HP LaserJet Pro MFP M227fdn [G3Q79A]

The printer prints well enough, but changing out cartridges and other, even simple functions is hellish. The instructions supplied are minimal and more often than not do not produce desired results. Also, it would be very easy to break something whether or not you follow the directions. All in all a very disappointing purchase as I'd been led to believe -- online -- that HP was storming the market. My old pain-in-the-neck Brother is easier to work with. And less costly in terms of ink cartridges and time, the most precious commodity. (Written after three hours of tinkering!)

Using a home printer for over 10 years I realize these are my three must have's:1) Print double-size directly from my phone or tablet easily2) Scan double-sided through ADF3) Works when I need to print important docs even if I rarely print.I own a lot of HP's and a few Canon inkjets. I recall ditching older HP models because the output were "too sharp" and photos weren't accurate. Well nowadays I just need to print forms/documents and I just need them to be as sharp as possible. There have always been problems with Canon's: one power supply dead, one print head clogged probably because I didn't print much, and the one that left working doesn't pick up paper all the time. For worse, Canon cancelled a lot of their cloud services and downgrade their software; I ... MoreUsing a home printer for over 10 years I realize these are my three must have's:1) Print double-size directly from my phone or tablet easily2) Scan double-sided through ADF3) Works when I need to print important docs even if I rarely print.I own a lot of HP's and a few Canon inkjets. I recall ditching older HP models because the output were "too sharp" and photos weren't accurate. Well nowadays I just need to print forms/documents and I just need them to be as sharp as possible. There have always been problems with Canon's: one power supply dead, one print head clogged probably because I didn't print much, and the one that left working doesn't pick up paper all the time. For worse, Canon cancelled a lot of their cloud services and downgrade their software; I used to be able to print double-side directly from tablets but now I can't. I used to be able to send print jobs over the internet as well.So here are the good things:- the current app /driver with HP can print Adobe PDF double-sided from phones and do it pretty quickly under 15 seconds. It cannot do double side with the gmail app for some reason. For Internet pages, somehow it needs to download the page perhaps because it took 2 minutes to actually start printing. DOuble-side printing must be done through the HP print service though, and not through the HP Smart app.- It cannot do auto-two side scanning with the ADF, but I am amazed that HP compensate it with its software. In general that usually means a $50 saving for the hardware cost (e.g. Brother 2730 vs. 2750). You can do that through HP Scan app but the other HP Smart app cannot. You have to manually rotate the pages after scanning the first side, but that's not too bad since you only need to do it once. The HP Scan app will then intelligently insert the even pages correctly between the odd-side pages. The ADF was pretty good too; I scanned 20 pages of heavily folded letters from mail, and they were pull through correctly. Like many people said, sometimes it won't scan straight. Hack, even when you scan through the flatbed, somehow it wasn't straight as well.- It's a laser printer, so hopefully its "ink" won't dry out like the inkjets.- It scan color photos better than my old Canon's. The Canon ones seem to have trouble scanning glossy color prints so they come up with a function call "De-screen". HP just scan well right out of the box.- It's smaller than the m4xx series so fits a home quite well.The bad:- It's loud. Not the printing part but when it tries to paper-feed. It's like it's disintegrating itself.- It's too expensive. I got it at deep discount with a display model, so at that price range it was compared favorably with models like Brother 2550 or even 2730. However, at full price, the Brother 2750 seems to be the better value, at least on paper. The HP does seem to be more modern though; the Brothers are still stuck with keys from the 80's. I also don't know how good the software is so can't compare that. I think the expensive price of the HP was because it has fax plus the extra business features which people will unlikely use. Also the toner is expensive too comparing to the Brother's.Other Issues:- I don't seem to have the wifi disconnect problem that other people have. I have it once but that's right after I rename my printer from the random characters HP assigned it. I re-install the printer and it seems to be fine after that.- initially I have issues printing envelopes as it keeps printing to the side. Turns out for the settings right on the printer itself (e.g. not in Windows), by default it sets Tray 1 to Letter size. That somehow will affect what it thinks the paper is in the priority tray, which is where the envelope is. Setting tray 1 to "Any" paper fixes the problem. What's even more neat is that in MS word, if you format your first page as envelope and the rest as letter, and then insert one envelop in the priorty tray in the printer, it will automatically print the envelope from the priority tray first (since it is page 1 in Word), and then continue printing the rest of the letter via Tray 1 automatically.- The default firmware can't seem to connect to the web services, so I can't send print job directly to it via email, but that doesn't bother me. I've heard people cannot use after-market toner with updated firmware.- So far I don't have issues "waking" it up from sleep (yes it does have a sleep mode and the power light does blink consistently, so don't put it in a bedroom where you want complete darkness). I've heard some people work around the wake-up issue by inserting a USB into the slot.

Nice and fast for printing and scanning- pages printing out it seems in 1-2 seconds. Wifi hook up was relatively easy, but issues with updating driver that were eventully resolved. Standard 600 dpi and up to 1200 for printing are nice, but only 150-300 dpi for scanning. Biggest headache, which almost caused me to return the MFP, is that, if you press too hard on the touchscreen, then the menu does not advance. Unfortunately, when menu does not advance, there is natural tendency to press harder, which does not work. I pressed very lightly after deseration, and it worked. If you have a light touch, then no problem.Do not order the extended warranty through Staples. The third party tech experts have limited weekday hours only, and of course my issues with the ... MoreNice and fast for printing and scanning- pages printing out it seems in 1-2 seconds. Wifi hook up was relatively easy, but issues with updating driver that were eventully resolved. Standard 600 dpi and up to 1200 for printing are nice, but only 150-300 dpi for scanning. Biggest headache, which almost caused me to return the MFP, is that, if you press too hard on the touchscreen, then the menu does not advance. Unfortunately, when menu does not advance, there is natural tendency to press harder, which does not work. I pressed very lightly after deseration, and it worked. If you have a light touch, then no problem.Do not order the extended warranty through Staples. The third party tech experts have limited weekday hours only, and of course my issues with the touchscreen reached a head Friday night. Extremely frustrating. I also have a the Total Tech Support plan from Best Buy, and they are the best. They helped me correct the issues on Saturday morning, and I did not even buy the printer from Best Buy, because they were out of stock.We lost power for a short time due to a severe thunderstorm. Just rebooted the printer and it then worked fine.Would I recommend this printer? Yes, I would even with its foibles, as once it is set up properly, it works great. Only, do not under any circumstances buy the extended warranty through Staples.