Which toner fits the HP LaserJet Pro MFP M130a?

One drum for seven and a half toners

That ratio says everything you need to know. You will change the toner seven or eight times before touching the drum — which, in small-office use, means once every two to three years. Buying the drum "to have it" therefore ties up money for a very long time.

Conversely, when the printer asks for it, there is no room for hesitation: a worn drum cannot be repaired and spoils every print, whatever state the toner is in.

Telling which one is at fault

The two parts do not fail in the same way, and the symptoms are distinct:

• a toner at the end of its life gives pale pages, often on one side only, and printing improves for a while if the cartridge is shaken;
• a worn drum leaves repeating marks — spots, dots or bands that always come back at the same place on every page, at regular intervals.

That second symptom is the only one that never improves by shaking anything.

What this machine changes about your consumption

The M130a prints, copies and scans, over USB, at 22 pages per minute, with no networking and no automatic feeder. You copy from the glass, sheet by sheet: that constraint naturally limits copy runs, and the toner lasts all the longer. As on any multifunction, remember that scanning uses nothing — it is copying that prints.

That is also what sets it apart from the M130fn, its networked sister with fax: exactly the same consumables, but two more functions that print without anyone asking.