HP M177fw Toner
LaserJet Pro M177fw Toner Cartridges

HP M177fw Printer Review

With the HP LaserJet Pro M177fw, the company manages to cram excellent multifunction features, color laser printing, and solid networking into a compact and affordable machine. Its speeds are a little slow, however, at 17 pages per minute in black and 4 pages per minute for color. Home users and even small office users on a budget might struggle with somewhat high costs for LaserJet Pro M177fw printer toner supplies as well.

The M177fw supports the full complement of printing, scanning, faxing, and copying features. Its faxing and wireless features make it an upgrade from the M177 base model, and it includes mobile printing options as well. With support for Apple's AirPrint protocol, users can easily print from a Mac or iOS device with virtually no setup required.

The M177fw maxes out at 600x600 dpi printing resolution, but its ImageREt 2400 technology can simulate 2400 dpi output. The 150-sheet input paper tray is a bit of a letdown for such a capable machine, but home users won't be rattled by it. It doesn't include automatic duplexing to save on paper costs, but multiple quality modes can help conserve HP M177fw toner supplies.

The 35-sheet automatic document feeder is a handy feature for quick scanning of stacks of pages at once. In fact, many users will probably take advantage of the scan-to-email feature as an alternative to faxing. This has the advantage of saving a lot of HP M177fw toner at the same time.

Speaking of toners, the cost of replacements is a bit high. Each color LaserJet Pro M177fw toner cartridge has a yield of 1,000 pages, with the black supply rated for 1,300 pages. These capacities are decent, but the price of HP M177fw toner cartridges results in a higher cost per page than competing models.

The LaserJet Pro M177fw is very impressive in its capabilities and its low price, especially for a laser printer that can handle color output. Expensive supplies and its limited speed and paper capacity are the only major hurdles buyers will face.