PRINTERS
ISSUE 382|COMPUTER SHOPPER|DECEMBER 2019 79
IFYOURIDEAof alaser printer is something
toobig, hot and noisyto share adesk with,
HP’s LaserJet Pro M28w might beapleasant
surprise.It’s amultifunction peripheral built
aroundabasic mono laser printer,and the
end result is about as compact asatypical
home office inkjet MFP.With no ventsto
spew hot air,and aslow-ish 18ppm print
engine keeping the noise down, it’s as easy
to live with as laser devices get.
Politely ,we’dsuggest that ‘Pro’is
somethingof amisnomerforthis strictly
no-frills device.Ith as no automatic document
feeder formultipage copies, no automatic
double-sided printing, nofaxmodem, and just
abasic, uncovered paper input tray. There’s
also no front panel USB slotforwalk-up
printing or scanning withaUSB drive,and no
fancy control panel: justaset of buttons and
indicators witharudimentary LCD screen.
GONE DOTTY
What you do get isasmall mono MFP you
can share viaawireless network, and with that
in mind the LaserJet Pro M28w isn’t bad at all.
HP LaserJetPro
M28w
★★★★★
£98•From http://www.amazon.co.uk
VERDICT
HP’sLaserJetProM28wissmallandsimple,
butlimited.We’dratherhaveaninkjet
It’s fairly easyto set up ,although wefound
that the installed print driver wouldn’t process
any jobs; we used the version automatically
installedby Windows 10. HP’s TWAIN scan
interface,which we’ve criticised before for
being oversimplified, is fineforthis MFP’s
target market. However,while HP’s website
lists the maximum scan resolution as 1,200dpi
–which the scanner istechnically capableof
–the software limits itto 600dpi. An HP rep
told us the marketing materials would beupdatedto reflect this, although it’s still pretty
strange that the scanner wouldn’t be allowed
to operateati ts highest capabilities.
The M28w has no discernible warm-up
time,sow hether it’s been unusedforaminute
or aweek it can chuck outafirst pageof text
in nine seconds. It produced 25 pagesof black
text at 16.7ppm, and delivered our graphics
test at 7.1ppm; both quiteleisurely resultsby
laser standards. Overawireless connection,
two 10x8in images completed in 42 seconds,
and three pages containing six 6x4in photos
needed nearlyaminute; both very slow,but
acceptableforabudget device.At11s econds,
single-page photocopies were quick.
HP’s scan software onlyoffers 200, 300
and 600dpi resolutions, so we couldn’t
completeall of our standardtests, but
scanning an A4 page at 300dpiover Wi-
Fi took areasonable 22 seconds.At 55
seconds, scanninga6x4in photoat6 00dpi
was on the slow side.BEYONDWORDS
Quality -wise,wew ere generally happywith our
test results. Blacktext was excellent, while
graphics and photos were entirely freeof the
banding typicalof acheap laser printer.We
did noticeevidence of sharpening–artificially
strengthening the boundaries between shades
–which made photos in particular look slightly
artificial.We’ve often appliedasimilar criticism
to scan results from HP devices: here our
photoscan seemed less artificial than others,
but also not especially crisplyfocused.
The LaserJet Pro M28w is only equipped
with a500-page print cartridge,and
replacement consumables lastforonly twice
that. With running costsof 3.9p per page,
it’s hardto suggest buying this MFP,
particularly given that an equivalent inkjet
would be almost asfast, and would
⬆HP’s TWAIN interface remains as simple asever doubtlessoffer morefeatures.