HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP 3301fdw

Running cost is the 3301fdw’s weakest objective measure. Using HP’s genuine toner, it prints a black page for about 6.07 cents and a color page for roughly 30.95 cents — the highest of the three color lasers we compared on both figures. That places it at the bottom of the tier on the category we weight most heavily, and, like every color laser, it’s far pricier per color page than an ink tank.

The high-yield HP 218X toner (rated around 3,200 black pages, versus about 1,300 for the standard 218A) lowers the cost to roughly 3.59 cents black and 19.67 cents color, and is the sensible way to buy for this machine. Even on high-yield toner it trails its Canon and Brother rivals. As with all supply pricing, costs shift over time, so verify before purchasing.

Bottom line on running cost: The most expensive to run of the color lasers on the objective cost figure. High-yield 218X toner helps for volume, but this isn’t the tier’s cost leader.

On quality the 3301fdw is right at the front of its tier. It produces crisp, consistent text and clean, saturated business color, with toner fused to the page for output that’s smudge- and water-resistant immediately — ideal for documents that get handled, filed, and mailed. Charts, presentations, and marketing collateral come out uniform page after page.

As with any color laser, it’s built for business graphics rather than glossy photography; for photos, the six-color EcoTank Photo is the right tool. For the professional documents this machine exists to produce, quality is excellent and among the best in the color-laser group.

Bottom line on print quality: Crisp, durable text and clean business color, near the top of the color-laser tier. Not for photos, but excellent for professional documents.

The 3301fdw prints at up to 26 pages per minute in both black and color — quick for everyday office jobs, and, as with all color lasers, color runs at the same speed as black, so mixed documents don’t slow it down. It’s a step behind the class-leading Brother’s 31 ppm but comfortably fast for a home office.

Paper handling is a strength: automatic two-sided printing, single-pass two-sided scanning from the document feeder, and a 250-sheet main tray. The single-pass duplex ADF makes short work of copying and scanning multi-page, double-sided documents — one of the features that separates a full office machine from a basic printer.

Bottom line on speed & paper handling: A brisk 26 ppm in color as well as black, with single-pass duplex scanning and auto-duplex printing. Fast and capable, just short of the tier’s speed leader.

This is the 3301fdw’s standout, and it earns the highest features score in our entire guide. It’s a complete office all-in-one — print, scan, copy, and fax — with a touchscreen control panel, single-pass duplex scanning, and automatic two-sided printing. Connectivity leaves nothing out: Wi-Fi, Ethernet, and USB, plus HP’s mobile and app printing, so it works as a personal or a shared networked machine with equal ease.

Whatever a home office needs a printer to do — batch two-sided scanning, faxing, wired or wireless sharing, PC-free copying from the touchscreen — the 3301fdw covers it. On capability alone, it’s the most complete machine we review, which is exactly why a feature-first buyer will be drawn to it despite its running cost.

Bottom line on features & connectivity: The most fully-featured printer in our guide — print, scan, copy, fax, touchscreen, single-pass duplex ADF, and Wi-Fi, Ethernet, and USB. Top marks.

The 3301fdw takes standard HP 218A toner and a high-yield 218X, and third-party and remanufactured 218-series toner is available. On reliability it’s dependable, low-maintenance laser hardware, with laser’s inherent no-clog advantage over inkjet.

What lowers its score in this category is a documented, HP-specific supply consideration: HP printers use a firmware feature HP calls Dynamic Security that can prevent the use of non-HP cartridges on models made after December 1, 2016 — and that includes this printer’s toner. In practice, a firmware update can cause the printer to reject a non-HP chip, so buyers who plan to use third-party toner should be aware of it and manage firmware updates accordingly. This is the reason the 3301fdw’s supply-flexibility score sits below its Canon and Brother tier-mates; it reflects a documented practice, not our editorializing, and it moves this sub-score only — not the printer’s quality, speed, or feature scores.

Bottom line on consumable freedom & reliability: Dependable laser hardware with a high-yield toner option, but supply flexibility is limited for third-party-toner users (see above) — the documented reason its score trails the tier.

The 3301fdw’s value rests on its feature set: for the money, few machines offer this complete a mix of fax, single-pass duplex scanning, touchscreen, and full networking. If your priority is capability, that breadth is worth a lot. The counterweight is the running cost and the supply-flexibility consideration above, which matter more the more you print.

It carries a 1-year limited warranty, standard for the category — shorter than the Canon color laser’s three-year coverage. The 3301fdw is the value pick specifically for the buyer who wants the most features and will use HP’s toner ecosystem; a higher-volume or third-party-toner buyer will find better long-term value elsewhere in the tier.

Bottom line on value & warranty: Strong value on features for a capability-first buyer; weaker on long-term running cost. Standard one-year warranty.