HP Color LaserJet Pro M283fdw Review

How to choose the right business printer? The similar question has been asked by countless business owners around the globe in order to achieve efficient printing and improved productivity. I’m glad to say that HP as a giant printer manufacturer has released the HP Color LaserJet Pro M283fdw to meet the demand for innovative printing machines with high-quality output.

The M283fdw is an entry-level color laser printer that boasts high efficiency as well as respectable print results. The wireless MFP printer offers easy printing and scanning right from your smartphone or tablets. Compared to its price, the machine features attractive recommended monthly volume for home-based office, small business, or workgroup.

Inviting Design with ADF and Touchscreen Display

The HP M283fdw is a modern printer that delivers marketable looks. HP chooses white color scheme that looks neutral, allowing the machine to blend nicely with other room elements. The overall layout looks simple yet expensive, thanks to the robust construction and high-quality material it brings. I would like to give 8 out of 10 points for the design.

Measuring 13.2 inches by 16.5 inches by 16.6 inches (HWD) and weighing 41.2 pounds, this printer won’t consume a lot of space. The device is much heftier than its counterpart, the Color LaserJet Pro M255dw that weighs only 32.6 pounds. Though it weighs much heavier than I thought, it remains acceptable for a business printer. Just make sure your desk is sturdy enough to hold this machine.

The most visible part of this printer is an auto document feeder that supports 2-sided printing, copying, and scanning. Featuring a 2.7-inch color touchscreen display, the M283fdw looks much more stylish as with its counterpart. From this control panel, you can easily configure operation as well as monitor the ink level regularly.

HP Color LaserJet Pro M283fdw Printing Specs

The M283fdw brings respectable printing specs to deliver excellent print results. It boasts 600 x 600 dpi print resolutions with HP ImageREt 3600 technology to provide detailed output with vibrant and vivid color. With laser print technology, it offers reliable quality for a business application or office documents such as invoices, contracts, reports, and many more.

This printer is rated at 40,000 pages per month with up to 2,500 pages of recommended monthly volume, which is exactly the same as the HP Color LaserJet Pro M255dw. This rating is ideal for workgroups or small businesses with low printing volume. Since the M283fdw is not a heavy-duty printer, exceeding the recommended volume is not suggested as it can decrease printer performance.

Reasonable Print Speed

HP rates this printer at 22 pages per minute. This print speed is quite reasonable for laser printers at a similar price range. Its counterpart, the M255dw, also delivers the same print speed at 22 pages per minute. But when compared to the average speed of laser printers, this performance is not impressive. I won’t say the M283fdw is sluggish but it surely makes you wait.

But when I tested the copier and scanner, the performance relieved the pain. The copier could produce up to 22 pages per minute for mono and color on Letter A paper. Meanwhile, the scanner worked impressively by giving up to 28 pages per minute for monochrome pages. It allows you to complete scanning tasks instantly.

Handy with Bypass Tray

The HP M283fdw features moderate input tray capacity as it can hold as many as 250 sheets of standard size. A 100-sheet output bin is also planted to keep the printed document organized. Additionally, the machine is equipped with a 50-sheet ADF that supports duplex printing, copying, and scanning. This printer becomes handier with a 1-sheet bypass tray.

If you often make creative projects with different paper sizes, it’s important to note that the M283fdw offers convenience with various paper supports. The device can handle 3 x 5 inches up to legal size with recommended weight ranges from 60 g to 220 g. The supported media types include enveloped, labels, photo paper, transparencies, and greeting cards.

HP Color LaserJet Pro M283fdw Output

The M283fdw is an efficient laser printer that brings promising output quality to your business. It can easily handle texts, graphics, as well as photos for a variety of business applications. When I tested this printer, I did not find misshaped characters or weird-shaped fonts even when I tried with the smallest ones. Thanks to resolution technology that delivers sharp and crisp black texts.

Moving to graphics, this printer gave little-to-no streaking and banding. It produced smooth fills and the color gradients came nicely. Additionally, noticeable hairlines were hardly visible so it’s quite dependable for excel charts or presentations.

During photo testing, this printer worked well to deliver high precision, vivid and vibrant colors. Though its photo quality is incomparable to photo-centric printers, the M283fdw can be reliable for brochures, flyers, or marketing media.

HP Color LaserJet Pro M283fdw Toner Cartridges and Running Costs

The HP Color LaserJet Pro M283fdw uses four toner cartridges that boast higher consumable capacity. Unlike standard cartridges, the drum-like consumables are installed individually. The compatible cartridge is HP 206A that allows you to produce more pages up to 1350 yield for black and 1250 for color. HP also provides high yield cartridge replacement with 206X that delivers up to 3150 and 2450 yield for black and colors respectively.

Unfortunately, this printer comes with relatively high running costs. I found it costs around 4.6 cents per page and around 17 cents per page for black and color respectively. This cost can make your office spending skyrocketing, especially when your printing volume is relatively high. If you want to use this printer, make sure it does not exceed 150 to 200 pages per month.

HP Color LaserJet Pro M283fdw Connectivity Options

The entry-level MFP printer comes with sufficient connectivity options that allows you to build a reliable connection to other compatible devices. The M283fdw comes with standard connectivity that consists of Hi-Speed USB, Ethernet, and Wi-Fi. Mobile Printing capability is supported by Apple AirPrint, Mopria, and Wi-Fi Direct.

As with other HP printers, the M283fdw offers HP Smart App compatibility that enables you to discover more about the machine. Not to mention it supports HP ePrint for better printing experience. To ensure your security and control, it features password protection and secure browsing. HTTP Basic Access Authentication is also supported in this device.

HP Color LaserJet Pro M283fdw Pros and Cons

The HP Color LaserJet Pro M283fdw is a good entry-level printer that works well to support your business or workgroup. This machine has all you need to handle professional documents such as impressive print quality and duplex printing capability. But this printer has several drawbacks that should be taken into consideration.

HP Color LaserJet Pro M283fdw Pros

• Good-looking layout and design

Not only does the M283fdw offer good performance, but it also offers a good-looking design. The office printer comes with a simple layout that makes it easy to operate, even if you are a new user. This hefty machine is compact and space-efficient so it can sit nicely on your desktop.

• Promising print result

The HP M283fdw promises high output quality as with other laser printers. HP embeds ImageREt 3600 technology in most Color LaserJet Pro printers and the M283fdw is no exception. This technology allows the printer to produce detailed output with vivid, crisp, and bright colors. It works well for texts and graphics and is acceptable for photos.

• Duplex capability

The printer supports duplex capability that allows you to print, copy, and scan 2-sided pages automatically. No user intervention is needed so it promotes time efficiency and work productivity. The 50-sheet ADF capacity is reasonable to help handle your business documents.

HP Color LaserJet Pro M283fdw Cons

• Relatively low print speed

The M283fdw takes more time to print so you need to wait a little longer. This printer is rated at 22 pages per minute, which is relatively slow for business printing. If you have a pile of documents to handle but don’t have much time, this machine can make you frustrated.

• High running cost

Are you looking for a printer with inexpensive operation costs? Then the M283fdw is surely not a good bet. This printer runs at a relatively high cost though it features high yield consumables. Particularly for color pages, it can consume a lot of budgets. If you really want to use this printer, make sure the printing volume does not exceed 200 pages per month.

• Lack of Bluetooth connectivity

I don’t always use Bluetooth but lack of this connectivity makes a device incomplete. When I found the M283fdw does not support Bluetooth, the device looked less attractive. Undoubtedly, I should bring this lack to the minus side of the printer.

Bottom Line

Well, the HP M283fdw is a wireless laser printer to support your business. The multifunction printer comes with a lot of features that are ideal for business application, such as high-quality printing and duplex capability. It also supports moderate printing volume to meet your needs. Unfortunately, this printer is rather slow and it runs at expensive running costs.

If you are looking for an efficient printer for low printing volume, the M283fdw can be a great choice in some conditions. The running cost is tolerable as long as your volume is lower than 200 pages per month. To deal with its slow performance, print through Ethernet connectivity for better speed.