HP Shade LaserJet Enterprise 4701 laser printer evaluation

The HP Shade LaserJet Enterprise 4701 is a robust and expandable A4 workplace printer capable of serve groups of as much as ten coworkers. It ships with an inexpensive quantity of TerraJet toner and HP’s strongest ever safety.

The specification sheet is powerful too, with extra reminiscence and processor pace than your common print-only machine and a prime pace of 35ppm (pages per minute). It printed properly, even on fairly thick card.

Nevertheless, there’s no touchscreen on this US$730 (£590) machine and I discovered the consumer interface irritating, so learn this in-depth evaluation before you purchase.

HP Shade LaserJet Enterprise 4701: Design and construct

HP’s Shade LaserJet Enterprise 4000/X400 Collection printers and multifunction units substitute the outgoing 400 Collection and with their blue livery and crisp design, it’s actually an aesthetic enchancment.

The HP Shade LaserJet Enterprise 4701dw is the bottom mannequin on this Letter/A4-size vary and it’s additionally essentially the most compact. It’s reassuringly heavy at 36 kilos, but sufficiently small to share the desk in my dwelling workplace with out crowding me out. The dw on the finish of the mannequin identify signifies that the printer I examined can auto-duplex and has Wi-Fi inbuilt, however in different respects, variants on this mannequin are the identical, so I’ll dispense with the suffix going ahead.

It appears to be like very similar to the cheaper HP Shade LaserJet Professional 4201 and I discovered the print high quality to be comparable. However what the enterprise-level 4701 brings is a better spec with a sooner processor, extra reminiscence and safety robust sufficient for giant enterprise. It’s extra upgradeable as a result of you possibly can add not only one, just like the Professional, however two non-obligatory paper trays. It additionally replaces the awkward rotary dial interface with an everyday keypad.

The principle paper drawer has a normal capability of 250 sheets, however you possibly can broaden this by including as much as two high-capacity 550-sheet paper cassettes which price round US$370 every. It is the form of helpful future-proofing that you just don’t get with cheaper alternate options just like the Brother HL-L3230CDW. There’s additionally a 50-sheet front-loading multi-media tray for envelopes or specialist paper.

HP Shade LaserJet Enterprise 4701: Options & specs

Being an Enterprise mannequin means the HP Shade LaserJet Enterprise 4701 has a better spec than the Professional and a characteristic set geared towards heavier use. As such, this compact printer has a sooner dual-core 1.4GHz processor and 4 occasions the RAM at 2GB. That doesn’t make it print any sooner as each print engines obtain a fee of 35ppm, however it does allow a better advisable obligation cycle of as much as 4,200 pages per 30 days.

It additionally has stronger Wolf Professional Enterprise safety. HP’s new post-quantum cryptography (PQC) safety ought to defend your printer from assault by quantum computer systems. It’s additionally extra manageable as a part of a fleet. There’s even a USB Host port, which I at all times discover helpful for printing with out want of a tool.

I’m completely satisfied to see the quirky rotary dial management of the Professional giving solution to a traditional push-button keypad for this Enterprise mannequin, though I wouldn’t accuse both interface of being user-friendly.

HP Shade LaserJet Enterprise 4701: Setup and operation

In my expertise, HP printers are sometimes the simplest to arrange because of the inclusion of Bluetooth to attach your printer to your smartphone straight out of the field, however that’s not the case right here. It took me reasonably longer to comply with the on-printer prompts utilizing the fiddly management panel.

And due to the added safety, there is no such thing as a default administrator password printed discretely on the printer. Throughout setup, customers have the choice to create an admin password that meets HP‘s safety necessities (minimal eight characters, together with uppercase, lowercase, quantity, and particular character).

If you happen to skip this step throughout setup you’ll have to configure the password later by way of the printer’s Embedded Internet Server (EWS). It’s the form of additional legwork you get with an enterprise printer as a substitute of the a lot easier dwelling workplace mannequin.

In day by day operation, the HP Shade LaserJet Enterprise 4701 is simpler to make use of, because of its immediate first web page out time and powerful software program assist. The printer’s show is reasonably small, nevertheless, and given the premium value, it’s irritating that there’s no touchscreen interface, just like the one discovered on the considerably cheaper Xerox C320.

HP Shade LaserJet Enterprise 4701: Efficiency

The HP Shade LaserJet Enterprise 4701 prints shortly and persistently, turning out colour and mono pages promptly and with none misprints or paper jams in the course of the take a look at. The FPOT (first web page out time) is just 5.7 seconds, because of the additional onboard processing energy and RAM, and the utmost print pace of 35ppm (or 33ppm if utilizing A4 as a substitute of Letter paper) in simplex mode is correct.

It’s no sooner on paper than opponents such because the Xerox C320, however it turns the paper shortly in duplex mode, making it barely faster with two-sided paperwork.

Black and white prints seem crisp and laborious to fault. That is what laser printers do greatest and the HP delivers very professional-looking textual content on plain paper. Characters printed on the smallest level measurement stay crisp and legible underneath a magnifying glass.

When printing in colour, I observed a drop in distinction that may make pictures look much less detailed than the unique. It’s a delicate grievance and the toner is shiny sufficient to attain vibrant outcomes that look sharp sufficient when printing at ‘greatest’ picture high quality. The HP Shade LaserJet Enterprise 4701 can print on a variety of media, together with fairly heavy card as much as a advisable 200 gm².

I obtained good outcomes with card of 240gm². Usually while you go to pick out your media sort on a laser printer, you’re given 4 or 5 decisions, however this one affords 33, proving its versatility.

HP Shade LaserJet Enterprise 4701: Consumables

The HP Shade LaserJet Enterprise 4701 prints with the corporate’s nonetheless fairly new TerraJet toner formulation. This has the benefit of a decrease melting level that reduces the power wanted to print by round 27%. The drawback is that it’s a tad dearer than your common toner, however it’s additionally brighter so I believe the power saving and vibrant outcomes are value it.

It ships with an inexpensive quantity of toner within the 4 setup cartridges (sufficient for two,300 black or 2,000 colour pages) and high-capacity carts can be found that offers you as much as 9,000 black pages and 6,900 colour. With HP’s black high-yield carts costing round US$252 (£239) the CPP (price per web page) is round 2.8 cents (2.1p) for mono, which is aggressive.

In the meantime, colour pages price round 5.6 cents (4.2p) per web page, which is dearer than rivals such because the Xerox C320. So, for those who print at highest quantity in colour, this might not be the perfect resolution for you.

HP Shade LaserJet Enterprise 4701: Upkeep

Routine upkeep is minimal, with the printer monitoring its personal long-life elements and alerting the consumer when consumables or worn components want changing. And with the imaging drums included into the disposable toner cartridges, you don’t want to scrub or substitute them. If you happen to do discover deterioration in print high quality, you possibly can go to the printer’s Cleansing Web page within the assist instruments menu and run a calibration or cleansing cycle.

HP Shade LaserJet Enterprise 4701: Last verdict

The HP Shade LaserJet Enterprise 4701 is a neat resolution for a small workgroup in a shared workplace the place safety and print high quality are key concerns, however I wouldn’t advisable it for dwelling workplace use.

I had some teething issues organising my unit and the shortage of a touchscreen mixed with the elevated safety makes it considerably user-unfriendly. Nevertheless, as soon as networked into your workplace, it’ll print shortly, securely and affordably, in black and white. HP’s dearer colour TerraJet cartridges imply much less aggressive colour printing.

With it’s quantum-resistant safety software program, highly effective processing and non-obligatory improve equipment, this enterprise printer is well-aimed on the increasing enterprise, particularly one which prints predominantly in black and white.

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