HP Colour LaserJet Enterprise M553x review: New toner tech delivers the goods

Summary: HP has gone back to basics and reinvented its consumable technology, enabling the latest generation of Colour LaserJets to run faster and cooler, and print a lot more pages for your money.

A lot has been written about the wisdom, or otherwise, of HP’s planned corporate split, putting enterprise hardware and services together under one brand while creating a separate company for PCs and printers. The deed itself has yet to be done, but changes are under way and one consequence appears to be a renewed focus on core markets, especially printing.

Pros

Excellent print quality at up to 40ppm
Up to 33% higher page yield per cartridge
Lower operating temperatures and reduced power requirements
Internal cartridge seals for clean maintenance

Cons

High up-front cost of consumable replenishment
No Bluetooth connectivity

The JetIntelligence quotient

Despite growing competition, HP continues to dominate the printer market with around 40 percent share overall. In recent years, however, the company could be accused of resting on its laurels and following the pack rather than leading — especially when it comes to business lasers. This is a trend HP clearly wants to reverse with a new series of Color LaserJets featuring a consumable technology called JetIntelligence, designed to make this still-expensive colour printing component a little more affordable.

HP has gone back to the drawing board with the consumables used by the new Colour LaserJets and has invented ColorSphere 3 toner, which comprises particles with a durable outer shell around a low-melting-point inner core. Toner can be fused at much lower temperatures, allowing the printers to run a lot cooler, which makes them up to 53% more energy efficient compared to previous models, according to HP.

Page yields are also improved, by a claimed 33 %, with the JetIntelligence technology tracking cartridge wear and usage to both further deliver on that claim and provide more accurate information on toner levels.

Colour LaserJets featuring JetIntelligence toner technology are available for both small business and enterprise use, each with its own consumables and requiring the usual four cartridges (Cyan, Yellow, Magenta and Black). SME buyers can choose between a standalone printer (the Colour LaserJet Pro M252) and an MFP (Colour LaserJet Pro MFP M277), but for our evaluation we looked at the LaserJet Enterprise M553x, a much more capable colour laser aimed at workgroups printing up to 6,000 pages per month.

Standard and high-yield cartridges are both available, our review unit shipping with the former, which are rated at 6,000 pages for black and 5,000 for colour. High-yield replacements, however, are much better value, the black cartridge delivering a claimed 12,500 pages and the colours coming in at 9,500 each.

Recommended price for a full set is an eye-watering £804 (ex. VAT), which seems expensive when the printer itself can be had for around £650 (ex. VAT). Given the higher yield, however, the cost per page is much less than with previous models. Moreover, we found genuine consumables on sale for just over £660 (ex. VAT) per set, which comes to around 7-8p per page, putting the M553x on a par with a high-end printer/copier on a managed print contract.

There are other benefits too, including an internal toner seal that eliminates the need to pull out that messy plastic sealing strip before fitting a new cartridge. A small enhancement, perhaps, but it makes……..