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HP Laserjet M2727nfs MFP
by Craggybuk
Introduction
At work we have just replaced our office laser printer. After many years of loyal service, our old Hewlett-Packard (HP) printer had sadly printed its final page. We decided to replace the printer with another HP printer as we are very happy with their quality. The model we decided to go for was the M2727 nfs ... multifunctional device. Quickly we unboxed the printer and began installing the drivers and software suite.
What is a multifunctional device
A multifunctional device is one that not only prints but also boasts the functionality of a scanner and a photocopier. Some of the more expensive multifunctional devices also include a fax machine. The HP M2727 falls into this category, as did our old printer meaning that we were in a good position to monitor the quality of this device against our old, but similar device.
Installing the drivers and software
Now, being IT experts, you would expect this stage to have been simple for us. Nothing could have been further from the truth however. If you want to set this multifunctional device on a home network via a router, you will have no problems at all due to the fact that all you need is an IP address (in basic terms an address to uniquely identify it on your network). You will have full access to printing, scanning, copying and faxing in roughly 20 minutes. Going through our corporate network though, presented us with problem after problem. We use Novell netware to manage all of our printer object and although the HP technical specification quite clearly states that Novell iPrint is supported, I can tell you from personal experience that this isn't strictly true. You can install the print drivers via iPrint, but anything else is off limits. Even the drivers which came with the device didn't seem to want to work. No matter how many times we installed them, whenever we came to print, we got a popup message telling us the drivers were not installed. In order to get the printing part working correctly, we had to download brand new drivers from the HP website.
Scanning is still not available to us however which I find to be extremely poor seeing as this is marketed as a network device. We are able to photocopy as this is done manually and can even be done without the need to turn a computer on. We are also able to manually fax documents by using the devices keypad but this can be a bit of a bind when you want to fax electronic documents we have to print them out and then fax them instead of the intended method of faxing straight from the computer.
Tour of the M2727
The M2727 is very similar in its looks to our old Laserjet 3380, in fact, the two devices could quite easily be confused for one another as the M2727 only has a few distinctive features that were not found on the 3380. The obvious difference is that the M2727 is now white whereas its predecessor was a rather more appealing silver and black.
On the top of the device is the copying and scanning tray. There is a paper holder here for you to place any pages that you need copying. The device will then automatically feed in each sheet in turn before returning both your original and the newly copied version.
Lifting up the copier lid will give you the scanner section. This operates exactly the same as any other standalone scanner, however, due to the fact the software will not properly recognise the device, I am still unable to use this functionality and therefore am not able to comment on its ease of use or quality.
Continuing down the front of the device, we now come to the main control area. This is where everything is managed from. Rather than just listing the keys in this section, I'll break it down into functions in an attempt to give a better understanding of what you can do.
Fax - The fax section of the control area allows you to store upto 16 pre-defined fax numbers. These are accessible via 8 buttons (numbered 1 to 8) with fax numbers 9 to 16 being accessed by pressing down the shift key before the number. For our purposes 16 is more than enough but should you wish to fax someone else then you can manually dial each number.
Generic section - The middle part of the control area is more generic and doesn't concentrate on any single function. There is a numeric keypad here which, as well as being used as a dialer for the fax functions, can also be used for functions such as number of copies of a document and for navigating through the devices menu structure. To the right of the numeric pad is the lcd display. This is only big enough to contain 3 lines of text but this is sufficient in my opinion. As well as showing the status of any job that is currently printing, this screen also shows you menu items and configurations. One thing I didn't like about navigating the menu structure is that there are a number of menus which require passwords. When attempting to find out what this password was, I was told that only HP know the password and they don't give it out as it is only for engineers when they have to do a site visit. In my opinion, things like this should not be on a user menu as they only serve to confuse people as they automatically thing that they have forgotten the password.
Copy - Moving further across the control area, we next come to the copy section. Here you can specify options such as the quality and brightness of the copy as well as any collating options for multi page documents. There is also a button to enable you to select how many copies you need, this is done in conjunction with the numeric pad.
Scan - The final section of the control area is the scan area. In theory, you place your document under the scanner lid and press the scan button and the document is transferred as an electronic document to your computer. As the device cannot communicate on our network, this functionality is dormant which is a shame as there are quite a few times when we want to take an extract from a magazine or book and turn it into a PDF document or include it in a powerpoint presentation.
Below the control area is a big gap which doubles up as the printed document store. This is a massive area and you would easily get a ream (500 pages) into here although I wouldn't recommend that you printed 500 pages without collecting your work as there is nothing to stop it all falling on the floor when it piles up. I would say that if you let any more than 75 pages pile up in this area then you need to be prepared to pick it up off the floor and re-order it.
Under the document storage area is the printers toner cartridge. This section opens up very easily and the toner cartridge slides in and out with ease. Next to the toner section is a very neat, yet simple stapling function. Simply, push your document into the staple gap and pull it out with a neat staple in the top left hand corner. Whilst this works well, you can't use standard staples meaning that once they have run out, you have to buy a new cassette of official HP staples which seems a little bit excessive in my opinion.
At the very bottom of the printer are the blank paper trays. On the 3380, there was only one paper tray meaning that if you needed to print on two different types of paper (plain and letterhead for example) you would have to keep swapping the stationery over. With the M2727, you get two paper trays as standard which means that you can now keep all your plain paper in one tray and letterheaded paper or any other type in a separate tray. All you need to do is tell the printer which tray to print from. This works really well and cuts out situations where you have changed the paper in a tray only for someone else to beat you to the print button and they print their draft spreadsheet on your letterheaded paper.
Toner Cartridge
The HP Laserjet M2727 uses the Q7553a (HP 53A) toner cartridge. This costs around £40 and will print approximately 3000 pages depending on black coverage for each page
Verdict
The Laserjet M2727 promises a lot but I can't help feeling it disappoints in so many areas. When I saw the boss had bought a fully networkable printer, I was quite excited at the prospect of being able to use all the functions we couldn't on our previous device. The software installation is a complete mess and I challenge anyone to accomplish this first time without the need to download an update from the HP website. What all this means is that we have a brand new printer which doesn't give us anything that our trusty old 3380 didn't apart from a stapler and an extra paper tray. The print and copy quality of this device is excellent but it just seems as if HP have produced exactly the same printer that we already had, under a different name.
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HP Officejet 4215 All-in-One
by J_Russell
We purchased this device four years ago when setting up a home office, primarily for use as a fax machine. In this respect, it performed perfectly well, though as we used the same number as the telephone there were some problems with the fax machine answering telephone calls, especially when the answering machine was turned on. If you ... intend to leave the fax machine on permanently, it would be better to have a dedicated fax number.
As a photocopier, performance is excellent. Copies of documents are practically indistinguishable from the originals. There are black and white and colour copying modes. Papers to be copied have to be fed into the top of the machine, so they must be thin and flexible; you cannot copy anything thicker than an ordinary photo. The same applies to use as a scanner. The HP software for this is provided. While the scan facility works well, I have found that it is quicker and easier to take a digital photograph of your document and send it be e-mail.
As a printer, output is of high quality. You can print in black and white or colour, but if you choose the former it is still necessary to insert a colour ink cartridge. The printing speeds quoted in the specifications are presumably for drafts. High-quality printing is quite slow - a few pages a minute - so the temptation is go away and leave long documents to print. This is a viable option, as paper jamming is rare. The paper feed tray holds only about forty sheets, so you will have to return from time to time to replenish it.
If this multifunction machine seems amazingly cheap, this is of course because HP recoup their costs through sales of the expensive inkjet cartridges. There are cheaper third party cartridges available, but HP inks and papers are recommended for optimal print quality. If used relatively sparingly, this unit is still good value, but for high volume printing a laser printer may work out cheaper.
The HP4215 really shines as a photo printer. At the time of purchase I was using an dedicated Epson printer for photographic work: while potentially good, print quality was compromised by perennially blocked nozzles. The HP delivered high quality prints without banding due to the print nozzles blocking. With HP photo paper the results really look good, particularly after replacing the black cartridge with a 3-colour photo-printing cartridge to give 6-colour printing (it is possible to change cartridges before they are empty to switch between photo and document printing). The HP became the photo printer of choice and the Epson retired to the office (where its nozzles are still blocking). Photographs printed four years ago with HP ink have not noticeably faded.
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Canon Pixma MX860
by grahamt
When the HP printer we were using finally bit the dust, the second HP printer that we have had that has failed us, the requirement for a quick and expedient replacement inevitably meant that the choice available didn't really tick all of the boxes. The Lexmark X2670 did an OK job, though no more than that and, with the price that ... Lexmark charges for its inks, it was always unlikely to remain our primary printer for long.
As it happened, there was still a possibility that the HP could be brought back to proper operation but the advice offered on the HP Forum didn't work for us. A battle for compensation with PC World finally bore fruit and although we didn't get all of our money back we did get enough to form the bulk of what would be needed to get a new and more reliable printer with at least all of the same features as the HP.
I decided to turn to a brand that has never disappointed in the past - Canon. I still have a 10 year old "portable" Canon printer (BJC85) that continues to work as well as the day I bought it although it is entirely unsuitable for every day, heavy use: the ink cartridges simply don't last long enough. I have also had a Canon camera in the past, that offered excellent service, only no longer used as it is a 35mm and who uses those any more?
The features we needed were:
> Network connectivity: it needed to be wired networking but if it included wireless as well then that would be OK
> Automatic duplex printing
> Automatic document feed scanning
> Independent colour cartridges
> Photo quality printing
The Canon MX860 comes with all those functions plus also fax send and receive, copy capability and USB connection and data card input. It is more expensive than the HP C7280 though, about £20 more. I got the Canon from Amazon for £190.
The MX860 came in a huge cardboard box. When I opened it I discovered that it wasn't all foam packaging to avoid damage in transit: the printer actually is quite large, certainly bigger than the HP. However, it doesn't take up too much room, happily sitting where the HP previously did. Also included in the box is every type of connector you could possibly want, with the sole exception of a network cable. There are telephone cable adapters for most of the European telephone systems and power cables likewise. There are also CDs for the software for both Windows and Mac.
Setting up the printer involves firstly removing all of the plastic wrapping and installing the print cartridges. What I then discovered was that the MX860, like other Canon printers, has a separate printhead module. This is installed in the print carriage and the ink cartridges then installed in the printhead module. This is a distinct improvement on the HP as, unlike it, if the printhead develops a fault you can get a replacement rather than having to throw the whole machine away, as you have to with the HP, which is what went wrong with the old machine.
The commissioning process is explained in an accompanying booklet. This booklet is probably the worst part of the package. It's divided into three sections, each of which explain the process of bringing the printer into operation. However, each section, rather than being in a single different language, is in three different languages. Consequently, trying to follow the instructions is quite an ordeal. However, I managed to do so and, it would seem, successfully, as the printer worked perfectly first time.
You can download a User Guide in PDF format from the Canon website, purely in English. It isn't the same as the printed version and, amazingly contains nearly a thousand pages. Unfortunately the highlighted text does not link you to the associated section of the guide, as you would expect. Consequently you have to make substantial use of the Find facility of Adobe Reader.
Part of the setup process also involves an alignment exercise where a number of pages are printed off in a grid and for each column of printed boxes you have to enter the row number of the box that has the most even print, free of line bands. I found that in most cases the middle zero row was already the best but in a couple of instances it was either the +1 or -1 row. I suspect I could have left the printer as delivered but the exercise is probably worth doing.
One thing on which I cannot comment is the wireless function as I don't use it and have no plans or need to do so. Our house has a comprehensive wired Ethernet network installed and I much prefer to use that, both because of its speed and its security. However, setup seems to be quite straight-forward and it states it supports WEP, WPA and WPA2 security.
However, once installed, you discover that you Desktop is littered with new icons for all sorts of software items that Canon has decided you really ought to have at your fingertips. In practice you can delete most of these shortcuts; I have, except for the Canon Solution Menu, from which you can access all the functions you will need. The installation process also inserts two tasks into the start-up process and which results in two icons in the System Tray: My Printer, the printer monitor task; and the Network Scan utility, which enables document scanning to be accomplished over a network connection, driven from the computer end. This is perhaps surprising as most other printers seem to be able to do all this with just one task!
The MX860 uses multiple ink cartridges so a single colour running out means only the need to replace that colour rather than a whole tri-colour cartridge. Strangely though, in addition to the usual magenta, yellow and cyan cartridges, there are two black cartridges, one the same size as the colour ones and another "jumbo" sized one. It would seem that this enables a fair run of black prints before you need to replace it. So far we haven't needed to replace any. As each ink cartridge is inserted into the printhead module, it lights up at the front, to confirm correct insertion, which is a nice touch. It will be interesting to see if compatibles do the same.
The MX860 has two paper trays, one that slides beneath the machine and is the normal selection for A4 paper and it holds around 150 sheets of normal weight paper. The second tray is one that pulls up at the rear of the machine and is where 10x15cm photo paper is normally placed, print side facing forward. It will be selected when photo printing is requested. However, the rear tray doesn't have to hold only photo paper: you could use it for low-grade paper for test or disposable prints. This tray can be specifically selected, to override the default lower tray.
Sending a print request to the printer for the very first time appears to involve the printer in an awful lot of clunking and whirring before anything productive happens. I have no idea why this should be necessary but, with a little patience, eventually the print pops out of the slot above the front paper tray. This slot is normally covered by a flap so this has to be opened before printing.
Print quality, both normal and photo, seems good. Colours are vibrant and sharp with good depth. Print speed, once the initial preparation period is over, is good although duplex printing does require a delay to allow one side to dry before reversing the paper back into the machine to print the other side. For this reason I often ignore the duplex and print all one side before restacking the paper to print the other. However, my beloved prefers the simplicity of duplex and, true, she does frequently have lots of multiple page documents to print for her job.
Scanning can be done either from the scanner deck, by raising the lid, or via the document feeder (ADF) on top, where scanning can be single-sided or duplex. The feed seems good and I haven't had any instances yet of more than one page being pulled through at a time. The scan quality is reasonable although it can look a little washed-out. The default is 300dpi for documents scanned via ADF but up to 600dpi is available and is standard via the scan deck, with the consequent increase in file size. Scanned copies can be previewed before saving. Saved format is either image format (JPEG, TIFF or BMP) or document format (PDF).
Faxing is done from the printer rather than over the network. You can do B&W or colour but obviously a colour FAX requires a colour receiving FAX machine, a rarity even these days. In the tests I carried out I found the FAX to be quite dark. The quality of the FAX can be adjusted before transmission for both fineness of detail and also lightness/darkness, so I suggest experimenting. I used my free YAC (Your Always Connected) Fax number, which is actually a virtual FAX machine, to test the machine's capabilities.
The straight Copy function does a good job. I tried a two sided sheet and the bleed-through of the print on the reverse of the sheet was almost completely absent, even though quite obvious. The copy was a bit lighter compared with the original but the lightness/darkness can be adjusted. The size accuracy and sharpness of the copy is impressive though.
You can also print photos direct from an SD, CF or Sony Data Stick memory card and other types via the appropriate adapter. You can also print from your mobile phone, for instance, via Bluetooth. A certain amount of picture correction can be done on the printer itself. A nice touch is that you can get a thumbnail page printed of the pictures on the memory card and then by filling in small boxes associated with the index page, choose which photos to print and at what size, by scanning the page back in again.
So far I am very happy with the MX860. It seems to do most things competently; it certainly does everything we want of it. How durable it it will prove to be, only time will tell. Certainly the ink cartridges seem to be lasting well so far. Original replacements cost around £9 from suppliers such as Cartridge People with compatibles less than half that price. At these sorts of prices this printer should not require a mortgage to run.
Based on my past experiences of Canon products I have high hopes of the MX860. Let's hope my confidence is not dented!
UPDATE ~ Sept 2011
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I have discovered a strange thing. I mentioned that the ink cartridges include both a large and a small black ink cartridge. A week or two back, the black ink cartridge ran out and the printer refused to work until it had been replaced, despite the fact that the small black ink cartridge still had plenty of ink in it.
I queried this with Canon support and was astonished to be told that the small black ink cartridge is ONLY used for printing photos! So, if, like us, you use this machine primarily as a SOHO printer then the small ink cartridge is a complete waste of ink and money! I was told that the ink in it runs out because the printer carries out self-cleaning to ensure that the printer nozzles are always serviceable. In future I will only use a compatible ink cartridge in this slot.
Loses one star for Reliability and also Overall.
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