Which toner fits the HP LaserJet Pro MFP M227fdw?

The one function that uses nothing

This machine prints, copies, scans and faxes. Of the four, only one costs no toner: scanning. And the M227fdw can scan straight to an email address or a network folder, without going through a computer.

The arithmetic is worth doing. A twenty-page report handed to five people as photocopies is 100 pages — 6% of a 30A cartridge with every distribution. Twenty such distributions in a year and you have used more than a whole toner on copies. The same report scanned to five addresses costs nothing at all.

On an office machine, that is the most effective lever: it calls for no bigger cartridge and no particular setting, only the habit of pressing "Scan" rather than "Copy".

30A, 30X, drum: which to order?

The 30A and the 30X occupy the same slot; only the amount of powder changes. HP recommends 250 to 2,500 pages a month: at the ceiling, the 30A lasts three weeks, the 30X six.

The drum, by contrast, is almost never ordered: its 23,000 pages amount to fourteen 30A cartridges. It is replaced when the page shows repeating marks — dots or lines that come back at the same interval — not on a fixed date. Pale areas that improve after shaking the cartridge point to the toner, never the cylinder.

What the M227fdw has that the M203 does not

The scanner, the automatic document feeder, the fax and a 6.8 cm colour touchscreen. It prints at 28 pages per minute, with automatic duplex, 250 sheets in the main tray and 10 in the priority slot, over Wi-Fi or Ethernet. The consumable is strictly the same as on an M203dw.