HP LaserJet Enterprise color flow MFP M575c

Pros Encrypted hard drive. Pull-out keyboard. 8-inch color touch screen. 100-sheet ADF. Two-sided, single-pass scanning.

Cons Low standard paper capacity. Relatively high running costs. Bottom Line The HP LaserJet Enterprise color flow MFP M575c has some intriguing workflow features like a single-pass two-sided scanner and a full-sized pull-out keyboard.

By Tony Hoffman

As an HP "flow" multifunction printer (MFP), the HP LaserJet Enterprise color flow MFP M575c adds a sheaf of workflow-friendly features over the standard versions in its line: a pull-out keyboard and a 100-sheet single-pass duplexing scanner chief among them. It's worth considering by deep-pocketed businesses seeking a formidable workhorse color MFP to help boost productivity.

The M575c is the high-end model in the series that includes the HP LaserJet Enterprise 500 Color MFP M575dn and the HP LaserJet Enterprise 500 Color MFP M575f ($2,699). The M575f adds fax capabilities and a stapler to the M575dn, while the M575c adds the workflow features I discuss in this review.

The flow M575c can print, scan, copy, and fax; it can scan to e-mail, a network folder, USB thumb drive, or an FTP server, and print from a USB key. It has an 8-inch color touch screen interface, offers secure, password-protected printing, and has a built-in 320GB encrypted hard drive.

It measures 23 by 21.6 by 21.8 inches (HWD), much too large to share a desk with, and weighs 105 pounds. Its 100-sheet document feeder (ADF) scans both sides of a document simultaneously, saving time over scanners like the one in the M525dn (with a smaller, 50-sheet ADF), which flips the document over to scan the other side. The M575c's scanner also incorporates some features lacking in the M575dn and M575f, including ultrasonic misfeed detection, auto orientation, auto page crop, and other image correction features, send to SharePoint, and embedded OCR.

The M575c has a standard paper capacity of 350 sheets, split between a 250-sheet main tray and a 100-sheet multipurpose tray. You can add an optional 500-sheet tray as well. An automatic duplexer lets you print on both sides of a sheet of paper. On the side of the printer is a built-in "convenience" stapler for manually stapling documents of up to about 25 pages.

The M575c can connect via USB or Ethernet (including Gigabit Ethernet), and an optional Wi-Fi adapter is available ($269 direct). It's compatible with HP ePrint and Apple's AirPrint. I tested the printer on a wired network with its drivers installed on a PC running Windows Vista.

Printing Speed
I timed the flow M575c on our business applications test suite, using QualityLogic's hardware and software for testing, at an effective 8.0 pages per minute (ppm), a good speed for its rated speed of 31 pages per minute. (Rated speeds are based on text-only printing, while our business suite combines text pages, graphics pages, and pages with both text and graphics.) It would have been faster yet, but its average time was slowed by a long "calibration" period while printing a PowerPoint file in one of our test runs. The Editors' Choice Dell C3765dnf Multifunction Laser Printer tested at 8.3 ppm in our official test in its default duplex mode and 10.1 ppm when I switched to simplex. I timed the HP M575dn at 8.5 ppm, and the Editors' Choice Lexmark X548dte at 7.0 ppm.

Output Quality
Output quality for the M575c was pretty typical across the board, with average text quality, average graphics quality, and average photos. Text quality is good enough for any typical business use, except perhaps desktop publishing applications using very small fonts.

With graphics, some fine lines were lost, and black backgrounds looked faded. Graphics quality was good enough for PowerPoint handouts, though I might hesitate to give them to a potential client I was seeking to impress.

Several photos showed slight tints, and there was a loss of detail in some bright and dark areas in several prints. Photo quality is good enough to print out recognizable images from Web pages, and perhaps for company newsletters, depending on how picky you are.

Running Costs
At 1.8 cents per monochrome page and 13 cents per color page, the M525c's running costs are a bit on the high side. The Editors' Choice Dell C3765dnf has a lower per-page cost (1.5 cents for monochrome and 10 cents for color), as does the Lexmark X548dte (1.6 and 11 cents).

The HP LaserJet Enterprise color flow MFP M575c is a massive and impressively full-featured color MFP. Its added workflow features include a 100-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF) that scans both sides of a document at a single pass, saving time over the likes of the Dell C3765dnf, which has an ADF that flips a two-sided document over to scan the back. Other goodies include the pull-out keyboard, automatic image correction features, and embedded OCR. It has good but not exceptional speed, and its output quality is solid across the board.

It's a product that brings to mind the adage "you get what you pay for." It provides a slew of workflow-friendly features at a steep premium (nearly 3 times the price of the Editors' Choice Dell C3765dnf, which has a comparable maximum duty cycle). Generally, the higher sticker price of a printer, the lower its running costs will be, but the flow MFP M575c's color costs are higher than many much less expensive models, including the Dell C3765dnf and Lexmark X548dte.

Its standard 350-sheet paper capacity is also much lower than the Dell C3765's 700 sheets and the Lexmark X548dte's 900 sheets. Yet although there are faster MFPs, and ones with better output quality, the HP LaserJet Enterprise color flow MFP M575c provides some exceptional features such as the single-pass two-sided scanner with 100-sheet ADF, and is definitely worth considering by businesses willing to pay a premium for them.

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HP LaserJet Pro MFP M521dn

Pros High-quality text. Prints. Scans. Faxes. Copies. Direct email sender. Scans both sides of a page at once.

Cons Graphics output is at the low end of par for a mono laser multi-function printer. Can't scan in duplex for faxing. Bottom Line The HP LaserJet Pro MFP M521dn monochrome laser MFP is slower than expected for its rated speed, but it's strong on text quality and paper handling, particularly for scanning.

By M. David Stone

The HP LaserJet Pro MFP M521dn ($899.99 direct) is a quietly impressive beast. Designed as a mono laser workhorse, with a 75,000 page per month maximum duty cycle and a 6,000 page per month recommended maximum, it can print and fax from, as well as scan to, a computer, including over a network, and it can work as a standalone copier, fax machine, and direct email sender. More important, it does well enough at everything it does to make it Editors' Choice for medium to heavy-duty use in a small to mid-size office or workgroup.

There's nothing flashy here, like super-fast speed. In fact, it's easy to find printers, like the Editors' Choice Brother MFC-8950DW or the far less expensive Canon imageClass MF4770n that are faster. On the other hand, the M521dn offers a combination of features that make it more usable than most MFPs.

MFP Features and Basics
In addition to the basic MFP features I've already mentioned—printing, scanning, copying, faxing, and email—the M521dn can both scan to and print from a USB memory key. In an unusual touch for a monochrome printer, it will even let you preview the photos stored on the memory key before printing them. It also supports printing though the cloud.

Much higher on its list of key features is its scan capability. Like most MFPs aimed at office use, the M521dn supplements a flatbed scanner with an automatic document feeder (ADF). As is common, the flatbed is limited to letter-size paper while the 50-page ADF lets you scan up to legal size. Unlike most of the competition, however, including some significantly more expensive MFPs like the Editors' Choice Dell B3465dnf Multifunction Laser Printer, the M521dn offers a duplex scanner for copying and scanning. (It won't scan in duplex for faxing, however, which takes a little of the shine off the feature.)

Having a duplex scanner (meaning that it can scan both sides of a page at the same time) is different from having a duplexing ADF, which scans one side, turns the page over, and then scans the other. Either approach will let you scan duplex documents. And if the MFP also offers duplex printing plus appropriate copying commands, as with the M521dn, either approach will also let you copy single- or double-sided originals to your choice of single- or double-sided copies. However, scanning in duplex is a lot faster than scanning with a duplexing ADF.

We don't usually time duplex scanning with MFPs, because most desktop MFPs that duplex use duplexing ADFs, which is more of a convenience feature than something that's truly competitive with duplexing scanners. With the M521dn, however, I ran a test using a 25-sheet document just to get a sense of its speed. For scanning to disk, and including the time for saving the file to disk after scanning, the M521dn came in at 10.7 pages per minute (ppm) or 21.4 images per minute (ipm), with one image on each side of the page. If you scan duplex documents very often, this one feature can save a lot of time compared with using an MFP with a duplexing ADF.

Very much on the plus side for the M521dn is the 3.5-inch touch screen, with its particularly well-designed menu system. The combination makes it easy to both change settings in the printer and give commands for copying, faxing, and emailing.

One other strong point is the paper handing for printing, with both a 500-sheet paper drawer and 100-sheet multipurpose tray standard, along with the automatic duplexer. The 600-sheet capacity should be enough for most small to mid-size offices. If you need more, however, you can add a second 500-sheet drawer ($185 street), for a total of 1,100 sheets.

Setup and Speed
At 20.0 by 18.3 by 18.3 inches (HWD), the M521dn is too imposing to share a desk with. It's also heavy enough, at 52.7 pounds, that you'll probably want some help moving it. Once in place, however, setup is standard fare. For my tests I connected it to a wired network and installed the driver on a system running Windows Vista.

As I've already suggested, speed is not a strong point. HP rates the engine at 42 ppm, and I timed it as being a touch faster, at 43 ppm, for printing a text document with little to no formatting from Microsoft Word. On our business applications suite, however (timed with QualityLogic's hardware and software), it came in at a surprisingly slow 5.3 ppm. Although that's a tolerable speed, it's significantly slower than most other mono laser printers we've tested. The Brother MFC-8950DW, for example, managed 10.6 ppm, the Canon imageClass MF4770n came in at 12.3 ppm, and the Dell B3465dnf hit 15.0 ppm

Output Quality and Other Issues
Output quality is a mixed bag. The good news is that the M521dn handled text in our tests particularly well, which is generally the most important kind of output for a mono printer. Text quality was well above par, making it easily good enough for any business use and even good enough for most desktop publishing applications.

Graphics output was a touch below par, but still within the tight range where the vast majority of mono laser MFPs fall. That makes it good enough for any internal business need. Depending on how critical an eye you have, you may or may not consider it acceptable for, say, PowerPoint handouts. Photo quality was also at the low end of par for a mono laser MFP. It was certainly good enough to print recognizable photos from Web pages. Whether you consider it suitable for anything more than that will depend, once again, on how critical an eye you have.

The one feature I wish this printer had that it doesn't is the ability to fax in duplex. However, if you don't need to fax duplex documents, that won't be an issue. It also doesn't leave you any worse off for faxing than with an MFP that can't handle duplexing at all, making this oversight more of a missed opportunity than an actual problem.

Faster print speed would be welcome also. However, the time saved with duplex scanning and copying if you need it can more than make up for whatever points the printer loses on print speed. The text quality is a big plus too, as part of a highly attractive balance of speed, output quality, paper handling, and MFP features. For a small to mid-size office that needs to copy or scan (but not fax) duplex documents on a regular basis, all this can make the HP LaserJet Pro MFP M521dn a near-perfect fit, which is also enough to make it an Editors' Choice.

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