Which toner fits the HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M277n?

Two codes that look alike and have nothing to do with each other

HP gives every product an eight-character code — a letter, digits, a letter. Printers have one, toners have one, and they cannot be told apart by eye:

• B3Q10A stands for the machine, the Color LaserJet Pro MFP M277n;
• CF400A stands for the black toner it uses.

The machine's code is on the rear label, on the invoice and on the box — in other words everywhere you go looking for information once the cartridge is empty. Typing it into a search engine followed by the word "toner" is a natural reflex, and it leads nowhere.

The same trap exists on other machines in the range: the LaserJet Enterprise 700 M712dn carries the code CF236A, the Color LaserJet CP4025dn the code CC490A. Neither is a toner.

The right habit: start from the name, never the code

The full model name — "Color LaserJet Pro MFP M277n" — is the only piece of information that leads reliably to the right consumable. It is printed on the front of the machine, and it appears on the configuration report the printer produces from its touchscreen.

201A or 201X

The 201X rises to 2,800 pages in black (CF400X) and 2,300 per colour, against 1,500 and 1,400 for the 201A. On a 4-in-1 multifunction with fax, whose duplex is manual and whose recommended cycle is 30,000 pages a month, the yield gap soon turns into interventions avoided.

Beware of one last neighbour: the 410A (CF410A) of the M452dn differs from the CF400A by a single digit and does not go into this machine.