HP - LaserJet Pro M404n Black-and-White Printer - White

This LaserJet is an excellent and incredible print producing printer for any business or home office. It prints up to 38 monochrome pages per minute, and it is not loud. It is straightforward to set up on my home office network, its kid of a plug and play device. Once on the network, I connected the printer to my Google Cloud Print account, and this allows me to print basically from any place in the world where there is an internet connection. Cloud printer, when set up correctly, is handy and allows a business to run more smoothly. The box comes included with a starter toner that will yield 1500 pages prints. Replacing toner is relative easy. Double side printer is done manually, but it is quick and easy; it requires the user to place the printed document on the multipurpose tray #1. Text is printed with sharp clarity, providing results that I can rely on for my home business. Now my printings run more smoothly because this printer requires very little intervention- tray #2 holds up to 250 sheets and the multipurpose tray #1 holds up to 100 sheets. I use the multipurpose tray for specialized sheets or reprinted forms. When needed, tray #1 & #2 can accept legal-size documents. The device does not print on envelopes, but to get around this, I use rectangular shipping labels. Overall, this is an outstanding small monochrome laser printer with professional print quality. It is very convenient and excellent for any office. I haven’t had a paper jam, and it prints lightning-fast without loud noise. If looking for a laser printer, I highly recommend this HP LaserJet Pro M404n.

We have two older Brother laser printers and one of them was starting to sound funny when printing so I decided it was time to try something else. One of my first laser printers was an old HP laser that a friend gave me, that was back in 1995 and it lasted for many years, so I was always a fan of the HP laser printers, just not the pricing as the Brothers were always cheaper and cheaper to maintain until now. Unboxing: The printer comes with everything you need to get set up and printing right away. There’s the printer “naturally”, power cord, USB cable, Ethernet patch cord, an already installed beginner cartridge that’s rated at 1500 pages, and all the paperwork. Setting up: Setting it up was very simple, I didn’t even have to attach it to my computers USB port first. I just plugged it into our network switch and the HP software I already had for our HP color inkjet found it and asked if I wanted to set it up, pretty simple. There are two paper trays though, and the one under the front cover is called tray #1, the tray at the bottom of the printer is tray #2, it’s sort of confusing but it works. We filled tray #2 with paper, “it holds 250 sheets”, leaving tray one hidden “it will be used for envelopes and anything we need to feed manually. I did go to the HP website and downloaded a full set up drivers and software as the HP Windows 10 app seemed a little too limited. It will ask you how the printer is hooked up, “either directly to your computer or on a network”, I selected “network” and it found it within a couple seconds. This wasn’t a difficult set up at all. Printing and Quality: Now this printer is fast, really fast once it gets going. The warm up time is very short, just a few seconds and it’s off and running. I do like that there’s a two line display showing status and any errors, with our Brother printers you only get lights and have to reference a guide on top to figure out what they mean. Print quality is superb; it looks sharper than either of our Brother printers. Text is super crisp and the fonts / graphics edges are nice and sharp, another great HP printer. Impressions: This model doesn’t support Wi-Fi or have full automatic duplex printing, not an issue for us as it’s hooked to our network and any two sided printing we may do “very rare in our case” can be done manually. The printer itself doesn’t make any more noise over our Brother printers, very close noise level, but it does print faster, and the sharpness of the print job is enough to where you can see it upon close comparison. The included “starter” cartridge does give you 1500 sheets, and a replacement cartridge is rated at 3k, there are high capacity cartridges rated at 7k sheets available if you happen to do a lot of printing. The brother cartridges were rated at around 1200 sheets but cost half as much, as a normal 3k rated one so in the end the HP is actually cheaper to print with it just costs more initially when you purchase the cartridge. If you are in the market for a SOHO printer than can handle a lot of printing then I’d definitely look at this one, it can print all day long and not hiccup.

This is a simple ethernet or USB connected monochrome laserjet printer. Super fast printing which claims up to 40ppm. It is a matter of seconds from the time the computer spools it to the time in hand. Multiple page documents completed before most inkjet printers even get the first page out. However, it is single sided only with manual double sided requiring the user to place the documents back in tray 1. Setup can be simple or complex, depending on how you want to manage the printer. If it is self managed it will use DHCP IP and basic default settings. If it is IT Managed you can get down to the fine details of how you want to use this printer and ensure it meets your security demands. All of the settings can be changed later through its IP web page. The web interface allows for most of the advanced configuration. This includes access lists, firewall rules, security certificates, syslog connection and enabling/disabling certain web features such as AirPrint and Google Cloud Print. It also provides usage details, ink levels and tools in case of print quality issues. Once it was identified on my network I used the default Windows 10 drivers and the HP Smart app and have experienced a fair bit of delay in getting documents to spool to the printer. However, on a different computer I used the HP m404-m405 installation software first and had no delay. I ended up going back and removing the installed drivers under printer server properties and doing the HP install again and all works perfectly. The installation software requires diagnostic information to be collected, but that can later be disabled in the printer assistant software. During setup it also mentions that Wi-Fi Direct is enabled, even though the M404n does not include wireless. Besides printing quickly, the black levels are sharp and detailed. Even sending full colored photos to it to print came out in a wide range or gray scale detail. If you are looking for a small quick black only quality printer, that you can customize to meet your security demands, then this is certainly a worthwhile contender.

Honestly, when I ordered the HP - LaserJet Pro M404n Black-and-White Printer, I did not realize that in order to print wirelessly, this machine would require the user to connect this printer to their router with an Ethernet cord, which by the way is not included with the printer. The box contained the printer with the 58 A introductory print cartridge, the power cord, and some setup and explanatory paperwork. So either you use the Ethernet cord, on you to procure, and then you will have wireless printing, or you can also connect the printer to the computer by USB. It is very important to download the HP Smart app; I got it from the Google Play Store since I use an android smartphone, a Samsung. This app was vital to the setup of the printer, and you can see that I have included screenshots of some of the pages within it. I tried to download the software to my computer through HP's website to no avail, but when I went back and read the original product request, it explicitly stated to download the app, (PLEASE NOTE: To review this item you must be willing and able to download the HP Smart App to your smart phone),.which made installation and connection a no brainer. The smartphone, through the app, finds your HP printers, those already installed and operational and this new one that needed to become operational and takes you through a series of steps to get it going-easy peasy. As you can see from my attached photos, the footprint of this printer is small and the serviceable-area required to just place it on a good size desktop is very manageable. The speed to get the 1st page out is quick and all the subsequent pages. Print quality is excellent, but I have had issues with other HP printers and it is my bum luck that my issues seem to occur outside of the 1 year warranty. Be vigilant with any odd situations or issues that may make you guess whether or not there really is a warranty issue. I would err on the side of caution and call the HP group to establish any potential issues. I have noted that both Brother and Epson have extended the traditional 1 year term.

PROS Fast at 40ppm Easy web page configuration after initial setup CONS No duplex capability Slow warm-up Setup was not complicated but it was a little bit tricky at first but after I went through the required manual steps, it became very easy. It can be connected via USB but it does not come with the cable. Not a problem for me since I prefer connecting directly to the network and because I must have a few of them hanging around anyway. If you print mostly black and white, this LaserJet Pro M404n will save you time and money, especially if you print a lot. I say that because if you print just a few pages here and there, you may actually find this printer to be slow. The reason is that laser printers usually will not start until they are warmed up and this one is no different. Printing just one page only, for instance, will take you almost 2 minutes with this printer. But once it is warmed up, it will print up to 40 pages per minute. My average was around 36 pages as it depends on what you are printing and other factors but that is still a lot of pages in single minute. Print quality was superb and although inkjet printers nowadays do a great job, they still do not compare when it comes to black and white on a good laser printer like this one. Although it does not print colors, photos were very detailed with perfect shades of gray. Again, you would not get this quality in black and white with an inkjet printer. Because I print a lot on both sides of the paper, I missed the duplex feature. That probably was my only disappointment but if you do not need that feature or are patient enough to flip the paper for the second page, you will be satisfied with it. It comes with a 350-sheet input capacity but can be upgraded to 550 sheets. Although laser printers are used mostly in offices, I would recommend the M404n at home too. The cost per page plus the quality are worth it. The cost of toner may seem high at first but they can print thousands of pages and they won’t go bad as ink would. For professional results in black and white, look no further.

This HP printer is great for home or office use, since it prints a lot of pages quickly, in crisp, clear print quality. It would also work well for students, for the same reason. Very reliable. Not meant to be a photo printer. It does allow to choose between document and photo when you print, so you could try photo paper and print a black and white picture, but it's really not for that purpose. It can only print 2 sided if you manually flip the paper and print on the back. It's primarily designed for business use, and it exceeds expectations. This printer is compatible with multiple devices and operating systems, many versions of Windows, iOS, Android, etc. I quickly downloaded the HP Smart app, which prompted me to add the HP printer plugin. It searched for and found the printer already connected to the network. Then I was able to print right from my phone- printing from downloaded files, pictures, and from email. All of these showed great print quality. And it prints so quickly, there's no hesitation. The specs say 40 pages per minute, and this seems to support that claim. It was very easy to connect to the printer, and the options were right there in the app. Whether on the computer or mobile device, it tells you to go to the website. This prompts downloading of the app on your mobile device, and software on the computer. There isn't much to set up, not complicated, allowing me to get right to printing. For me, I need something that I can print from my desk, but also from my phone, if I worked from home or have notes from a meeting to print out. It has two trays for paper, one holds 100 pages, the other 250, and can handle different kinds of paper, and smaller sizes, but can print letter and legal size documents. I set it up so I can leave 1 kind of paper in the drawer, but print from regular paper by just selecting the other tray. It's versatile, and convenient, so I don't have to keep adding or changing paper. At the back of the printer is a place for the power cord, as well as ports for the ethernet cable, for connecting another device USB 2.0 cable, and for a USB flash drive. These are not included in the box. I didn't expect a flash drive, but was surprised it didn't have the cable, since these are inexpensive. It's a minor point, since it's not required to use the printer. An ethernet cable is required, as this printer cannot connect wirelessly, and most people will want that connectivity to their network. It's especially important if you're using a mobile devices to print from. It was heavier than I expected, but sturdy and compact. This is not a portable device, but one for keeping in one spot. It doesn't take up much space on my desk, and since I don't need to connect a bunch of cords, it doesn't clutter the space. It's designed to only use an HP cartridge, with one of their chips in it. Other brands without the HP chip will probably not work in this printer, so it limits you to the HP cartridge. If the other cartridge does work, it might not work again the next time. This means you can't shop around for less expensive cartridges, but it does offer a higher level of security, which is the real purpose of the chip. It focuses on maintaining the security of the user's information as a trade-off, something many users might appreciate enough to overlook this limitation. Pros: fast, reliable, print quality, high volume output, 1500 pages per cartridge, compact, easy to set up and use. Cons (for some): limited to HP cartidges, not wireless, no color Overall it's a great, reliable printer, which I expect to use for a long time.

Laser printers have several advantages over inkjet printers…but, at the same time, there are certain advantages that ink jet printers have over laser printers. The HP LaserJet Pro M404n is a perfect example. Is the M404n right for you? We shall see………. UNBOXING & INITIAL IMPRESSIONS: Many companies have switched to “environmentally-friendly packaging” (cardboard, as opposed to Styrofoam), including HP in many of their lower-end printers. Unfortunately, HP still uses (a lot of) Styrofoam in packaging their higher-end printers. While it does keep the printer ‘safe’ during shipping, the impact to the environment will last for several human generations. As for cables, the ONLY cable included is the power cord…there are no USB and/or Ethernet cables included. On the ‘bright’ side, the printer’s toner cartridge comes pre-installed. SETUP: This was both simple, and difficult. The physical setup, as well as installing the drivers & software, were a breeze. Setup consisted of plugging in the power cable, connecting the Ethernet cable (the printer can be connected directly to a single computer, via USB, if you don’t want/need network printing capabilities), powering the printer up, and answering a few simple questions on the printer’s 2-line LCD display. For driver/software installation, you have two options – you can download the HPEasyStart file (6.43MB), or you can download the full-install package (111.5MB). The first option is the easier, and smarter, way to go, as it will only download the components needed for your specific setup, and will walk you through every (well, almost every, as I later discovered, and will explain, below) step of the install/configure process. As mentioned, there is a slight problem in configuring everything, that being that, while configuring the EWS (Embedded Web Server settings, the ‘Internet connection’ is not automatically connected. After installation is complete, if you go to the “Web Services” tab, on the ‘Summary’ page, under ‘Internet connection’, it will indicate “Not Connected”…even though ‘Web Services Status’ shows “Enabled”, and ‘Printer connection to HP Connected’ indicates “Connected”. As discovered during a phone call with HP’s tech support, the printer’s Network connection needs to be set to a static IP, as opposed to the dynamic IP setting configured during the setup. You do this in a 2-step process. First, on the “Network” tab, under ‘General’, click on ‘Network Protocols’, and change it to “Enable IPv4 only”, then click . Next, go to ‘Wired’ (“Network” tab), then ‘IPv4 Configuration’, and change the IP Address Configuration from “DHCP” to “Manual IP”. If everything is working as it should, your previously auto-assigned IPv4 information should automatically be filled into the ‘Manual IP’ & ‘DNS’ boxes. To finish, just click . If you go back to the “Web Services” tab, under ‘Summary’, the Internet connection line should now read “Connected”. Needless to say, a relatively minor problem, but a bit of a PitA in regards to getting the info needed to fix it (the HP tech support person didn’t provide the solution…it was jointly discovered during the phone call. PRINT QUALITY AND SPEED: This is one area that laser printers greatly excel over inkjet printers. Print quality IS OUTSTANDING…the blacks are “black”, grayscale is “grayscale”, text & images are sharp…no more, and no less, than what I would have expected. HP claims a maximum print speed of 40ppm, and it’s quite accurate…and not accurate. Using a 42-page document, I ran three tests, although the first two tests produced almost-identical results. First, I printed one page, from the printer in “Sleep Mode”, then one page with printer ‘awake’, and finally the remaining 40 pages, also with the printer ‘awake’. Whether the printer was ‘asleep’, or ‘awake’, it made no difference, which I’ll explain. With an inkjet, printing is, essentially, a 1-step process – you click , the computer sends the print data to the printer, and it prints whatever was sent. With laser printers, on the other hand, it is a 2-step process. Step 1 consists of clicking , which sends a command to the printer that a print job is about to start, the laser printer “warms up”, and finally the printer sends back a command that it’s “ready to receive the print data”. The second step consists of said print data being sent to the printer, and the printer printing what it received. In ALL three tests, the first step took approx 1.5 minutes (+/- 4 seconds). In the first two tests, the printer completed the second step in approx 10 seconds. As such, while the “printing” took only 10 seconds, the total printing process took approx 1 minute, 40 seconds. Moving onto the final test, the second step took 62 seconds. So, in essence, this does prove that HP’s claim of “printing” up to 40ppm is accurate…however, when combining the time of both steps, the total printing process took just under 2.5 minutes. While the “total printing process” might be much longer than HP’s 40ppm claim, that’s still faster than most inkjet printers. Considering that the printing was done at the ‘Normal’ setting, an equivalent print job on an inkjet might have taken considerably longer (even if printing “black only”). ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS: HP lists the LaserJet Pro M404n as having two paper trays…and, in a matter of speaking, it does…but, not entirely. What is labeled as ‘Tray 2’ is actually your primary tray, located at the bottom of the printer, and capable of holding up to 250 sheets. Before I cover ‘tray 1’, I will mention that you can purchase/install an additional paper tray (which becomes ‘tray 3’), and has a 500-sheet capacity. Getting back to ‘tray 1’, this is accessed by opening the front panel, and manually loading (up to 150 sheets) the paper (a flip-up extender allows it to accommodate legal-length paper), or envelopes. While you could, technically, leave ‘tray 1’ loaded all the time, its real use is in temporary usage. If you want two different paper-types loaded on a regular basis, I would highly suggest/recommend purchasing the 500-sheet ‘tray 3’. Also, the 2-line display could be better. At minimum, a 3-line display should have been included. Better yet, a color touch-screen display, as seen in almost off of HP’s other LaserJet printers (including less-expensive models, wouldn’t have been too much to ask for. Looking at all their LaserJet printers in the same general price-range ($200-399), there are 9 different ‘series’, 5 of which have touch-screen displays, including two models that are up to $100 cheaper than the M404n. THE GOOD: • Excellent print quality • Extremely high-speed printing • Easy to understand/use software • (Mostly) Simple to set up • Compact size (for a business-oriented laser printer) THE BAD: • Getting the printer “internet connected” isn’t automatically accomplished, requires manual settings • No auto-duplex printing THE UGLY: • For the price, HP could have easily included a touch-screen display FINAL VERDICT: If you’re only printing a few pages at a time, then an inkjet printer is probably your best bet. If you need to print in color, I stand by that same comment. Lastly, if your monthly printing is fairly low (say, less than 50 pages/month), then you should ask yourself if you REALLY need a laser printer. However, if you have any need for printing high-volume print jobs and/or you print over 100pages/month and/or you need printouts to be waterproof (inkjet prints are NOT waterproof, and WILL bleed if gotten wet), then a laser printer will fit your needs. The are less expensive laser printers (from HP, as well as from other manufacturers), but they will have less features/functions, slower print speeds, and (typically) only a single tray). There are also laser printers with lots more features/functions (including fax capability), faster print speeds (up to 60ppm w/ HP), and multiple trays (up to 5 w/ HP), but they can cost into the thousands of dollars. If you’re looking for a reasonably-priced black-only laser printer, with a reasonable number of features/functions, that also prints fast, HP’s M404-series of LaserJet printers will fit the bill. There are five models to choose from, with the M404n being the middle-of-the-pack. Disclaimer: This product was provided free, or at reduced cost, for the purpose of reviewing the product. Nevertheless, the above review, be it positive, negative, or anywhere in-between, is a 100% honest review, and the price paid played absolutely no part in my review.

I have been a fan of HP printers for a while now, since my Masters Program days (15 years ago!). This is a great printer, albeit it is only Black & White. That works for me because I wanted this only for research papers and essays. For a laser printer it is not heavy at all, which is a major requirement for me. After several weeks working around it at my home office, here are my thoughts: Pros: -Looks. I love the modern sleek look to this. It was an easy set up and required little effort in connecting it to my home network. It is small enough where I have this and a colored ink printer next to each other. -Print Quality. It's clear and crisp like most HP laser printers. I use both 20lb and 24lb white paper and the quality on the heavier paper looks amazing. -Speed. What's impressive is the speed of printing. After pressing "print", I did have to wait for it to warm up which took about 3 minutes. For a 20 page research paper, it took under 2 minutes to fully print out.. That's pretty fast for a home office printer. I printed out another paper of similar length and produced it in same timing. No issues whatsoever. Most impressive. -Multiple trays. The primary tray at the bottom has a 500-sheet capacity. There is also another tray that you can access on the front panel where it can feed envelopes and otehr 8.5x11 paper. I like that option to print onto envelops to give you that more professional look. Cons: -No LCD screen. This is a big one for me. Laser printers in the 21st century should have an LCD. It sounds petty, but that is where the direction should go. Just my personal opinion. -No ethernet cord. This should automatically be included. Thankfully I have several lying around. -Double-page: you "can" print double pages but here's the catch. You have to print it one side at a time. Now, if time is of the essence than you will be pulling out your hair because this requires patience to flip it around. Overall, besides the 3 cons I listed, I do think this prints very crisp and excellent quality. COmpact size is essential for me in my home office and offers speedy prints.