HP LaserJet Pro M452dw Wireless Color Laser Printer with Duplex Printing (CF394A)

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I was loving this printer. Color was great and just what I wanted. Then it started to print tiny little black dash marks when I would print to card stock. Turns out this printer doesnt support 110 Lb card stock (a heavy but typical weight). The Amazon listing says you can print on card stock, but doesnt specify ONLY up to 52 lb (can we even consider 52lb card stock? Thats more like thick paper!!!) Super frustrated because 90% of my business needs are card stock.

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HP Laserjet Pro M452dw Wireless Color Printer (CF394A#BGJ) After years of saying "Ill never own another #@&^%! HP office printer" Im giving this HP452DW a try. Heres some comparisons to my old OKI c3200 and the features that loured me in for another HP try; Drums and Toners; Though not a "super printer user" I needed a quick color printing solution for flyers and presentations for my business.I have owned the OKI for about 6 years logging 37,000 sheets (about 500 a month), heavy on the color pictures. The OKI worked great, the pictures were just "OK" but it printed allot of pages per toner and did it quickly. But heres were, what I call "the never-ending cycle" comes in - Each toner (color) has a Drum and they only last so long. As your printer gets older, these have to be replaced anywhere from $90 to $160 per drum. You usally notice a Drum is going bad while preparing for that presentation you need done tomorrow.. You see were we are going, keeping extra toners and extra drums on hand add up to be more than the whole printer cost. Then your stuck with a bunch of extra model specific parts when the transfer belt fails or something breaks... The HP452 has the Drum built into each toner - yes, it makes for a more expensive toner replacement (until the copy-cats toners come out) but knowing that I wont have to worry about the Drum is one less burden. This may not make since for higher volume users. Laser vs LED Printer; At the time I purchased my OKI I never gave much though of the differences between the two different technologys beside the cost (LED was cheaper). Here is a issue I discovered - If you want to do any type of water resistant or moisture proof labels, the LED system just wont work. It could be the toner or the LED, but it smears and does not adhere to the label. Maybe the newer ones are different but I wouldnt put my money on a LED again. By the way, I have had no luck with Ink Jet water resistant labels. Build Quality; I do have 2 HP inkjets in my route vans, this printer does seem a little better in the quality department then those. But compared to the OKI its the difference of a trailer home to a brick house. The HP paper tray is light and flimsy. The muli-tray feels "ok" but open the access door and its light and thin. Same with the tray that hold the toners - flimsy. Automatic Duplex and Setup; Software was straightforward - I opted to download the latest version direct from the HP website (about 80MB). I will use my Hp through WIFI and a secured router. Configure the printer Wi-Fi first, the software found it on my network in no time. BAM - it was done! Went to print my first brochure feeling happy that I wont have to manually duplex my own pages (Im lazy that way)... hit the print, started and printed FAST... but wait... the screen says to put in the multi-purpose tray and hit OK - that is not what I spent the extra $$ for! Looked in settings and I did click the two sided option. There is a hidden setting you need to change; * Go to Windows Control Panel - Printers. * Select the Printer; then Printer Properties; Device Settings; change Duplex Unit to "Installed" (Thanks to David C for the info). Your set to go - for brochures make certain you check "Yes, flip over". Test printed through my phone using the "print share" app (through WI-FI) and it worked fine using the "generic" suggested driver. Rants; Discussing the paper tray, why in the heck cant they hold a full ream of paper?? Really, about 50 sheets at a time - come on guys! Same with the "starter Toners" - toner powder cant be that expensive, but we know you cant wait for us to purchase those new toners soon enough... Automatic duplex is only on the wireless model - I would have been happy with the Network unit for almost $100 less. FYI - the letters on the back of the model; M452 dw (Duplex Wireless); M452n (network), ect.. First use and bottom line; My two-sided - three fold mailers came out quick and never looked so good. The pictures were sharp (as a laser can be) and the text is crisp even on regular copy paper. A little issue with some of the logos, but Im certain that can be worked out. It starts quick, clacks a bit but is quieter that the old OKI. I think the biggest issue may be its build quality and how long it will last. The OKI (about $300 at the time) is more of what a true office printer should be; solid and thick plastic, large toners, lots of metal inside, solid tray. The Hp is not even in the same ball field on build feel. Because of this and knowing the dependability of past Hps I opted for the extended warranty through Amazon. I hope I wont have to use it! (6.3.16)

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This printer is fast... very fast. Im also pleased with the quality of the prints. The only drawback thus far is that the printer doesnt come with full software including a specific driver for Mac OSX. To setup this printer you use a program called HP Easy Start which hands off the installation to an online mechanism. At the handoff, HP comes back to say it can not find any software and to contact HP Support. The printer is not installed. The workaround is to just add it using the OSX System Preferences and it will use the Airprint compatible driver. Its just a generic driver though that gets the job done. Im only able to get normal resolution using this scenario and cant select any enhanced DPI functionality. I contacted HP support about this and they were very helpful and even took control of my computer. They went through the same process I did and ran into the exact same walls I ran into. Its almost as if its a bug or oversight that you cant download a specific OSX driver for this printer other than through the HP Easy Start program which simply doesnt find anything. The support representative apologized and said that the printer is new and hopefully a driver will be forthcoming. They were just as surprised as I that there wasnt one available.

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ive had this printer for about 9 months now and it connects to Wi-Fi beautifully and prints and duplexes as smooth as butter. the toner cartridges last as long as they say they do (well, the demo cartridges i got a lot more mileage out of than initially posted), but the main caveat is that if youre going through a ream of paper a semester like i am printing color slides and the like, that essentially means a new set of HP410x toner cartridges every semester, which at a low price estimate (if you time it strategically on amazon) of ~155/cartridge x 4 ends up being a healthy $620 in toner each semester. given that the printer is currently at $250, id love to see some third party cartridges that actually work and dont brick the printer. i tried one version of third-party toner cartridges when i initially bought the printer and they performed extremely poorly (big sheets of black ink in lieu of what i was trying to print), so i returned them. so 4 stars for build, print quality, essentially no paper jams (unless the printer pauses due to needing more paper when its duplexing -- you have to remove the existing half-printed paper and let it start over at that page, which it will. and its not that hard to remove paper), and ease of use. if i could get the toner cartridges for say...350 or less every term, id be giddy. if you know of an amazing workhorse color laser that can do that, drop me a line. thanks! also, as others have commented, the colors print out but a bit darker than you might see on a screen, which i feel is common to many color lasers. there may be a way to adjust the RGB/etc profile to accommodate this.

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Great printer for price, probably more printer than I needed for home office, but Id rather have more and not need all the functions, than need something and not have it. Print quality is very nice. I print mostly text with some business graphics; no photos. This replaced a 10-year old Brother mono laser that was my workhorse. This is way faster. Mine is cabled to PC, so dont know about wireless printing. I dont care if it is heavy. It is not a portable device. Have not gone through first set of "trial" toner cartridges so am not sure how long normal cartridges will last, but it seems fairly conservative on toner usage. Ive been using this for 6 months now and still like it. Hope it lasts like my old Brother did!

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My HP3505 color laser printer gave up the ghost after about seven years of faithful service, so I had to get a quick replacement. This HP M452dw seemed to fit what I needed, but no reviews for me to see how it all worked out. So let me be the first here on Amazon. The printer showed up in two days in excellent condition. After opening, the only real directions was the orange cover sheet instructing how to pull printer out of the box. I watched a couple unboxing videos on Youtube where they had to pull out the printing cartridges, setting static IP addresses, and a few other steps. That was all quite unnecessary here. Just put size the paper tray and insert paper, then plug the printer in (and plug in the network cable if you are using that), and let er rip. Im using Apple computers, so I selected the "Airprint" function, which avoids the need for specific HP software or drivers. Make sure you select "share" in your computer options for this printer if you want to print from other computers on your network (I did not do this initially and the "Airprint" function was not availing itself on other computers on my network when adding this new printer, but once I selected "share," the "Airprint" option became available to all others on my network). From unboxing to first printed page was less than five minutes. Very easy. Initial setup was on small screen on printer, and that too was very easy. And I also noticed that the printing is even crisper than my HP3505, which surprised me, because I thought that think printed pretty good. Well see how it stands the test of time, but for now, Im quite pleased.

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Printer has been in constant operation for just under 4 years. It is on a LAN with 10 workstations that all use it as there only printing device. 3 are Windows 10, 2 are Mac Book Air. All print nice draft as well as final copies. Prints 8 1/2 x 11” and 8 1/2 x 14” pages. Also has WiFi capability which is handy for printing from iPhones. We generally use HP refill cartridges rather than buy new HP. Color is excellent. Black is very black. Would buy again although I don’t think HP makes this exact model anymore. When paired with quality refilled HP cartridges this printer is a real work horse. In 3 years of operation in a small office this printer has never failed.

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This printer works great. The wireless setup was a breeze as the reviews said. It is fast and prints good looking images. I will not rate the photo quality of it in that we are not using it for that purpose. we print handouts for classes that we teach and it has save many dollars in ink jet costs and time with its speed. the starter cartridges are as everyone has stated, they barely have enough toner to run a couple hundred sheets. Do go for the extra capacity cartridges, ie, the "X" version as they will last a lot longer due to the larger capacity. I am running compatible cartridges and they work great. Compared to an ink jet this is a Ferrari.

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Im in love with this printer and so happy I bought it ! Mind you, Ive never operated a laser printer and have been using mid-range deskjets my entire life. This printer is for home office use, printing about 30 invoices per day. I needed something more economical and efficient for the job. Its only been a few days but this bad boy is getting A+ . Pros *Touch screen- I was torn between the cheaper, non- touch screen model and this. So happy I spent for the upgrade . Note- sellers are not allowed to list HP items as "new" even if theyve never been used. Look for one that says "like new" and chances are youll get a brand new printer for a fraction of the cost . In my case $200! Easiest Setup Ever- This is seriously the easiest printer I have ever hooked up. Its pretty much plug and play. Wireless went flawlessly - which has always been an issue with previous printers Fast- If youre used to deskjets, omg, this thing is a monster Technology - This printer has its own email address !! No more forwarding documents to email after email trying to print. Want a photo printed ? Its hooked up to your online storage providers (dropbox,etc). You can also send a text to HP Facebook messenger, tell it what you want printed and whola. Cons * heavy and large footprint I now need a specialized cart to hold this along with label printers . This bad boy doesnt fit inside my current printer storage unit. However, its a laser, theyre big! It was expected. This printer is awesome and highly recommended

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I returned a previous BW laser to order this printer because of its wireless features. I had a brief problem printing labels, not because of the printer but because the Avery software program did not permit me to adjust the printer settings back to default. Therefore I had to telephone HP and they instructed me over the phone how to reset the default settings. Avery denied the problem was caused by their software. The machine is heavy, 40 pounds of weight, so I would advise anyone not to attempt moving it from place to place without some assistance. It is about the size of a large microwave oven. You will hear it when printing but the noise level is medium. I like the envelope feed tray, I open the front door and load envelopes, very simple and they print correctly. Ive used it to print postage stamps, labels, color prints, envelopes, letters and long documents. So far, everything prints great, except for the package mailing labels. The printer roller, after printing these labels transferred the ink to the next print job and I had black stripes across the pages of my document. Only does this with the Avery labels, so I do not know if its a product problem or a printer problem. Since I rarely print labels, it is not a major headache. I use it strictly as a wireless printer and it takes about ten seconds for the job to go from PC to printer. Once it starts to print, it prints fast. Highly pleased with this printer, I did not want to purchase it due to the price, but I believe the quality is worth the price.

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