HP Laserjet Pro M276nw review

HP’s Laserjet Pro M276nw is a laser multifunction printer (MFP) that lets you print, scan, copy and fax over a wireless or wired network. Instead of control buttons the M276nw has a large, responsive touchscreen through which you access functions.

Despite having a good range of features, it isn’t especially well specified. HP quotes a 14 page-per-minute (ppm) print speed in mono or colour, and neither the printer nor automatic document feeder (ADF) supports double-sided (duplex) operation. Plus, we’re unimpressed by the shallow paper tray, which only holds 125 sheets, or the lack of a second paper input or bypass feed. Build quality’s decent, however, with the exception of the scanner lid’s hinges which offer no resistance. You must lower the lid with care to avoid it crashing shut.

It’s easy to join this MFP to a wireless network using just its touchscreen, but we found we had difficulty connecting it to a wireless network when using HP’s setup program.

In use it proved to be a disappointingly slow printer, coming nowhere near HP’s claimed speeds. It peaked at just 7.5ppm when tested over our wireless network. We reconnected via USB and repeated our mono letter and mixed colour tests, achieving a faster 12.3ppm and 9.1ppm respectively. Both speeds are acceptable, but neither is especially fast. While text quality was as good as we’d expect, we were disappointed by the poor colour accuracy of all graphical prints and photos; even our black and white test photo took on a green tint.

You can monitor and administer the printer over the network using the built-in web admin interface

Fortunately we didn’t see the unwelcome sharpening often evident in our tests of HP scanners. The results were very satisfactory, and were let down only by an inability to distinguish the very darkest two shades of our colour target. While mono photocopies were excellent, colour copies were cooler than the original, with a hint of green creeping into some neutral colours.

If you want to print on both sides of a piece of paper you’ll have to do it manually, but at least the driver can help

Unfortunately, even when calculated for the high-capacity black cartridge, which lasts for 2,400 pages, this MFP’s running costs are high, being around 12.8p per combined black and colour page. With its underwhelming colour print quality, there’s no compelling reason to choose the M276nw over a competing inkjet such as one of Epson’s WorkForce Pro range. We’d suggest spending twice as much on HP’s own Officejet Pro X576dw inkjet. It’s far faster, and you’ll recoup the extra outlay through much lower running costs.