HP Shade LaserJet Professional 3201dw assessment: small, quick and awkward

HP Shade LaserJet Professional 3201dw

MSRP $339.00

“The HP Shade LaserJet Professional 3201dw is a compact and quick printer, but it surely has a gradual, awkward person interface.”

Professionals

• Quick print velocity
• Nice colour doc high quality
• Compact dimension
• Duplex printing
• Media slot for envelopes and labels

Cons

• Too costly
• Awkward person interface
• Photograph prints lack element in shadows
• Starter cartridges run low rapidly

HP is likely one of the greatest printer manufacturers available on the market, so that you already know the Shade LaserJet Professional 3201dw has good construct high quality and buyer help. Nonetheless, we take a look at every new mannequin to gauge its print efficiency, colour accuracy, ease of use, and long-term worth.

I put the Shade LaserJet Professional 3201dw via its paces to determine any troublesome particulars and discover out if it deserves a spot on our record of the very best colour laser printers.

Design

HP’s Shade LaserJet Professional 3201dw is a compact printer, measuring 15.4 by 16.5 inches and standing 10 inches tall. Meaning it’d match higher in a small workspace than many colour laser printers. It’s additionally lighter than most, weighing a little bit over 30 kilos.

It has a minimalist design with a white physique and darkish grey accents that can assist it mix in with any decor. A two-inch monochrome show is ready at a set 30-degree angle on the highest proper. That makes it handy to be used whereas standing or sitting. As an alternative of a touchscreen, HP gave the Shade LaserJet Professional 3201dw push-button navigation.

The underside paper tray holds 250 sheets and has clearly labeled guides. A single-sheet media slot supplies quick access for labels and envelopes. It’s not as handy as a tray that may maintain a stack of labels directly.

Easier designs are widespread with low-cost printers. Efficiency, high quality, and provide prices are extra vital whenever you’re in search of a price range resolution.

Printing efficiency

The HP Shade LaserJet Professional 3201dw is quick, rolling via as much as 26 pages per minute when printing lengthy paperwork or a number of copies. For single pages, I might decide up my print inside 11 seconds. That’s quicker than the primary web page out (FPO) speeds of many colour laser printers which can be dearer.

Shade paperwork look nice, with no banding in charts or blocks of colour. Textual content is readable even in fantastic print and monochrome is crisp and darkish. Footage are good, however not as good because the picture high quality I loved once I reviewed HP’s Shade LaserJet Professional MFP 4301dw. That’s a dearer printer, so higher efficiency is anticipated.

The Shade LaserJet Professional 3201dw isn’t a photograph printer and shadows lack element, but it surely handles the duty properly for a laser printer. Inkjet nonetheless beats laser know-how whenever you wish to be printing photos with photographic high quality.

Software program and compatibility

Organising the Shade LaserJet Professional 3201dw was easy ,however gradual. HP’s button navigation and menu structure are surprisingly awkward. For instance, the arrow buttons don’t wrap round when setting the date and time.

To get to 55 minutes previous the hour, as an alternative of clicking up just a few instances, I needed to repeatedly press down. Scrolling additionally requires urgent down a number of instances. A press and maintain characteristic or wraparound when transferring the other instructions ought to have been carried out. Wi-Fi password entry is time-consuming, so use the WPS button choice in case your router helps it.

After setup was full, I printed a photograph and observed an alignment problem. The magenta toner was too low on the web page relative to cyan, yellow and black, making a double-exposure impact. I checked the menu to seek out if there was a calibration or alignment choice to right the difficulty. Calibration didn’t assist and the print high quality troubleshooting web page solely helps with streaks.

In the long run, I needed to substitute the magenta toner cartridge to unravel the issue. Fortunately, I had a suitable HP 218A cartridge available. After the swap, the colour alignment was good. I checked on-line vendor critiques and located this isn’t a standard problem. Nonetheless, it highlighted the restricted menu choices and navigation difficulties inherent to the Shade LaserJet Professional 3201dw.

In day by day use, the HP Shade LaserJet Professional 3201dw is fast and dependable when printing from my Home windows PC and MacBook. The HP Good cellular app helps iOS and Android, however I discovered superior choices open in a browser that required coming into a PIN code from contained in the printer’s entrance panel.

Value

The HP Shade LaserJet Professional 3201dw lists for $339. I’ve seen it as little as $259, which is a extra intriguing supply. As a quick, usually dependable colour laser printer, these are affordable buy costs. The larger concern might be long-term prices of toner.

The starter cartridges included with the Shade LaserJet Professional 3201dw are a bit mild, containing sufficient toner for about 600 black and 500 colour pages. For comparability, Brother’s $300 HL-L3280CDW contains rather more toner, sufficient for 1,000 black and 1,000 colour pages.

When it’s time to replenish toner for the Shade LaserJet Professional 3201dw, high-capacity cartridges supply vital financial savings in long-term prices.

A typical black ink cartridge sometimes yields 1,300 pages and has a value of roughly 5 cents per web page. A high-capacity cartridge is price the additional expense in case your price range permits, since it will possibly produce as much as 3,200 pages, decreasing the associated fee per web page to three cents.

For colour paperwork, the financial savings are much more vital. A typical colour cartridge can print 1,200 pages at a value per web page of 20 cents, whereas a high-yield toner cartridge can lengthen to about 2,500 pages at 14 cents per web page.

Is that this the printer for you?

The HP Shade LaserJet Professional 3201dw is a quick colour laser printer with good high quality for a low-cost dwelling workplace printer, however there are higher choices. HP’s superior Shade LaserJet Professional 4201dw might be discovered for as low $399, simply $60 greater than the retail worth of the Shade LaserJet Professional 3201dw.

Canon’s imageClass MF654cdw contains an computerized doc feeder so you’ll be able to scan, copy, and print — and it prices much less. Brother’s 31 page-per-minute HL-L3295CDW ships with sufficient toner for two,300 monochrome and 1,200 colour pages and retails at $370, simply $30 greater than the Shade LaserJet Professional 3201dw.

It’s not that HP’s Shade LaserJet Professional 3201dw is a foul printer, however the awkward person interface and considerably costly worth for a price range printer falls wanting a mannequin I can suggest.

We’ve a information to the very best low cost printers that may provide help to discover what you’re in search of. Additionally, try our record of the very best printer offers to avoid wasting extra on an awesome printer.