Looking to make the jump into laserjet printing? Let it be for home or small business, sometimes small is perfect and nothing works better (in our opinion) than laserjet. Today we get to dive into the HP Color LaserJet Pro M455dw printer to see how it compares to the laserjet standard and if it might be a good fit for you.
Getting right into it
For one, this makes for a great entry-level printer for those looking to get started with a laserjet printer and not looking for a top of the line print quality. Laserjets are superior to inkjet printers in many ways, and although this one doesn’t share all of the reasons for this, it fulfills just enough to make it worth it (with a few points to keep in mind).
The overall build of the printer does feature a lot of plastic in its design. This can be a little tricky when it comes to longevity, but we haven’t seen anything that is going to fall apart just yet. This is just something to keep in mind for the future as the more plastic in the build, the higher chance it will have of not making it as far as some of the others that opt to use metal where it is best needed. This unit was made for those looking to maintain a budget, so the sacrifice is understandable somewhat.
As mentioned print quality isn’t going to be top of the line from this little monster. It prints and prints well when it comes to getting the most out of your toner. You can let it sit for a few months and come back to it without any worry that everything has dried up like you would an inkjet. The toner will still be there waiting to do its job. However, the image isn’t going to come out solid and shiny as you’d find in some of HP’s higher quality options. The image quality is going to look closer to an intermediate inkjet printer.
We printed an image of a young girl wearing a colorful hoodie and a big smile and a nice heavier stock white copy paper. We did the same using a larger/nicer HP model for comparison. A bit unfair when you compare price/function of course, so we won’t include an image from that model (just an extra variable in the text of things). The larger one, the image came out looking like you’d find on a nice brochure. This model, came out (as mentioned) like an intermediate inkjet, where you can see the resolution/texture of the print as if the image was over-sharpened/grainy. Some parts were a little faded and missing the rich detail of a professional laserjet. However, color accuracy was close enough for it to pass when it comes to the hoody she is wearing. In some cases, these colors were just a tad darker than the original images, and in other areas of the picture, they were almost identical. The detail in the skin of her face, however, wasn’t the best. Passable, as long as you aren’t looking for professional or high-quality results, but quite noticeable when it comes to the difference between the image on the screen, on the professional model’s print, and this model’s print.
From sleep to print, it takes less than 10 seconds from the point you hit print on a computer. At least, this was our experience, including printing the color image of the girl, which took up half of the page. So it has speed down compared to some models we have played with. I’d say this falls in line with a lot of the compact laser options, and even beats out a few of the monochrome brother options we have kicking around.
As for noise, this is a noisier printer than some of the other ones we have floating around the office here. Some of the larger ones can be a little noisy, and some of the smaller ones can share some of the typical whines you get from any laser printer. However, they don’t make the clunking noises that this one makes. It has something to do with the toner cartridges in our opinion. Not the cartridges themselves per se, but the process in which they are initiated during their initial load and during every print. It’s not a deal-breaker, but it is noticeable enough to make you wonder if this is normal (it is apparently normal for this model from what we have heard from others familiar with it).
User-friendliness seems to be 100%. We didn’t touch the instructions when setting it up (given, we are tech-savvy). The first thing we did was add it to the local Wi-Fi network, which we did from the touch-screen and it was connected within seconds. Then we installed the toner, and it took very little guesswork (it does help to have knowledge on how to handle toner before installing it). The touch-screen is responsive and offers a lot of functions when it comes to setting things up.
When it comes to software, we took a different route than normal. Some of the comments we have seen elsewhere have mentioned that the software that this model comes with is terrible. We didn’t even touch the CD that came with it, nor did we download anything directly from HP’s site. Most of our systems are Windows 10, which can be a great OS when it comes to auto-detection and finding a solution to things you plug into it. This was exactly what happened with this printer. Within a few minutes of setting up the printer via its touchscreen and adding it to the network, various systems on the network that has access to seeing network printers already started seeing popups within Windows 10 recommending a download of the Microsoft Store “app” version of HP’s software (the app is called “HP Smart”). We ran with it and installed the app. It provides a browser-like view of all of the internal settings and information of the printer, along with various other options and features. Windows took to the printer naturally with all of the print setting screens available and working nicely. We opened access to the printer to other users and all of the dots continued to connect. So when it comes to software, we didn’t have any trouble.
The printer also comes with a number of functions locally, accessible from its screen where you can download apps to work with documents from sources like Google Drive. These options seem to be working well so far, although there are only a few to select from. Most of your printing is going to come from your computer(s) so this is just icing on the cake anyway.
We did notice one peculiar bug that pops up once in a while. There have been a few times now within a Windows 10 machine that had just sent a print job to the printer where it popped up that the printer is out of paper (even though it isn’t). We learned if you dismiss this notice and wait a few seconds, the printer will eventually start printing anyway. Kind of an odd experience, but likely something that can be fixed within a firmware update (it’s likely a delay with one of the components within the printer that isn’t reporting status to something else quick enough). Or, it might be software related since it has only occurred on two Windows 10 machines. Not a game-changer, but something to keep an eye on.
Finally, one of the caveats that need to be followed that makes this unit worthy of purchase (as mentioned at the start of this review), is that the toner you choose makes a huge difference. If you plan on sticking to using HP’s genuine toner, don’t. The toner costs far more than the printer and it feels like HP is adding salt to a wound by charging this much. The price they charge is ok when it comes to printers 4-6x the cost of this one, but for this model, it feels like the same game they play with inkjet models (where you are spending just as much buying a new printer that comes with cartridges in the box as you would buying the cartridges by themselves).
However, if you stick to generic options, there are reasonable brands out there that will run you less for the complete set. This makes this model more worthy of buying into. The catch is that you need to read the reviews carefully and look at images (the ones that Amazon no longer lets you upload at this time in reviews sadly) to make sure the toner is 1) of quality and isn’t going to make a mess of things, and 2) offers print quality similar to the genuine cartridges.
Last Update: 04/25/2020
(Updates: Corrected article title, mentioned out of paper bug)
Our Conclusion
In the end, this wound up being a good entry-level printer. Not something you are going to buy into if you want amazing colorful results, but something similar to an intermediate inkjet but with the other qualities that a laserjet brings to the table. User-friendliness is perfect and so is setup if you take the same approach as we did. For others, you can make the attempt at the software it comes with or available for download on their website. You just have to stick with generic toner to make this worth your while cost-wise vs quality. The only final note is the odd bug we came across. It would be nice to see that stomped out on a future update to either the firmware or the software.
Our Rating | Average Price* $299.99 |
*Average price is based on the time this article was published
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2 Comments
how do you make copies of other documents?
You don’t with this model. This is not an all-in-one, therefore it does not have a built-in scanner. You’d have to scan it from another source and print to the printer.