, making it a decent alternative to the Canon MF634Cdw as a low-book colour laser AIO for home-based small offices and small workgroups, or for personal utilise.

Compact Footprint

A replacement for another top pick, the HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M277dw, the M281fdw measures 13.2 by 16.5 past sixteen.six inches (HWD) and weighs 41.2 pounds, making it ever-so-slightly larger and heavier than its predecessor. Catechism's MF634Cdw, on the other hand, is a few inches bigger in all directions, and it'southward nigh 7 pounds beefier; a little bigger and beefier (by near 20 pounds) still is ane of Blood brother's lower-end color laser AIOs, the MFC-L8610CDW. But then information technology comes with several capacity-expansion options, which puts information technology a cutting or two to a higher place entry-level. While not modest enough to fit many tight spots, the M281fdw and about of the others mentioned here should fit comfortably on the average desktop, equally well as many other similar surface areas.

Paper treatment for the M281fdw is about average. You can load up to 251 sheets split betwixt 2 trays, a 250-sheet main drawer and a 1-sheet override slot located at the top of the primary cassette. The Canon MF634Cdw, on the other manus, supports only 151 sheets, dissever between a 150-sheet drawer, and a 1-canvas bypass. The Brother MFC-L8610CDW hold 300 sheets, split between a 250-sail main drawer and a 50-sheet override tray (expandable to 1,050 sheets). In addition, the M281fdw comes with a xl,000-page monthly duty cycle (with up to 2,500 pages daily recommended). That'southward x,000 pages more than the HP M277dw and the Canon MF634Cdw, nonetheless it's the same as the beefier Brother MFC-L8610CDW.

The M281fdw'due south ADF holds up to 50 pages, simply information technology cannot flip them to scan both sides automatically. Surprisingly, neither does the more robust Brother MFC-L8610CDW. In contrast, the Catechism MF634Cdw'due south ADF is not merely auto-duplexing, but also a single-pass automobile-duplexer, meaning that the scanning machinery has two sensors, one for each side of the paper, allowing you to browse both sides simultaneously.

Yous tin can command these and most other setup, configuration, and walkup tasks, such every bit making copies or printing from a USB pollex drive (the port is located just beneath the control panel) from the control panel, which consists of a 2.7-inch color touch screen and three buttons: Back, Home, and Help. I institute the control panel like shooting fish in a barrel enough to effigy out and use, though sometimes objects on the screen were a footling too small to touch on precisely, unless you concentrated. The Canon MF634Cdw's 5-inch touch screen, on the other mitt, is much easier to navigate.

Connectivity and Security

There are myriad means to connect to the M281fdw, as information technology comes with the latest, fastest wired and wireless options, including Gigabit Ethernet and dual-band 802.11n 2.4/5GHz Wi-Fi, respectively, and can connect to a single PC via USB. Mobile options include Apple AirPrint, Mopria, Wireless Directly (HP'southward version of the peer-to-peer network protocol, Wi-Fi Directly), HP'south ePrint and other various HP mobile apps. Information technology has support for USB retention drives for press pages formatted in Microsoft Function file formats, likewise as PDFs, TIFFs, and JPEGs. And for further connection and emulation compatibility, you get HP PCL6 and PCL5c, HP PostScript level 3 emulation, and PCLm page description languages.

Security features include an embedded spider web server with secure browsing that allows you to configure, monitor, and maintain the printer either remotely or while on the aforementioned network. Y'all can access the backend web pages via basic HTML (SSL) authentication. Missing, though, are features like Secure Print for restricting print jobs by PINs, or decision-making access via usernames, and other options found on more than robust workgroup press machines.

Plenty Fast Enough

HP rates the M281fdw at 22 pages per minute (ppm), which is 3ppm faster than its sibling, the HP M277dw, and the Canon MF634Cdw. It'south also 11ppm slower than the Brother MFC-L8610CDW. (I tested using our standard Intel Core i5-equipped testbed PC over Ethernet running Windows 10 Professional.) The M281fdw printed our 12-page Microsoft Word text document at a rate of 21.7ppm, or just slightly nether its rating. That's near 2ppm faster than the Canon MF634Cdw, and near 2ppm slower than the Brother MFC-L8610CDW. (The HP M277fw was tested under an earlier set of protocols, using dissimilar documents, software, and hardware, so comparing its print speeds here would be impractical).

See How We Test Printers

In some other exam, I combined the results from the previous 12-page document with those from printing several colorful Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint documents containing business concern graphics, charts, and photos. Here, the M281fdw churned at a rate of 11.8ppm, which isn't bad for an entry-level AIO. The Canon MF634Cdw printed the same pages at the charge per unit of 10.6ppm, and the Brother MFC-L8610CDW managed 11.6ppm.

For the final test, I timed the M281fdw equally it printed our two highly detailed and color-rich 4-by-6-inch snapshots. It printed them both at an average of 29 seconds each. That's xv seconds slower (or twice as slow) than the HP MF634Cdw and the Brother MFC-L8610CDW, but nonetheless well within a minute. What's more than important hither, however, is how well it prints photos.

Pristine Text, So-So Graphics and Photos

I can't recollect when the last time was I said this about an HP printer, merely in this example, output, compared with several competing models, is non one of the M281fdw'due south strongest attributes, especially when press photos. Text came out well-shaped and easy to read down to most 7 points, which isn't bad, merely not platonic for printing business organization documents that require fine print. Otherwise, the sample text pages I printed were more than than passable, suggesting that the M281fdw's text output should look proficient in most types of simple business organization and home-based-business documents.

Our sample excel charts and PowerPoint handouts looked good, also, though I did detect some slight banding in dark groundwork fills and gradients, but in many instances they were but slightly noticeable. On one item slide, where a dark-light-green gradation flows in to black, the steps in the transition are highly noticeable. In addition, colors throughout looked slightly darker than when they were printed on competing machines.

The biggest disappointment, though, was photograph output. While most of the examination images I printed came out passible, many of them had perceptible flaws, and some were glaring. Many of the images were too dark, to the extent that bright colors and skin tones were slightly muted and lacked vibrancy. All this is non to say that the M281fdw'a photograph output isn't skilful plenty for certain kinds of domicile-office and business organization use, such as, say, in-house distribution. Overall, print and re-create quality should exist fine for everyday reports and such, but if pristine, impressive-looking documents containing proficient, loftier-quality photos and graphics are what you're after, you might have better luck with the Canon MF634Cdw, or perhaps fifty-fifty another HP model, such as the HP M277dw, which churns excellent content across the board.

Somewhat Plush to Use

Another shortcoming of the M281fwp is that it costs a lot to utilise in terms of a per-folio toll of toner. In fact, high running costs have been a primary drawback to using this class of printer for a while now. While every other printer type seems to moving toward lower price per page (CPP), the entry-level and midrange laser machines seemed to take stagnated. When you buy Canon'due south highest-yield cartridges for this motorcar, the cost per page comes out to almost three cents per monochrome page and 15.three cents per color page, which really isn't cost-constructive for printing more than 200 to 300 pages each calendar month.

Unfortunately, near of the other fiddling lasers in this class don't provide much improve CPPs. The Canon MF634Cdw, for instance, runs 3.2 cents for monochrome pages and 16.4 for color, and Brother'south MFC-L8610CDW costs virtually 2.five cents for black and 12.7 cents for color. If you demand lower costs, you have several choices, such as buying a higher-volume light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation AIO or one of the several midrange inkjet laser printer alternatives. Canon's Maxify MB5420, and its 1.v cent monochrome and 7.1 cents color, comes to mind, every bit does several of Brother'southward INKvestment models, such every bit the MFC-J5930DW. The Brother inkjet AIO delivers nether ane cent per monochrome page and simply under v cents for colour.

Proceed in mind that for every 5,000 pages yous print at a iv-cent divergence in running costs, it will cost you lot an additional $200 to use your printer. Thus, while the M281fwp is capable of press several hundred or thousands of pages each month, its high running costs relegate information technology to being a relatively depression-book printer.

Bringing It Together

The HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M281fdw is a pocket-sized, entry-level AIO laser printer designed for small offices, abode-based offices, and small workgroups. Its minor size also makes it a expert fit as a personal color laser. It prints fast plenty for its class, simply it lacks a few features, such as the ability to scan and copy multipage, ii-sided documents without your having to flip them manually. In addition, its high running costs volition, for most users, relegate information technology to being a low-volume printer capable of churning out only a few hundred pages each month. If y'all need more than that, several models, especially inkjet alternatives and higher-volume light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation AIOs, are available with the ability to deliver monochrome pages at under 1 cent per folio, and color pages for v cents or less.

If you need better-looking graphics and photos, the Catechism MF634Cdw, our Editors' Choice, should serve you well. If, on the other hand, a couple hundred every 24-hour interval-utilise prints and copies are what yous demand, the M281fdw is a decent alternative for an entry-level, low-book colour light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation for small offices and workgroups.

Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/printers/18854/hp-color-laserjet-pro-mfp-m281fdw

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