HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP 3301fdw
RRP 529,00 €
“The HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP 3301fdw is a fast, reliable color laser printer that is currently too expensive.”
Per
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Fast printing and scanning speeds
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Excellent color document quality
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Media compartment for envelopes and labels
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Easy to set up and use
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Reliable operation
Disadvantages
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More expensive than better HP models
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Photo prints lack details in the shadows
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Starter cartridges are running out quickly
HP has released a range of new colour laser printers – the 3000 series in 2024 – and I tried out the Color LaserJet Pro MFP 3301fdw to see how well it works.
HP is one of the best printer brands and produces reliable and durable products, so I wanted to take a closer look at the specifics of this particular model to see if it offers good value for money for small businesses and home offices.
design
The Color LaserJet Pro MFP 3301fdw from HP is compact for a multifunction color laser printer. The design uses a mix of gray and cream tones that blend harmoniously in both the office and home.
Laser printers are always bulkier than inkjets, and an automatic document feeder (ADF) adds several inches of height. The 16.5-by-16.5-inch multifunction device is 13.4 inches tall and has scanning, copying, faxing and printing capabilities. It weighs in at 37.7 pounds, which is manageable but sturdy enough to prevent vibration.
An adjustable 4.5-inch color touchscreen makes it easy to navigate menus. When standing, it tilts back up to 35 degrees from the horizontal. If you want to use the touchscreen while seated, it raises to 67 degrees for more comfortable viewing. A USB-A port allows you to print directly in front of the device.
The Color LaserJet Pro MFP 3301fdw has a 250-sheet main paper tray and a media slot that’s handy for envelopes and labels. The slot isn’t quite as nice as a tray since it doesn’t support paper or envelopes. Overall, though, it’s a good design.
Printing performance
The Color LaserJet Pro MFP 3301fdw is quick, with a first page out time of less than 11 seconds. Sustained speed is a little slower than rivals, and HP claims a speed of 26 pages per minute (ppm) for both black and white and color documents. Brother’s similarly priced HL-L3295CDW is faster, with a throughput of 31 ppm, but takes two seconds longer to get to the first page.
The print quality of documents is excellent. Black text is sharp even in small print and color documents look vibrant and high contrast. In fact, the contrast is a little too strong.
In photos, I noticed that the shadow areas lose detail and the images look a bit darker than the original image. Like most laser printers, the HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP 3301fdw cannot print borderless images.
If you print photos frequently, an inkjet printer is a better option, although it won’t print as quickly as a color laser printer.
Special features
HP has equipped the Color LaserJet Pro MFP 3301fdw with a very good ADF, which makes it easier to scan, copy and fax multiple documents. This is important for an office.
It is quite fast as it processes double-sided pages in one pass. Copying is even faster than printing as the first page hits the output tray in less than 10 seconds. The sustained rate is 26 copies per minute for simplex and 16 per minute for duplex.
While the ADF is limited to 300 dots per inch (dpi), the flatbed scanner supports up to 1,200 dpi, which is useful for scanning detailed photos or capturing small print for optical character recognition.
The USB-A port under the display allowed me to scan to and print from a USB stick. I had to press pretty hard to get the printer to recognize my USB stick, but other than that it worked fine.
I don’t have a landline to test the fax, but the technology is mature and faxing shouldn’t be a problem for HP.
Software and compatibility
Setting up the HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP 3301fdw was easy. All four toner cartridges are pre-installed and dual-band Wi-Fi found my network quickly. The printer was ready to use in just a few minutes.
Windows and Mac computers will instantly recognize the HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP 3301fdw and download the drivers if needed. I connected via Wi-Fi, but there are ports on the back for USB and Ethernet cables if you want to connect directly to the printer.
On mobile, the HP Smart app is intuitive and works well for most things. There was no way to print envelopes from within the app, but I managed to get the job done using AirPrint.
HP also limits mobile scanning to 300 dpi, while I can choose up to 1,200 dpi when scanning to a computer. I’m not a fan of arbitrary limits. Epson allows 600 dpi scans to mobile devices from the EcoTank Pro ET-5850, an inkjet printer that’s almost as fast as the Color LaserJet Pro MFP 3301fdw.
Price
HP sells the Color LaserJet Pro MFP 3301fdw for $529, a surprisingly high price for this mid-range printer. The significantly faster and overall better HP Color LaserJet Pro 4301fdw cost $699 in 2023, but can often be had for less than $500 on sale. HP didn’t launch the Color LaserJet Pro MFP 3301fdw until 2024, so I expect the price to drop over time.
Toner costs are always an important factor for color laser printers. HP supplies starter cartridges that are sufficient for around 600 black and white pages and 500 color pages.
That won’t last long. Fortunately, the HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP 3301fdw can accommodate high-yield toner cartridges that last longer and have lower material costs.
With a standard black cartridge, you can print an average of 1,300 pages and the cost per page is about 5 cents. A high-capacity cartridge lasts significantly longer, up to 3,200 pages, and lowers the cost per page (cpp) to 3 cents.
The savings are even more significant for color documents. Standard color cartridges deliver 1,200 pages at 20 cents per page, while high-yield toner cartridges deliver about 2,500 pages at 14 cents per page.
Of course, you’ll pay more for the larger cartridges initially, but the savings add up over the months and years of printing.
Is this the right printer for you?
The Color LaserJet Pro MFP 3301fdw is worth keeping an eye on. It’s a smaller, lighter color laser printer than high-performance printers like the Canon imageClass MF753cdw. While it can’t match the performance of last year’s discounted models, it could fit right in with the home office if it’s on sale at a discounted price.
The speed is good, the quality is good, and the printer is rated for up to 40,000 pages per month, so you still have room to expand. The TerraJet toner that HP’s Color LaserJet Pro MFP 3301fdw uses is also more environmentally friendly than most toners.
For more options, check out our guides to the best color laser printers and the best multifunction printers to find the right choice for your home office or small business.
