IT Pro Verdict

HP changes the landscape for workgroup colour printing as the M553dn delivers a superb range of features and rock-bottom running costs. It’s fast as well and the new toner provides quality output whilst keeping power consumption to an all-time low

Reasons to buy

+
Compact design; High print speeds; Good output quality; Low running costs and power consumption; Fast duplexing

Reasons to avoid

-
No integral wireless

By Dave Mitchell

published 13 May 2015

in Reviews

The M533dn doesn't let the side down for print quality either with razor sharp text right down to the smallest font sizes. Mono photos were impressive and revealed high levels of detail in darker areas.

Colour photos exhibited very good detail with only minor banding in large areas of single colours. Our colour performance chart revealed smooth transitions across complex fades and HP had no problems with the tiny 0.1pt and 0.2pt gaps between blocks of black.

If anything, we felt colour prints couldn't quite match the characteristic vibrancy of Oki's LED printers. Our performance chart showed this was mainly down to HP's slightly dull cyan toner.

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Dave is an IT consultant and freelance journalist specialising in hands-on reviews of computer networking products covering all market sectors from small businesses to enterprises. Founder of Binary Testing Ltd – the UK’s premier independent network testing laboratory - Dave has over 45 years of experience in the IT industry.

Dave has produced many thousands of in-depth business networking product reviews from his lab which have been reproduced globally. Writing for ITPro and its sister title, PC Pro, he covers all areas of business IT infrastructure, including servers, storage, network security, data protection, cloud, infrastructure and services.