HP LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdw Review: Lots of Features But Too Expensive

HP is considered to be one of the masters of the printer industry. They’re an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) that everyone thinks of when it comes to buying printing devices. Some of this is because of their aggressive marketing strategies but a lot of it is because of the quality of their devices and even the kind of features they offer. Even though HP targets a large market segment, it caters to a specific type of buyer.

If you’re an individual who is willing to pay slightly over the market benchmarks for convenience and options, then you’re the ideal HP customer. Also, if you’re such a customer then you’ll do well to consider the HP LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdw for your business use. The HP LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdw is a compact colour multifunction printer that is intended for small offices or workgroups. It offers good output quality and print speed with an excellent set of features. In fact, the M477fdw is crammed with features and probably has more than you need.

However, the HP M477fdw isn’t ideal for you if your business requires high volume printing even though it can handle it. At best, medium duty printing is what you should get this device for. The problem is cost. Here’s our review as an explanation.

Strengths of HP LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdw

Connectivity, in our opinion, is the best strength of the HP LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdw multifunction printer. It offers a gamut of options to owners in terms of how they can connect to it. You’ll find the usual Ethernet and USB 2.0 connectivity options but you’ll also find the new age options such as wireless, wireless direct, and Near-Field Communication (NFC). Wireless has become all but standard in most business printers these days but wireless direct and NFC are rarer.

Wireless direct or Wi-Fi Direct, as it is known in the industry, allows for mobile devices to connect to the printer without being connected to a common network or router. NFC, however, is even more advanced. It allows direct connections between mobile devices and the printer by a single touch at the provided hotspot.

All these connectivity options improve the versatility of the device. In terms of compatibility with mobile platforms also, this device performs well. It supports platforms such as Google Cloud Print, Apple Air Print, Mopria, and HP ePrint. The HP LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdw also comes standard with a single pass Automatic Document Feeder (ADF) with a capacity of 50 sheets.

In plain terms, this means that this device can scan double-sided documents in a single pass. This is beneficial because it improves copying and scanning speeds. Generally speaking, the HP LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdw is a speedy device. It is rated to print at a speed of 27 pages per minute (ppm), irrespective of whether the document being printed is colour or not.

Security is also something that the OEM has focused on with the HP LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdw. It offers comprehensive security for the market segment it is positioned in. For instance, job storage allows for PIN focused printing with HP JetAdvantage Private Print and LDAP authentication feature. Another advantage that the HP LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdw has over its competitors is appearance. HP is known for designing good looking machines and the M477fdw is no different.

The modern and sleek look of this device will only complement the décor of your office. One sign of design superiority in the HP LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdw is its control panel. The control panel consists of a very intuitive colour touchscreen measuring 10.9 cm. There are no physical buttons and all the functions of the device can be accessed through this touchscreen.

Weaknesses of HP LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdw

One of the main reasons why people buy laser multifunction printers is cost-effectiveness. This expectation goes up the moment the device is meant for businesses because of the larger volumes involved. Unfortunately, this is one area where HP printers always seem to fall behind their competitors. The same holds true for the HP LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdw.

You’ll not only have to pay through your nose to acquire the M477fdw but also empty your wallet to run it. In fact, if you plan on printing a lot, the running costs of this device are such that you shouldn’t even consider buying it (Correction: running cost of this device after taking into account high-yield original cartridges is about 8 cents per page). The listed price of the HP LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdw is in the range of $600. With discounts, you may get it around $560. If you buy from Inkjet Wholesale, you’ll get it for as low as $500. This alleviates the inherently costly nature of this device but it still doesn’t make it cheaper than its competitors.

In terms of running costs, you can expect to pay anything around 8 cents 23 cents for every page you print if you buy genuine or OEM cartridges. You can take this per-page cost to as low as 1.8 cents 17.9 cents by using compatible or generic cartridges but even then the running cost of this device will be higher than many of its competitors. At Office Hacks, we also feel that this device could’ve offered better paper handling capacities.

As standard, this device has a total paper handling capacity of 350 sheets split between a 300-sheet main tray and a 50-sheet multipurpose tray. While you can counter this limitation by opting in for the additional 550-sheet paper tray, you’ll have to pay extra for it. With the optional paper tray, your total paper handling capacity will go up to 850 sheets. You won’t have to worry about the duty cycle even if you go for the extra tray because the recommended monthly duty cycle of this device is between 750 sheets and 4,000 sheets. Further, the OEM says that the device can handle 50,000 sheets when required too.

Key Features of HP LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdw

While the HP LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdw offers lots of advanced features, it doesn’t fare too badly in print output quality either. The maximum resolution that this device is capable of is 600 x 600 dots per inch (dpi) but don’t let that fool you. In practice, it is very good. Text documents come out very clear, crisp, and precise, while documents with graphics are also surprisingly excellent. Photo output is poor but that is expected in a laser printer.

The engine behind the machine is a 1200 MHz processor which is supported ably by a 256MB RAM. The combination of these components allows for good first print out times as well. From the ‘Ready’ mode you can get a black document within nine seconds while the colour shows up at 9.9 seconds. The ‘Sleep’ mode takes longer with black arriving in 11.4 seconds and colour 11.5 seconds.

The HP LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdw is a relatively compact device too. It is smaller than most of its competitors and measures 400mm in height, 472mm in depth, and 416mm in width. This means that you can probably share a desk with it in a pinch but you’ll need to be mindful of its weight of 23.2 Kg.

The M477fdw multifunction printer comes with various software support from the OEM such as the HP Device Toolbox, HP Utility, HP Imaging and Printing Security centre, HP Proxy Agent Software, the HP Web JetAdmin Software, and the Printer Administrator Resource Kit.