HP 4m Toner
LaserJet 4m Toner Cartridges

HP 4m Printer Review

The HP LaserJet 4M is a monochrome laser printer designed for the small or medium office environment. It is a reliable and solidly built printer, but its slower print speeds and lackluster graphics quality are serious downsides.

The 4M has a boxy rectangular design with not much thought given to aesthetics. The construction of the 4M's frame, however, is much more solid and sturdy than the majority of printers. It is built to handle all a busy office can throw at it, and still be a reliable printer. The unit measures 11.7 inches by 16.4 inches by 15.9 inches, and weighs 37 pounds, so it does come in larger and heavier than most competing models, but once it is in place, the solid construction will bring peace of mind.

The printer comes with 6 MB of RAM installed, which is a little small for an office printer, but its memory can be expanded to a maximum of 50 MB if necessary. The unit lacks its own processor, so it must rely on the host computer to do the processing for it. This slows down the printing process and is partly responsible for its slow printing speeds.

The HP 4M is a very economical printer, even though its upfront price is a little high. HP LaserJet 4M toner cartridges have a capacity of 6,800 pages for standard cartridges, and 8,800 pages in the high-yield version. Cartridges are inexpensive, resulting in a very low cost per page. Third-party compatible LaserJet 4M toner can bring the cost per page as low as fractions of a penny per page. With this cost savings, users may be able to make up for its higher price within the first year of ownership. Print speed is a bit slow, at 12 pages per minute. Print quality is mixed. Text is impressive, but graphics quality tends to be below average.

Overall, the HP LaserJet 4M is one of the most well-constructed and reliable printers available, and its economical toner prices will result in money savings if you can afford its high upfront price. Slow print speeds and poor graphics quality will disappoint.