HP Color LaserJet Pro 4201dw review: an absolute joy to use

Printers aren’t exactly known for innovation. But every once and a while, one comes along that catches your attention.

The HP Color LaserJet Pro 4201dw did exactly that. The printer builds on the company’s long legacy of quality laser printers with its new eco-friendly and energy-efficient TerraJet toner and its unique dial-based user interface.

I put the new Color LaserJet Pro through its paces to find out how well this new technology works, and checked print performance, quality, and long-term cost. To earn consideration as one of the best color laser printers, it needs to excel in every way — and I’m delighted to report that this one did.

Design

HP’s Color LaserJet Pro 4201dw is an attractive printer with a bold marine-blue front panel on a white body. It has a sturdy design but isn’t too bulky, with a footprint of 16.6 by 16.8 inches and standing 11.3 inches high. The weight is 36 pounds, so it’s not too heavy to move around when you need to.

The user interface of the Color LaserJet Pro 4201dw is unique. To keep costs down, printer manufacturers often include buttons and a standard screen instead of a touchscreen. However, HP opted for a 4-line monochrome display and a dial, a clever choice.

Think about how easy it is to adjust volume with a dial or set the temperature on an oven. With a quick twist you get exactly what you need without repeated button clicking. I enjoyed using the Color LaserJet Pro 4201dw’s dial to navigate and scroll. The dial acts as a button also, so I press to select or hold to open a shortcut menu. 

A USB-A port at the top left is hidden behind a flip-up dust cover. That makes walk-up printing convenient.

A 250-sheet paper tray is a drawer at the bottom of the HP Color LaserJet Pro 4201dw. The tall blue panel above tilts forward to reveal a 50-sheet media tray for labels, envelopes, and alternative media.

Printing performance

The HP Color LaserJet Pro 4201dw is built for speed without sacrificing quality. The first page shoots out in as little as nine seconds. For longer documents, pages roll out at 35 pages per minute (ppm). Color prints just as quickly as monochrome. Duplex speeds slow slightly to 31 ppm and save paper by using both sides.

HP’s TerraJet toner melts at lower temperatures, using 27% less energy and providing more consistent colors. In my tests, the Color LaserJet Pro 4201dw handled photos nearly as well as an inkjet printer and much more quickly.

To be clear, an inkjet handles subtle tones better, offers borderless printing and some, like the Epson EcoTank ET-8500, use a six-color ink system to extend the dynamic range and color accuracy of photographic prints.

The HP Color LaserJet Pro 4201dw is designed for the office where you need color documents more often than glossy pictures, and it excels at that task. Blocks of color graphics print cleanly with no streaks, lines, or blotches.

It’s a great color laser printer that’s versatile enough and fast enough for any job.

Special features

HP’s Color LaserJet Pro 4201dw has two USB-A ports: one on the front and one on the back. Both accept thumb drives.

For walk-up printing, I tried the front port and discovered I needed to enable it before it would work. The toggle is under advanced settings in the HP Smart app.

With the dial, I can select any file on the flash drive, PDF or image, adjust print settings and print without the need to install a driver on my computer or an app on my phone. That’s quite convenient in a shared workspace.

I didn’t try the rear USB-A port, but HP says it’s for job storage. A thumb drive can hold print jobs to make quick copies of often needed documents or hold prints until a particular person arrives at the printer. Again, this is a great feature for a busy office, but not as important for home use.

Software and compatibility

Setup was quick and easy at the printer. HP’s dual-band, self-healing Wi-Fi connected to my network in seconds. I used the dial to enter my Wi-Fi password. In retrospect, I should have pressed the WPS button on my router and chose that option from the Color LaserJet Pro 4201dw’s menu.

There are USB-B and Ethernet ports on the back for direct connection to a computer. Windows and Mac computers recognize the HP Color LaserJet Pro 4201dw instantly, and the HP Smart app for iOS and Android let me check toner levels and access advanced settings.

Once I enabled the front USB-A port, everything worked as expected. I could print anything on labels, envelopes, card stock, or standard paper, quickly and with great quality.

Price

HP’s list price for the Color LaserJet Pro 4201dw is $569, but it’s easy to find for as low as $399. That’s a great price for a reliable and sturdy color laser printer with 35 ppm speed. The Color LaserJet Pro 4201dw’s sale price makes it almost as inexpensive as Brother’s HL-L3295CDW.

I researched toner costs, an important consideration to assess the long-term value of a printer. HP makes 210A and 210X cartridges. The latter lasts three times longer and offers significant savings over time.

A standard black toner cartridge yields about 2,000 pages, while the high-capacity cartridge supplies 7,500 pages. Each standard color toner cartridge lasts for 1,800 pages, while the high-capacity model provides up to 5,500 pages.

I calculated costs based on the current cartridge prices and found monochrome printing to be inexpensive while color is affordable. The average cost of monochrome documents is 2 to 5 cents per page. The high-yield cartridges are more important for color printing, which costs 12 to 20 cents per page.

Color print costs are lower than Canon’s well-rated all-in-one imageClass MF654cdw, with greater speed.

Is this the printer for you?

HP’s Color LaserJet Pro 4201dw is a great color laser printer that’s a joy to use. I like the retro dial interface. The print quality is exceptional, and the speed is impressive.

For small businesses, there’s plenty of capacity as your office grows. The recommended duty-cycle is 4,000 pages per month, but the printer can handle up to 50,000 pages to accommodate big projects. An optional 550-sheet paper tray means you don’t have to reload as often.

While the Color LaserJet Pro 4201dw is an ideal choice for small businesses, it also works well for a home office. It’s affordable, not too large or heavy, and can handle anything you need from a printer.

If you need copy, scan, and fax capabilities, HP’s Color LaserJet Pro 4301fdw has the same print quality and speed but includes a flatbed scanner and automatic document feeder.