HP's LaserJet Pro MFP M277dw is smart and easy to use, but it's let down by poor colour prints

An affordable colour laser printer for small businesses and home workers, here's our HP Colour LaserJet Pro MFP M277dw review.

If you're looking for a high-quality photo printer then inkjet printers still have the edge there. However, the M277dw provides excellent text quality and business graphics, and will make a good workhorse printer for smaller offices that need to produce high quality business documents.

While ink jet printers are still dominant in the colour market lasers can now offer much more and with less of a premium, printing speeds are better and perhaps most important the quality of the printed output is now excellent.

As one of the first printers to sport HP's new JetIntelligence technology, HP makes bold promises on the performance of its Color LaserJet Pro MP M277dw ($429, ￡273, AU$528). The M277dw is a multifunction office printer that's more compact, faster and delivers more prints from its cartridge thanks...

Acquired this product to replace an eight- year-old, HP All-in-one inkjet for home office use. While it is much larger and heavier than the inkjet model, it was totally painless to set-up by comparison and allows AirPrint from my wife's iPad (second-gen). It is as speedy as reviewed.

The HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M277dw ($429.99) is a highly capable color laser multifunction printer (MFP) with decidedly light-duty paper handling. It delivers fast speed, high-quality text and graphics output, and support for both printing through the cloud and via Wi-Fi from mobile devices.

Fast; High-quality text and graphics; Wired and Wi-Fi network connections; Wi-Fi Direct and NFC; Both cloud-based and Wi-Fi mobile printing

Low paper capacity; Subpar photo output; Have to download fax driver for most Windows versions

The relatively compact size of HP's LaserJet Pro M277dw is a little misleading. It's a laser-based multifunction colour printer with a gutful of new tech that aims to make it a more efficient performer in terms of speed and energy consumption.

Small footprint; Fast performance; Easy controls and useful printing from mobile devices

We experienced jamming on some duplex operations

According to HP, the Color LaserJet Pro MFP M277dw represents the 'most significant laser printing re-engineering' since the first LaserJet appeared in 1984. Alongside new toners, HP claims quicker first page times and faster duplex (double-sided) printing, a 40 per cent size reduction, and up to a...

This small and efficient laser all-in-one prints well and quickly, but the cost per page and limited paper handling render this an occasional-use model.

Good print quality; Easy-to-use; intuitive color touch control panel; Respectable print speeds; Compact and energy-efficient

ADF doesn't support auto-duplexing; Small paper drawer; High cost per page