HP LaserJet Pro M177fw Pro Reviews

A low-cost colour laser MFP with good output quality, but others in HP’s range best it for speed and value

The HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M177fw can be a good fit as a personal printer in any size office.

There’s much to like about the HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M177fw—as long as you don’t plan to print a lot of pages, especially color ones, with it. The print quality is excellent for such a low purchase price. The touch-screen LCD and menu system are comparable to those found in models that cost two or three times as much. And given the low purchase price, it’s nice to have Wi-Fi and a built-in document feeder. The drawbacks are mostly linked to this being a light-duty printer, which is a bit like criticizing a Kia compact for not being a Porsche 911. The cost per page is higher than average. The paper capacity for the input and output trays is somewhat meager. The modest page volume ratings indicate that the print engine isn’t intended for large-scale printing. And it’s no speed demon. But at $349.99 MSRP, and selling for as little as $300 online when we wrote this in mid-February 2014, it's not meant to be. Add it all together, and the M177fw can be a good pick for low-volume printing if you have a constrained budget. But if you plan to print more than 100 or so color pages a month, you should strongly consider purchasing a more expensive model with a lower cost per page, such as one of the costlier comparison models we mentioned earlier.

This color laser multifunction printer offers the usual compromises for this bargain price range: slow performance, minimal features, and high toner costs. If you don't print much then you might not mind all of this. Otherwise, a like-priced business inkjet model would be a much better deal—or spending $500 or more for a color-laser model with better attributes.