They maintain a low profile, however low-cost colour laser printers have not disappeared. HP’s Colour LaserJet Professional 3201dw ($339), a compelling single-function mannequin for small-to-medium-size workplaces, delivers wonderful print high quality for a low preliminary buy worth. It has different upsides, too: It has a comparatively small footprint, gives loads of connectivity choices, and prints fairly quick with paperwork that embrace graphics. Our one massive quibble? Whereas it’s important to anticipate some compromises at a worth this low, the 3201dw’s operating prices are larger than you’d anticipate, even for a finances mannequin. These higher-priced toner cartridges might diminish (and even reverse) your preliminary value financial savings. The 3201dw continues to be a superb cut price in case you don’t plan to print many pages with it over the printer’s life. If you happen to do, although, the Brother HL-L3295CDW will likely be a greater long-term worth, for its less expensive toner cartridges. It stays our Editors’ Alternative choose for finances colour lasers.
Design: Prepared for (Gentle) Motion
At 10 by 15.4 by 16.5 inches (HWD), the 3201dw is unusually compact for a colour laser printer. It’s barely much less excessive and narrower than the Brother HL-L3295CDW, which measures 10.8 by 17.6 by 15.7 inches (HWD). The 3201dw can also be smaller in all three dimensions than the Ricoh C125 P and the Canon Colour imageClass LBP674Cdw. Notably, the C125 P is 13.1 inches excessive, whereas the LBP674Cdw is 15 inches excessive. If you happen to’re contemplating inserting your printer on or beneath a vertically confined shelf, the 3201dw could also be one of the best match for that house.
(Credit score: David English)
The weights for this group of printers differ considerably, too. The 3201dw weighs simply 30.4 kilos. That compares with 35.5 kilos for the Canon LBP674Cdw, 36.8 kilos for the Brother HL-L3295CDW, and a whopping 55.1 kilos for the Ricoh C125 P. Once more, for a shelf set up or for a less-than-substantial desk or desktop, the lighter 3201dw could also be a extra sensible selection. Be warned, although, that light-weight printers can have some plastic components the place metallic components are most popular.
Although this mannequin is unusually compact and light-weight, its general development feels stable sufficient. The paper enter tray and cartridge entry door don’t really feel flimsy or particularly fragile, and the outer cupboard yields a passable thunk sound when tapped with additional pressure. That is a cheap mannequin, so that you do should make some allowances round chassis sturdiness and sturdiness. That stated, I couldn’t spot any apparent corners that have been reduce to shave down manufacturing prices.
I did notice a couple of trims to this mannequin’s paper capacities. The 3201dw has a normal 250-sheet enter tray, however only a single-sheet override enter tray and no possibility for a further tray. For comparability, the Brother HL-L3295CDW has a 30-sheet multipurpose enter tray and an elective 250-sheet-capacity add-on tray. The Ricoh C125 P has a single-sheet override enter tray and an elective 500-sheet add-on. And the Canon LBP674Cdw has a 50-sheet multipurpose enter tray and an elective 550-sheet unit.
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And whereas the 3201dw’s 100-sheet paper output tray is definitely ample, you may’t name it beneficiant. It’s bigger than the Canon LBP674Cdw’s meager 75-sheet tray however falls in need of the 125-sheeter on Ricoh’s C125 P and the 150-sheet tray on Brother’s HL-L3295CDW.
Equally, the 3201dw has a beneficial month-to-month obligation cycle of two,500 pages. That’s higher than the 1,500-page beneficial month-to-month obligation cycle for the Ricoh C125 P however far beneath the 4,000-page score on each Brother’s HL-L3295CDW and Canon’s LBP674Cdw. The 3201dw’s modest workload score is a transparent sign that this mannequin is designed for light-duty environments. If you happen to want a printer that may maintain a heavy workload, anticipate to pay additional for a extra strong mannequin than this HP.
Setup and Software program: Straightforward, Certainly, Does It
The setup course of for the 3201dw was snag- and hiccup-free. The toner cartridges come already loaded, so it is largely a matter of turning on the printer, coming into some primary info, and selecting an Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or USB connection. If you happen to go the USB route, the software program set up is fast and simple, although the outcomes will likely be barebones in contrast with many of the higher-priced fashions. Other than the print drivers, you’ll have solely a shortcut icon that’s configured to obtain and set up the HP Print and Scan Physician program. It’s a diagnostic utility that could possibly be helpful in case you run into printer-related points, reminiscent of a sudden lack of a wired or wi-fi connection.
(Credit score: HP)
HP’s objective to maintain this mannequin’s worth low is particularly apparent once you look at its show display and management panel. The two.0-inch monochrome LCD isn’t a contact display, so that you’ll should navigate its menus with assistance from a supplementary navigation wheel and an OK button. Additionally, the show’s decision is a skimpy 200 by 114 pixels, so it could actually’t present very a lot info at a time. On this small, low-res display, you’ll discover primary menus that allow you to alter the printer’s inside settings, community configuration, sign-in process, and paper sizes. You may also examine the remaining toner ranges for the 4 cartridges. These onboard choices are sparse, even for a low-cost mannequin.
The competing Ricoh C125 P has the same LCD that is small, monochrome, and non-touch. Nevertheless, the Brother HL-L3295CDW and Canon LBP674Cdw have 2.7-inch and 5.0-inch colour contact screens, respectively. If you happen to not often use a printer’s management panel and rely nearly solely on the pc interface, then the 3201dw’s modest show will not be that massive a deal.
(Credit score: David English)
Connectivity is an space wherein this HP mannequin does not demand any sacrifices. Like HP’s two current AIO fashions, the Colour LaserJet Professional MFP 4301fdw and Colour LaserJet Professional MFP 3301fdw, the 3201dw has a correct array, together with USB 2.0, gigabit Ethernet, 802.11ac (dual-band) Wi-Fi, and Wi-Fi Direct. That is the baseline customary we anticipate now from printers on this class. The Brother HL-L3295CDW, the Canon LBP674Cdw, and the Ricoh C125 P are equally well-connected, with the Brother and Ricoh fashions including NFC to the combo.
The 3201dw’s cell connectivity choices embrace Apple AirPrint and Mopria. You should use the HP Sensible app to print a photograph or doc out of your cellphone, in addition to to print no matter is being actively captured by your cellphone’s digital camera. You may also use that app to create phone-based shortcuts, that are one-touch scripts meant to streamline repetitive printing duties.
Testing the HP Colour LaserJet Professional 3201dw: Aggressive Speeds for Enterprise Paperwork
HP charges the 3201dw’s print pace at 26 pages per minute (ppm), considerably modest nowadays for a single-function colour laser. That is the identical rated pace because the C125 P however effectively beneath the 31ppm and 35ppm respective scores for the Brother HL-L3295CDW and the Canon Colour imageClass LBP674Cdw. To see if the 3201dw might stay as much as its billing, I benchmarked it over an Ethernet reference to our customary Intel Core i5 desktop PC testbed operating Home windows 10 Professional.
The 3201dw comes out of the field configured to print two-sided (duplex) pages. For this class of printers, we clock each two-sided and one-sided (simplex) efficiency. When printing our 12-page Microsoft Phrase textual content doc (excluding the primary web page), I clocked the HP at 27ppm in simplex mode and 17.2 photos per minute (ipm, the place every picture is one facet of a two-sided web page) in duplex mode. That simplex consequence was 1ppm higher than its rated pace.
No shock: Given their larger pace scores, the Brother HL-L3295CDW and the Canon Colour imageClass LBP674Cdw simply surpassed the 3201dw. The Brother examined at 32.7ppm, whereas the Canon examined at 35.1ppm. The extra fascinating matchup was with Ricoh’s C125 P, as a result of it has the identical 26ppm score because the 3201dw. The Ricoh examined at 26.3ppm, which was barely behind the HP. Trying extra intently on the numbers, the 3201dw stumbled a bit with the time it took for the primary web page out. And it wasn’t in a position to catch up as the following pages have been being printed.
With our enterprise functions suite (which consists of six information that characterize a cross-section of typical enterprise paperwork), the 3201dw proved to be rather more aggressive, particularly with paperwork that embrace graphics. It was in a position to print all the suite in 96 seconds, which works out to about 16ppm. Whereas spectacular, the 3201dw wasn’t in a position to maintain tempo with the Canon LBP674Cdw. The Canon breezed by all the suite in simply 70 seconds. And each of these printers have been effectively forward of the opposite two: The Brother HL-L3295CDW took a extra leisurely 111 seconds, whereas the Ricoh C125 P got here in at a sluggish 171 seconds.
After all, no laser-class printer can match a devoted photograph printer for high quality prints, however I did time the 3201dw at printing our 4-by-6-inch take a look at snapshots. It averaged about 9 seconds per picture, comparatively quick for a colour laser.
The output print high quality of the 3201dw intently matches that of its AIO cousin, the HP Colour LaserJet Professional MFP 3301fdw. In testing, it produced near-typesetter-quality textual content that will be greater than appropriate for many enterprise paperwork, like nearly any laser-class printer. I might learn its typical enterprise fonts all the way down to a really small 4-point measurement. I noticed no stray marks or extraneous strains. Charts and graphs had a delightful quantity of saturation and distinction. Colours have been distinct with out being overblown, and every little thing regarded clear {and professional}.
Printed images regarded particularly good, in each colour and black and white. Pores and skin tones regarded pure, which isn’t all the time true with colour laser printers. As with every laser printer, you may’t print borderless photograph pages as you may with an inkjet, although the 3201dw’s photograph high quality ought to be greater than ample for informal enterprise paperwork reminiscent of newsletters, brochures, or real-estate flyers.
Operating Prices: Dear Toner, Even With Excessive-Yield Cartridges
If you happen to’re contemplating the 3201dw due to its low buy worth, know that your preliminary value financial savings might slowly erode as you exchange the toner cartridges. That is true even in case you select HP’s high-yield set of alternative cartridges. You may anticipate to pay round 3.1 cents per web page for monochrome pages. And for colour pages, you may anticipate to pay round 17 cents per web page.
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For comparability, the Brother HL-L3295CDW will value you round 2.5 cents for a monochrome web page and round 12.9 cents for a colour web page. The Canon LBP674Cdw runs about 2.4 cents for a monochrome web page and 14.7 cents for a colour web page, whereas the Ricoh C125 P will value you about 3.8 cents for monochrome and 18.2 cents for colour. Amongst this group of printers, the C125 P is the one one which doesn’t have an possibility for purchasing high-yield toner cartridges.
As a result of the 3201dw is the least-expensive mannequin on this group, it might nonetheless be economical general in case you don’t plan to print all that always. However, as you improve the variety of pages printed over the lifetime of the printer, that preliminary financial savings could possibly be utterly absorbed after which reversed by the replacement-toner prices.
Verdict: Glorious for Excessive-High quality, Low-Quantity Printing
The HP Colour LaserJet Professional 3201dw is a extremely succesful single-function colour laser printer that sells for a really low worth. The print speeds are fairly cheap for its class, and the print high quality is superb, particularly for paperwork that embrace graphics or photographic content material. This mannequin has a comparatively small footprint, and it gives a variety of connectivity choices. It provides each versatility and worth.
Whereas its small, non-touch show and lack of expandability are particular drawbacks, the larger difficulty is the higher-than-expected toner value. Print sufficient pages, and the 3201dw will find yourself being much less of a cut price, over time, than related however barely dearer fashions. It is nonetheless a very good deal in case you don’t plan to print that many pages. In any other case, take into account steering your {dollars} towards a mannequin with cheaper toner, such because the Brother HL-L3295CDW or the Canon Colour imageClass LBP674Cdw.
HP Colour LaserJet Professional 3201dw
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The Backside Line
HP’s compact Colour LaserJet Professional 3201dw is a cheap colour laser printer that delivers excellent-quality output, however its dear toner makes it finest for mild to reasonable obligation.
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