There’s no shortage of well-regarded midrange all-in-one color laser printers available. One of the more impressive is HP’s LaserJet Enterprise MFP M480f ($879.99). Like the Lexmark MC2535adwe, our previous Editors’ Choice for a midrange color laser AIO, the M408f prints well, with plenty of capacity for most medium-size offices. Though its up-front price is a little steep, the low running costs more than make up for it, especially with HP’s Instant Ink subscription program factored in. Easy mobile connectivity rounds out the feature set to make the M480f our new Editors’ Choice for midrange color AIOs.
A 50-Pound Workhorse
The M480f measures 15.7 by 16.4 by 15.7 inches (HWD) and weighs a hefty 51.2 pounds. These numbers are about average for this class of business AIO. Lexmark’s MC2535adwe ($599) is a few inches bigger in most directions and about 8 pounds heavier; Canon’s Color imageClass MF424dw ($349), a monochrome laser, is significantly lighter. Brother’s MFC-L3770CDW ($399.99), a laser-class LED printer, is similar to the size and girth of the M480f, and Epson’s EcoTank Pro ET-5850 ($849.99), a color inkjet, is slightly smaller than the rest. (All these printers are Editors’ Choice winners.)
All-in-one printers scan and copy, usually with the aid of an automatic document feeder (ADF). On all these machines, the ADF holds up to 50 sheets of up to legal (8.5 by 14 inches) size, which is plenty for most smaller offices.
You can configure and execute walk-up scan and copy jobs, monitor toner levels, generate usage reports, create and modify workflow profiles, and much more from a spacious 4.3-inch color touch screen that comprises the entire control panel. For remote configurations, the M480f’s onboard web portal runs in any browser, including on your smartphone or tablet.
Connectivity options include two USB 2.0 host ports, one USB 2.0 device port, Ethernet, Wi-Fi Direct for direct connections to mobile devices, and near-field communication (NFC), a mobile touch-to-print protocol. You can add dual-band Wi-Fi networking with a wireless accessory.
The default paper capacity consists of one 250-sheet cassette and a generous 50-sheet multipurpose tray. If that isn’t enough, you can add a 550-sheet cassette ($195) for a total of 850 pages. The printer’s maximum monthly duty cycle is 55,000 pages, but its recommended monthly usage is only 4,800 pages. If you print that much, the second cassette could save you from needing to reload paper every day. It’s also useful for holding envelopes, letterhead, or label sheets.
Lexmark’s MC2535adwe’s default paper input configuration consists of a 250-sheet cassette and a 1-sheet override tray. With the various add-on expansion options available, it can be expanded to 1,451 sheets. Brother’s MFC-L3770CDW holds up to 280 sheets, and the Epson ET-5850 supports up to 550 pages from three sources. Of these machines, the M480f’s ratings are on the high side, though the MC2535adwe still surpasses them.
A Chatterbox That Talks to Anything
HP doesn’t provide software in the box. Instead, after you’ve set up and connected the M480f, you need to go to 123.hp.com to download and install the appropriate drivers and the HP Smart app. You get both HP’s Printer Command Language 6 (PCL) and Adobe’s PostScript 3.0 (PS) emulation for compatibility with desktop publishing and graphics design environments. HP Scan and Twain Package for USB, and MFP Network Twain Scan Package, let you scan to a single USB-connected device or to multiple destinations on a network.
HP Smart is a combination of driver and interface. In addition to operating and maintaining the printer, it can generate usage and other reports, and turn on and manage Instant Ink’s discounted consumables. You can also create and manage Shortcuts, one-touch workflow profile scripts for performing commonly repeated tasks.
HP Smart runs in the browser on any computer, and there are mobile app versions for Android and iOS. The different versions of the app aren’t quite identical, but it’s still pretty easy to switch among them without confusion. Menu navigation and specific features are very similar from one version to another.
Midrange Print Speeds
HP rates the M480f at 29 one-sided pages per minute (ppm), which is on the low side for a midlevel laser AIO. The Lexmark MC2535adwe is rated at 35ppm, and the Canon MF424dw at 40ppm. The Brother MFC-L3770CDW and the Epson ET-5850, on the other hand, are rated at a moderate 25ppm.
I ran my tests over Ethernet from our standard Intel Core i5 PC running Windows 10 Professional. For the first test, I clocked the M408f as it printed our 12-page monochrome text document several times, and then averaged the results for a score of 30ppm, just surpassing the rating. This score falls on the lower end of the range from the slowest (the Brother, at 26.8ppm) to the fastest (the Lexmark, at 39.8ppm).
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For the next portion of my testing regimen, I timed the M480f as it churned through our collection of complex and colorful business documents, including spreadsheets, charts and graphs, and handouts. Each document is designed to challenge the printer’s ability to reproduce specific types of output, such as color and grayscale gradients, intricate details, and hairlines (rules thinner than 1 point).
This time, the M480f managed 12ppm; that’s about 1.7ppm behind the Brother MFC-L3770CDW and 4.9ppm slower than the Lexmark MC2535adwe. The M480f’s score here is the slowest, but it’s not excruciatingly slow and will be passable for most small offices.
Finally, though this is not a photo printer and several other machines would turn out better-looking images, I clocked it as it printed our highly detailed and colorful 4-by-6-inch test snapshots. The M480f printed our sample test photos in 24 seconds, which is about average for a laser printer.
Tight Text and Great Graphics
LaserJets are known for stellar output, and the M480f continues that long trend. Everyday serif and sans-serif fonts came out at near-typesetter quality and were highly legible at all sizes. The decorative fonts looked a little better than average, too.
The business graphics were printed with little to no banding, streaking, or other toner-distribution problems. Gradients flowed smoothly from one color to the next, and fine details, such as hairlines and 3-D bar and line charts, printed precisely, with no noticeable color shifts or other inaccuracies.
Photographs looked good, with minimal graininess; brilliant, accurate colors; and great details. Granted, photos printed on a LaserJet won’t be as stunning as the images you get from photo-optimized printers, but for a business inkjet, the reproduction quality was impressive.
Competitive Running Costs
If you buy HP’s highest-yield cartridges (6,000 color pages or 7,500 monochrome prints), your running costs will be about 14.1 cents for color pages and 2.3 cents per black page. However, you can lower that significantly by signing up for HP’s Instant Ink monthly subscription program. Plans range from $1.99 for 50 pages to $25.99 for 1,500 pages. The most expensive plan’s per-page cost is about 1.7 cents, regardless of whether you’re printing in color or black and white. In other words, a full-page, letter-size photograph with 95% toner coverage will cost you the same as a monochrome text page with 5% coverage.
Many printer manufacturers now offer various opportunities to save money on consumables: Epson’s laser alternative, the bulk-ink ET-5850, prints both color and black pages for 2 cents each. But the Lexmark MC2535adwe will cost you about 1.8 cents for monochrome and 11.7 cents for color, and the Brother MFC-L3770CDW’s running costs are similar to the Lexmark’s. Overall, the M480f’s running costs are among the lowest available.
A Top Choice
Finding the right color AIO can be challenging, but the HP LaserJet Enterprise MFP M480f takes a lot of the guesswork out. Its capacity, connectivity, usage ratings, and print quality are all excellent, and if you buy your toner through HP’s Instant Ink subscription program, the running costs are among the lowest for medium-volume color AIOs. That’s more than enough to make the M480f worthy of our Editors’ Choice award.
