HP LaserJet MFP M234sdw Review

The HP LaserJet MFP M234sdw offers an impressive mix of features, performance, and output quality for its $229 list price. If it had a lower running cost, it would even be in contention for an Editors’ Choice nod for an inexpensive mono laser all-in-one (AIO) printer. As it is, depending on how much you print, you could be better off with a higher-priced printer that has a lower cost per page—the HP LaserJet Tank MFP 2604sdw being an extreme example, thanks to its bulk toner. For sufficiently light-duty printing, however, the M234sdw can easily be a good choice. If you don’t need color output, it can even be a better choice than a less-expensive inkjet, which can waste a lot of your time and ink cleaning clogged nozzles if you leave it sitting unused for too long.

Design and Software: A Smart Mono Laser

Like other inexpensive HP mono laser printers we’ve reviewed recently, including the 2604sdw, the M234sdw is notably easy to set up. And at just 21 pounds and 11.6 by 16.5 by 21.1 inches (HWD) it can fit even in offices where space is tight. Setup requires little beyond loading paper, plugging in the power cord, and optionally plugging in a USB cable or an Ethernet cable, which I used for testing. You can also connect by Wi-Fi. The toner cartridge is already inside the printer as shipped, with no need to prepare it.

Software installation requires going to HP’s website and following a few on-screen instructions to download and install the printer driver and utilities. In addition to a standard print driver and the HP Scan app, which let you print and scan without being connected to the internet, the software also includes HP Smart, which serves as a cloud-based print and scan app.

(Credit: M. David Stone)

If you choose to use HP Smart, you need to set it up separately online by creating a free account that connects to the printer. You can also install the app on any other Windows, macOS, Android, or iOS device and then connect to the printer through the HP Smart cloud-based component.

Although the printer itself is limited to printing, scanning, and copying, HP Smart adds HP’s Mobile Faxing, which supports outgoing faxes only. Mobile Faxing doesn’t rely on the printer in any way, but you need to have bought a printer that supports HP Smart to use it. Note also that the fax feature, along with all the other HP Smart features, is a free service. HP was considering turning it into a paid subscription at one point but has dropped those plans.

(Credit: M. David Stone)

Paper handling for printing is suitable for light-to-moderate-duty use in a micro or home office. The 150-sheet tray can handle up to legal-size paper, and the printer supports automatic duplexing (two-sided printing). The tray also offers both front and top covers that flip open, making it easy to refill, insert a few sheets of a different type or size paper on top of the stack, or swap out paper entirely when needed.

(Credit: M. David Stone)

HP gives the recommended monthly maximum as up to 2,000 pages. If you prefer keeping paper refills down to once a week, however, 600 sheets per month would be the right ceiling, or a little less than 1,200 pages for duplex printing, to account for some pages printing on only one side of the sheet.

Paper handling for scanning could be a deal killer if you need to scan duplex pages. The letter-size flatbed is supplemented by a 40-page automatic document feeder (ADF) for up to legal-size paper. However, duplexing is limited to scanning one side of each page at a time. HP Scan will guide you through scanning one side of a stack of pages using the ADF and flipping it to scan the other, but then you have to rearrange the pages in the scanned file yourself.

(Credit: M. David Stone)

Another potential issue is running cost, which is a little higher than for most of its competition at 3.7 cents per page for the high-capacity cartridge (and a lot higher than the cost for the tank-based 2604sdw, but more on that later). The drum is part of the toner cartridge, so when comparing with printers that offer lower per-page toner costs but separate imaging units, as with the Canon imageClass MF264dw II, for example, be sure to add the per-page cost for the imaging units as well. As we discuss in detail in How to Save Money on Your Next Printer, the number to focus on is the total cost of ownership—not the initial price or running cost alone.

Testing the LaserJet MFP M234sdw: Complicated Comparisons

To judge the M234dw’s performance in context, I compared it with the HP 2604sdw, the Canon MF264dw II, and the Brother MFC-L2820DW XL, three competitors that each offer different strengths.

For simplex printing of our 12-page Word file, all four models closely matched their rated speeds for pages 2 to 12, which puts the Brother printer in first place. The M234sdw and MF264dw II tied for second, with the 2604sdw in a definitive last place. For first page out (FPO) time, however, the MF264dw II was fastest, with the other three tied for second, taking 3 seconds longer.

For real-world use, that translates to the Canon printer being noticeably faster than the other three printers for one- and two-page files, but not by much, with the others essentially tied. At the full 12-page length of our Word test file, the Canon printer’s fast FPO time let it tie the Brother printer for first place, with the M234sdw coming in slower enough to notice, but not enough to matter, and the 2604sdw slower still. If you print documents in the range of 40 pages or more, however, the Brother printer’s advantage over the rest will be far more significant, while the M234sdw and MF264dw II should be essentially tied for second place.

When printing the Word file in duplex, the relative speeds changed significantly, except for the 2604sdw still being the slowest. For pages 1 and 2 (the first sheet out), the MF264dw II was enough faster than the others, at 12 seconds, to make it noticeably fastest for short documents. The MFC-L2820DW came second at 16 seconds, and the two HP printers essentially tied for last place at about 20 seconds. For pages after the first sheet, the M234sdw and MF264dw II essentially tied for fastest, with the Brother printer in third place. The longer the document, the more advantage the M234sdw and the Canon printer will have.

The relative speeds also changed significantly when printing the rest of our business applications suite. The MF264dw II’s first place on the entire suite, which includes the Word file, is primarily due to its fast FPO time. However, the other three printers all match for FPO time. Among those three, the M234sdw was fastest or tied for fastest for every Excel, PowerPoint, and PDF file, while the MFC-L2820DW came in last or tied for last on most. If it weren’t for its fast speed for the Word file, it would have come in last on the business applications suite overall instead of third.

For photo printing, the M234sdw averaged 14 seconds for a 4-by-6-inch photo.

Text quality for the M234sdw is just short of top tier for a mono laser. With the exception of an italic font, which was easily readable at 5 points, all the fonts we test that would likely be used in business documents were easily readable at 4 points, and it took a look through loupe to see some minor flaws in form in some fonts at that size. One of the highly stylized fonts in our tests with heavy strokes was easily readable at 8 points. The other passed that bar at 10 points.

(Credit: M. David Stone)

Graphics are a bit lower quality for a mono laser than text overall, but still good enough for most purposes. Some gradients showed slight posterization (shading changing suddenly where it should change gradually), and some solid fills and gradients showed what looked like a sophisticated form of dithering that can produce a marbled effect at some gray levels. Some graphs were also darker overall than they should be and showed some subtle banding. However, thin lines held well, including in our graph with a black background, and none of the graphs lost any information.

Photos were also a touch darker than they should be and showed some minor dithering. However, they held shadow detail well and were at least suitable for use in a trifold brochure or the like.

Verdict: A Good Choice for a Light-Duty Niche

The key question to ask if you’re considering the M234sdw is whether you print enough that it might cost less to buy a more expensive printer with a lower running cost. If so, consider any of the other models mentioned here. In addition to a lower cost per page, all three offer higher paper capacity, with a 250-sheet main tray in each case, and if you find them at a discount, they may even cost less to buy. Between them, the MF264dw II comes closest to matching the M234sdw for features, and it delivers the fastest speed for duplex printing, but it also has the highest running cost of the three. The MFC-L2820DW has the next highest running cost and is the only printer mentioned here that includes faxing. The 2604sdw is the slowest in the group but offers an astoundingly low 0.6-cent cost per page.

That said, if running cost is not an issue, the M234sdw is easy to recommend for a micro or home office, thanks largely to scoring better for text quality than the Canon and Brother printers and better than the 2604sdw for performance. It’s also a little smaller than the other three, making it a touch less imposing sitting on your desk. The combination can make it a good choice for light-duty printing in a micro or home office.