Hp Laserjet Pro M281fdw All-in-one Wireless Color Printer Review
HP'southward LaserJet Pro MFP M281fdw ($429.99) is an entry-level color laser all-in-one (AIO) printer similar in capacity, features, and price to our Editors' Choice Catechism 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 fix, including a larger touch screen and an automobile-duplexing automatic document feeder (ADF), which the M281fdw lacks. Notwithstanding, the M281fdw prints well overall, making it a decent alternative to the Canon MF634Cdw every bit a depression-volume colour laser AIO for habitation-based small offices and small workgroups, or for personal use.
A replacement for some other peak selection, the HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M277dw ( at Amazon Canada) , the M281fdw ( at Amazon Canada) measures thirteen.ii by 16.five past 16.6 inches (HWD) and weighs 41.ii pounds, making information technology ever-so-slightly larger and heavier than its predecessor. Canon'due south MF634Cdw, on the other manus, is a few inches bigger in all directions, and it'southward about 7 pounds beefier; a piddling bigger and beefier (by virtually 20 pounds) still is one of Brother'southward lower-end color laser AIOs, the MFC-L8610CDW. Simply then information technology comes with several chapters-expansion options, which puts it a cut or 2 above entry-level. While non small enough to fit many tight spots, the M281fdw and nearly of the others mentioned here should fit comfortably on the boilerplate desktop, as well as many other similar surface areas.
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Paper handling for the M281fdw is nearly average. You lot tin can load upward to 251 sheets split betwixt 2 trays, a 250-sail chief drawer and a 1-sheet override slot located at the summit of the chief cassette. The Canon MF634Cdw ( at Amazon Canada) , on the other hand, supports only 151 sheets, carve up betwixt a 150-canvass drawer, and a 1-sheet bypass. The Brother MFC-L8610CDW ( at Amazon Canada) hold 300 sheets, divide between a 250-canvass main drawer and a 50-sheet override tray (expandable to 1,050 sheets). In addition, the M281fdw comes with a 40,000-folio monthly duty wheel (with upwards to 2,500 pages daily recommended). That'due south ten,000 pages more than the HP M277dw and the Canon MF634Cdw, yet it'due south the same as the beefier Blood brother MFC-L8610CDW.
The M281fdw'southward ADF holds upward to 50 pages, but it cannot flip them to browse both sides automatically. Surprisingly, neither does the more robust Brother MFC-L8610CDW. In dissimilarity, the Catechism MF634Cdw'south ADF is not only auto-duplexing, simply too a unmarried-pass auto-duplexer, significant that the scanning mechanism has two sensors, one for each side of the newspaper, allowing you to scan both sides simultaneously.
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You tin can command these and most other setup, configuration, and walkup tasks, such as making copies or printing from a USB pollex bulldoze (the port is located just beneath the control console) from the command console, which consists of a 2.7-inch colour touch on screen and three buttons: Back, Home, and Assist. I found the control panel easy enough to figure out and employ, though sometimes objects on the screen were a little too minor to touch on precisely, unless you full-bodied. The Catechism MF634Cdw's five-inch impact screen, on the other manus, is much easier to navigate.
Connectivity and Security
In that location are myriad ways to connect to the M281fdw, as it comes with the latest, fastest wired and wireless options, including Gigabit Ethernet and dual-band 802.11n 2.4/5GHz Wi-Fi, respectively, and tin connect to a single PC via USB. Mobile options include Apple AirPrint, Mopria, Wireless Straight (HP's version of the peer-to-peer network protocol, Wi-Fi Direct), HP's ePrint and other various HP mobile apps. It has support for USB memory drives for press pages formatted in Microsoft Part file formats, besides as PDFs, TIFFs, and JPEGs. And for further connectedness and emulation compatibility, you get HP PCL6 and PCL5c, HP PostScript level three emulation, and PCLm page description languages.
Security features include an embedded spider web server with secure browsing that allows y'all to configure, monitor, and maintain the printer either remotely or while on the aforementioned network. You lot can admission the backend web pages via basic HTML (SSL) authentication. Missing, though, are features like Secure Impress for restricting print jobs by PINs, or controlling access via usernames, and other options found on more robust workgroup printing 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. Information technology's also 11ppm slower than the Blood brother MFC-L8610CDW. (I tested using our standard Intel Core i5-equipped testbed PC over Ethernet running Windows 10 Professional person.) The M281fdw printed our 12-page Microsoft Discussion text document at a rate of 21.7ppm, or just slightly under its rating. That'due south almost 2ppm faster than the Canon MF634Cdw, and most 2ppm slower than the Brother MFC-L8610CDW. (The HP M277fw was tested under an earlier set of protocols, using different documents, software, and hardware, so comparison its impress speeds here would exist impractical).
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In some other examination, 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 graphics, charts, and photos. Here, the M281fdw churned at a charge per unit of eleven.8ppm, which isn't bad for an entry-level AIO. The Canon MF634Cdw printed the aforementioned pages at the rate of 10.6ppm, and the Blood brother MFC-L8610CDW managed 11.6ppm.
For the terminal examination, I timed the M281fdw equally it printed our two highly detailed and color-rich 4-past-six-inch snapshots. It printed them both at an average of 29 seconds each. That's 15 seconds slower (or twice as tiresome) than the HP MF634Cdw and the Brother MFC-L8610CDW, simply yet well within a minute. What's more than of import here, nevertheless, is how well it prints photos.
Pristine Text, Then-And then Graphics and Photos
I can't think when the last time was I said this nigh an HP printer, merely in this case, output, compared with several competing models, is not one of the M281fdw's strongest attributes, especially when press photos. Text came out well-shaped and easy to read down to about 7 points, which isn't bad, but not ideal 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 good in about types of elementary business and home-based-business documents.
Our sample excel charts and PowerPoint handouts looked good, too, though I did discover some slight banding in nighttime background fills and gradients, merely in many instances they were just slightly noticeable. On one particular slide, where a dark-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 test images I printed came out passible, many of them had perceptible flaws, and some were glaring. Many of the images were also dark, to the extent that bright colors and peel tones were slightly muted and lacked vibrancy. All this is not to say that the M281fdw'a photo output isn't good enough for certain kinds of home-role and business use, such every bit, say, in-house distribution. Overall, impress and copy quality should exist fine for everyday reports and such, but if pristine, impressive-looking documents containing skillful, high-quality photos and graphics are what you lot're after, y'all might have better luck with the Canon MF634Cdw, or perhaps fifty-fifty another HP model, such as the HP M277dw, which churns first-class content across the board.
Somewhat Costly to Use
Another shortcoming of the M281fwp is that it costs a lot to use in terms of a per-page price of toner. In fact, high running costs accept been a primary drawback to using this grade of printer for a while now. While every other printer type seems to moving toward lower cost per page (CPP), the entry-level and midrange light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation machines seemed to accept stagnated. When you buy Canon'south highest-yield cartridges for this automobile, the price per page comes out to almost 3 cents per monochrome page and 15.iii cents per color page, which actually isn't cost-effective for press more than 200 to 300 pages each month.
Unfortunately, virtually of the other little lasers in this grade don't provide much ameliorate CPPs. The Canon MF634Cdw, for example, runs iii.2 cents for monochrome pages and 16.4 for color, and Blood brother's MFC-L8610CDW costs nigh 2.five cents for black and 12.7 cents for colour. If you need lower costs, yous have several choices, such equally buying a college-volume laser AIO or one of the several midrange inkjet laser printer alternatives. Canon's Maxify MB5420 ( at Amazon Canada) , and its ane.5 cent monochrome and 7.1 cents color, comes to mind, equally does several of Brother's INKvestment models, such equally the MFC-J5930DW ( at Amazon Canada) . The Brother inkjet AIO delivers nether 1 cent per monochrome folio and just nether 5 cents for color.
Keep in listen that for every five,000 pages you impress at a four-cent departure in running costs, it will cost you an additional $200 to use your printer. Thus, while the M281fwp is capable of press several hundred or thousands of pages each month, its loftier running costs relegate it to being a relatively low-volume printer.
Bringing Information technology Together
The HP Colour LaserJet Pro MFP M281fdw is a small, entry-level AIO light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation printer designed for pocket-size offices, home-based offices, and small workgroups. Its small size besides makes information technology a good fit every bit a personal color laser. It prints fast plenty for its class, but it lacks a few features, such equally the ability to scan and re-create multipage, 2-sided documents without your having to flip them manually. In addition, its high running costs volition, for most users, relegate it to existence a low-book printer capable of churning out but a few hundred pages each month. If you need more than that, several models, especially inkjet alternatives and higher-volume laser AIOs, are bachelor with the ability to deliver monochrome pages at nether 1 cent per page, and color pages for 5 cents or less.
If you lot need amend-looking graphics and photos, the Canon MF634Cdw, our Editors' Choice, should serve you well. If, on the other mitt, a couple hundred every twenty-four hours-use prints and copies are what y'all need, the M281fdw is a decent alternative for an entry-level, low-book color laser for modest offices and workgroups.
HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M281fdw
The Bottom Line
An entry-level color laser AIO printer, the HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M281fdw prints well overall, admitting somewhat expensively, making it a expert fit for companies that don't crave more than a few hundred prints and copies each month.
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Source: https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/hp-color-laserjet-pro-mfp-m281fdw
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