Which toner fits the HP Color LaserJet Pro M283fdw?

The 207X deliberately unbalances the set

In standard capacity, this machine is almost symmetrical: 1,350 pages for the black, 1,250 for each colour. A gap of 8%, which is to say nothing.

The 207X changes the ratio completely. It lifts the black to 3,150 pages while the colours stay at 1,250: the gap goes from 1.1 to 2.5. That is no accident of the catalogue, it is a translation of real use — black works alone on every ordinary document, the colours are used only together and only on colour output.

So the typical order on this machine is frankly asymmetric: a 207X black, 207A colours. Taking the standard format throughout means reordering black twice as often as the rest, for no gain at all.

The single-sheet tray, and what it is for

This machine has two paper inputs: the 250-sheet main tray, and a single-sheet tray. The second is there to feed one isolated medium — an envelope, headed paper, a divider — without emptying the main tray. The sheet placed there is taken first on the next job.

It is also the right way to avoid a fault often blamed on the cartridges: heavy media forced through the main tray follows a more curved path, the toner bonds badly, and the print marks under a finger. A new cartridge will change nothing. The LaserJet Pro 3203dw is built on the same principle, with the same single-sheet slot.

Four functions and a moderate volume

It prints, copies, scans and faxes at 21 pages per minute, with an automatic document feeder, a 6.8 cm touchscreen, automatic duplex, Wi-Fi and Ethernet. HP recommends a volume of 150 to 2,500 pages a month: at the ceiling, a 207A black lasts barely more than a fortnight, a 207X a little over a month.