HP LaserJet Pro 400 MFP M475dw review

HP’s new printer family is comprised of this 802.11n Wi-Fi-enabled M475dw and the M475dn, with HP claiming professional print quality and low cost. On the company’s target list are SMBs looking to save costs by printing their marketing material in-house.

The M475dw offers print speeds of 20ppm for both mono and colour, and includes an integrated duplex unit. HP’s ePrint technology enables direct wireless printing from smartphones and iPads, with the ePrint driver or mobile app installed.

The only consumables are the toner cartridges, and running costs are on a par with other lasers in this price bracket. Using the high-yield black cartridge a mono page is 2p and colour 12p, but HP annoyingly ships the printer with half-capacity starter cartridges.

The printer’s web interface is a lesson in good design, providing easy access to all functions, plus plenty of information about the printer’s status and consumables.

We started with HP’s ePrintCenter, which allows remote workers to email documents direct to the printer. After enabling it in the web console, a page with a unique code and the location of the ePrintCenter portal was printed. We created an account, and entered the code to receive a hosted email address for the printer – we could decide who could use it. It worked flawlessly, and supports Office documents, PDFs, JPEGs and TIFFs.

Print speeds were on the money. After a wait of around 13 seconds for the first page, our mono and colour test prints were delivered at the quoted speeds at all resolutions. HP’s print quality puts Brother’s MFC-9970CDW to shame; along with razor-sharp text, photos were sharp, vibrant, clean and detailed, with no discernible banding.

All MFP features are present and correct; updating to the latest firmware enables the scan to email and network-share features. Fax phone books and speed-dial lists are created easily from the web interface, as are email recipients, and the front USB port provides walk-up-and-print services.

HP’s new MFP packs a lot of features into a compact and affordable device. It delivers on its speed promises and combines this with excellent output quality, and wireless mobile and web-printing services.