HP LaserJet Enterprise color flow MFP M575c

As an HP "flow" multifunction printer (MFP), the HP LaserJet Enterprise color flow MFP M575c adds a sheaf of workflow-friendly features over the standard versions in its line: a pull-out keyboard and a 100-sheet single-pass duplexing scanner chief among them. It's worth considering by deep-pocketed businesses seeking a formidable workhorse color MFP to help boost productivity.

The M575c is the high-end model in the series that includes the HP LaserJet Enterprise 500 Color MFP M575dn and the HP LaserJet Enterprise 500 Color MFP M575f ($2,699). The M575f adds fax capabilities and a stapler to the M575dn, while the M575c adds the workflow features I discuss in this review.

The flow M575c can print, scan, copy, and fax; it can scan to e-mail, a network folder, USB thumb drive, or an FTP server, and print from a USB key. It has an 8-inch color touch screen interface, offers secure, password-protected printing, and has a built-in 320GB encrypted hard drive.

It measures 23 by 21.6 by 21.8 inches (HWD), much too large to share a desk with, and weighs 105 pounds. Its 100-sheet document feeder (ADF) scans both sides of a document simultaneously, saving time over scanners like the one in the M525dn (with a smaller, 50-sheet ADF), which flips the document over to scan the other side. The M575c's scanner also incorporates some features lacking in the M575dn and M575f, including ultrasonic misfeed detection, auto orientation, auto page crop, and other image correction features, send to SharePoint, and embedded OCR.

The M575c has a standard paper capacity of 350 sheets, split between a 250-sheet main tray and a 100-sheet multipurpose tray. You can add an optional 500-sheet tray as well. An automatic duplexer lets you print on both sides of a sheet of paper. On the side of the printer is a built-in "convenience" stapler for manually stapling documents of up to about 25 pages.

The M575c can connect via USB or Ethernet (including Gigabit Ethernet), and an optional Wi-Fi adapter is available ($269 direct). It's compatible with HP ePrint and Apple's AirPrint. I tested the printer on a wired network with its drivers installed on a PC running Windows Vista.

Printing Speed
I timed the flow M575c on our business applications test suite, using QualityLogic's hardware and software for testing, at an effective 8.0 pages per minute (ppm), a good speed for its rated speed of 31 pages per minute. (Rated speeds are based on text-only printing, while our business suite combines text pages, graphics pages, and pages with both text and graphics.) It would have been faster yet, but its average time was slowed by a long "calibration" period while printing a PowerPoint file in one of our test runs. The Editors' Choice Dell C3765dnf Multifunction Laser Printer tested at 8.3 ppm in our official test in its default duplex mode and 10.1 ppm when I switched to simplex. I timed the HP M575dn at 8.5 ppm, and the Editors' Choice Lexmark X548dte at 7.0 ppm.

Output Quality
Output quality for the M575c was pretty typical across the board, with average text quality, average graphics quality, and average photos. Text quality is good enough for any typical business use, except perhaps desktop publishing applications using very small fonts.

With graphics, some fine lines were lost, and black backgrounds looked faded. Graphics quality was good enough for PowerPoint handouts, though I might hesitate to give them to a potential client I was seeking to impress.

Several photos showed slight tints, and there was a loss of detail in some bright and dark areas in several prints. Photo quality is good enough to print out recognizable images from Web pages, and perhaps for company newsletters, depending on how picky you are.

Running Costs
At 1.8 cents per monochrome page and 13 cents per color page, the M525c's running costs are a bit on the high side. The Editors' Choice Dell C3765dnf has a lower per-page cost (1.5 cents for monochrome and 10 cents for color), as does the Lexmark X548dte (1.6 and 11 cents).

The HP LaserJet Enterprise color flow MFP M575c is a massive and impressively full-featured color MFP. Its added workflow features include a 100-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF) that scans both sides of a document at a single pass, saving time over the likes of the Dell C3765dnf, which has an ADF that flips a two-sided document over to scan the back. Other goodies include the pull-out keyboard, automatic image correction features, and embedded OCR. It has good but not exceptional speed, and its output quality is solid across the board.

It's a product that brings to mind the adage "you get what you pay for." It provides a slew of workflow-friendly features at a steep premium (nearly 3 times the price of the Editors' Choice Dell C3765dnf, which has a comparable maximum duty cycle). Generally, the higher sticker price of a printer, the lower its running costs will be, but the flow MFP M575c's color costs are higher than many much less expensive models, including the Dell C3765dnf and Lexmark X548dte.

Its standard 350-sheet paper capacity is also much lower than the Dell C3765's 700 sheets and the Lexmark X548dte's 900 sheets. Yet although there are faster MFPs, and ones with better output quality, the HP LaserJet Enterprise color flow MFP M575c provides some exceptional features such as the single-pass two-sided scanner with 100-sheet ADF, and is definitely worth considering by businesses willing to pay a premium for them.

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