The HP Color LaserJet Pro M255dw is a simple color laser printer that's better suited for those who mostly print in black, with the occasional splash of color here and there. Its black and color cartridges have outstanding yields, so you don't have to replace them as frequently, but the high cost of the color cartridges can add up quickly over time if you print a lot of color documents or photos. It has great printing speed, wide connectivity options, and it's designed to make changing cartridges and removing paper jams as easy as possible. That said, it isn't the best choice for printing photos and the lack of a scanner is severely limiting for some. On the upside, it's sturdily built, and its compact size is well-suited for small spaces.
Our Verdict
The HP Color LaserJet Pro M255dw is a sub-par family printer. It performs well if you're mostly printing in black, as its black cartridge can yield a high number of pages before it needs replacing, which saves you money over time. However, printing in color regularly or printing photos is very expensive due to the high cost of the color toner cartridges. Also, its photo printing quality is poor, and it doesn't have a scanner at all.
- Great overall printing speed.
- Great cost-per-print for black only documents.
- No scanner.
- Poor photo printing quality.
- Expensive to print in color.
The HP Color LaserJet Pro M255dw is a decent printer for small or home offices. The toner cartridges can yield a high number of black and color pages, so you don't have to replace the cartridges often even if you print on a large scale. However, color cartridges are expensive, making the long-term cost significantly higher than just printing in black. Its overall printing speed is great, even though it takes much longer to get the first page out. Unfortunately, it doesn't have a scanner at all, which could be a deal-breaker for some offices.
- Great overall printing speed.
- Great cost-per-print for black only documents.
- No scanner.
- Expensive to print in color.
- Slow to print first page of a black only document.
The HP Color LaserJet Pro M255dw is a decent printer for students. Its black and color cartridges have high yields, which helps to keep cost down over time. However, it can get expensive if you use colors often, as the color cartridges are quite expensive. The printer has outstanding connectivity options, allowing you to connect through various means, including printing from a USB thumb drive. Sadly, it doesn't have a scanner, and while it's compatible with HP's mobile app, the app can't print any Microsoft Office files.
- Great overall printing speed.
- Great cost-per-print for black only documents.
- No scanner.
- Expensive to print in color.
- Slow to print first page of a black only document.
The HP Color LaserJet Pro M255dw is a great printer for printing black and white documents. Its design allows for easy access to the toner cartridges and paper jams, and its black cartridge's high yield makes it very cost-effective to print in bulk. It's a bit slow at getting the first page of a document out, but it does pick up speed for subsequent pages.
- Great overall printing speed.
- Great cost-per-print for black only documents.
- Slow to print first page of a black only document.
The HP M255dw is an okay printer for printing photos. Like most laser printers, it isn't made for such tasks. The quality of printed photos is poor, as there's a lot of banding and graininess in the pictures. Also, its color accuracy is disappointing. On the upside, it's well-built, and it can print on most photo paper sizes except for 2" x 3".
- Can print on photo paper.
- Poor photo printing quality.
- Expensive to print in color.
Performance Usages
Changelog
- Updated Mar 15, 2024: Added mention of the Brother HL-L3280CDW as an alternative with faster printing speed in the Printing Speed section.
- Updated Sep 21, 2022: Converted to Test Bench 1.2.
- Updated Sep 01, 2022: Converted to Test Bench 1.1.
- Updated Jan 28, 2022: Reshot and updated the 'In Use Picture'.
Check Price
Popular Printer Comparisons
The HP Color LaserJet Pro M255dw is a great printer for printing black and white documents. However, it lacks a scanner, and like most laser printers, it has poor photo printing quality. For more options, check out our recommendations for the best all-in-one printers, the best home printers, and the best inkjet printers.
The Brother MFC-J805DW INKvestment Tank is an all-in-one color inkjet printer with a proprietary hybrid cartridge-tank system, while the HP Color LaserJet Pro M255dw is a color laser printer-only unit. The HP is better-suited for quickly printing documents, with a significantly faster printing speed and much more accurate produced colors, and it has an Ethernet port and can print directly via USB flash drives. On the other hand, the Brother is better-suited for a wide variety of tasks, as it has a flatbed scanner, an automatic document feeder with duplex scanning, and faxing capability. It also has much better page yields and a significantly cheaper cost-per-print, and it prints much better photos.
Overall, the HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M479fdw is much better than the HP Color LaserJet Pro M255dw. The M479dw has a significantly higher page yield for both black and color pages, and it also has a full-feature scanner. The M479dw also prints faster, and it has better color accuracy and a better display console. Neither printer is meant for photo printing, although the M255dw can reproduce a wide range of colors.
The Brother MFC-L3770CDW Laser is better than the HP Color LaserJet Pro M255dw for most uses. The MFC-L3770CDW has a scanner with an automatic document feeder, it has a higher page yield, and the display console is much better. However, the M255dw has better color accuracy.
The Brother HL-L3270CDW Laser and the HP Color LaserJet Pro M255dw are very similar in their overall performance. The main differences are that the Brother has a higher black and color page yield, making it slightly more cost-effective over time. The Brother also has a better mobile companion app, but the HP has more connectivity options, as it supports USB thumb drives.
Test Results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for videos & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
