The HP LaserJet M209dwe is a very simple monochrome laser printer designed for small or home offices. Specifically, it's designed for businesses that only need to print black and white documents since it doesn't have a scanner, and it can't print in color. Since it's a laser printer that uses toner, you don't need to worry about printheads clogging if you don't print frequently.
Our Verdict
The HP M209dwe is terrible for family use. It can't print in color and prints terrible photos, and it doesn't have a scanner. Also, it doesn't support printing off a USB thumb drive.
- Good access to toner and paper jams.
- High page yield.
- Very low cost-per-print.
- Can't print from USB thumb drive.
- No Bluetooth printing support.
- Terrible photo printing quality.
- Can't print in color.
- No scanner.
The HP M209dwe is disappointing for a small or home office. While it has a very high black page yield, it can't print in color, which may be an issue if you need to print more than just black and white documents. It also doesn't have a flatbed scanner or an automatic document feeder.
- Good access to toner and paper jams.
- High page yield.
- Very low cost-per-print.
- No display screen.
- Can't print in color.
- Slow at printing.
- No scanner.
The HP M209dwe is disappointing for students. While it yields lots of black pages at a very low cost-per-print, it can't print in color and is quite slow at printing documents. What's more, it doesn't support Bluetooth printing or printing off a USB thumb drive.
- Good access to toner and paper jams.
- High page yield.
- Very low cost-per-print.
- Can't print from USB thumb drive.
- No Bluetooth printing support.
- Slow at printing.
- No scanner.
The HP M209dwe is good for black-and-white printing. It yields lots of black pages at a very low cost-per-print, and it can automatically print double-sided pages. Unfortunately, it's quite slow at printing documents, and it takes some time to wake up and print its first page. Also, there's no scanner, which may be a problem if you occasionally need to scan.
- Good access to toner and paper jams.
- High page yield.
- Very low cost-per-print.
- Slow at printing.
- No scanner.
The HP LaserJet M209dwe isn't designed for photo printing. It can't print in color, and pictures look terrible, with a lot of banding present.
- Good access to toner and paper jams.
- Terrible photo printing quality.
- Can't print in color.
Changelog
- Updated Mar 20, 2024: Added mention of the Brother MFC-L2820DW as an alternative with a scanner in the Scanner Features section.
- Updated Sep 30, 2022: Added mention of the Brother HL-L2325DW as an alternative with faster printing speed.
- Updated Sep 09, 2022: Converted to Test Bench 1.1.
- Updated May 09, 2022: Since we updated this printer to the new test bench, we added text to the new tests. We also updated some of the older text to be more in line with our current guidelines.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
The HP LaserJet M209dwe printer comes in a white and gray color scheme only. It has a variant called the HP LaserJet M209dw that seems identical, but it doesn't come with a six-month subscription to the HP Instant Ink service. You can see the label of our unit here.
Popular Printer Comparisons
Like most monochrome laser printers, the HP LaserJet M209dwe is good at printing many black and white documents at a very low cost-per-print, but other models can print significantly more pages. Unfortunately, it lacks many important features for offices, like a scanner, fast printing speed, and a display screen.
For other options, see our recommendations for the best all-in-one printers, the best office printers, and the best black and white printers.
The Brother MFC-L2820DW is better than the HP LaserJet M209dwe for most uses. The Brother has a sturdier build, a better display, superior print quality, and faster printing speed. It also has an ADF-equipped scanner with fax functionality and optical character recognition, whereas the HP doesn't have a scanner. The HP yields more prints, so it won't cost as much in replacement toner; however, its drum is integrated into the cartridge, which can be a hassle, as you would have to throw out the whole cartridge if the drum gets damaged, potentially wasting toner.
The HP LaserJet M209dwe and the HP LaserJet MFP M234sdwe are similar monochrome laser printers, but the M234sdwe is better overall. The M234sdwe has a flatbed scanner, an automatic document feeder, and a slightly higher page yield. Each comes with a free six-month subscription to the HP Instant Ink service, and neither accept third-party toner cartridges.
The HP LaserJet Pro M15w and the HP LaserJet M209dwe are both monochrome laser printers with no scanner. The M15w yields slightly more pages, prints faster, and takes less time to warm up when printing its first page. However, it can't automatically print double-sided like the M209dwe can, so you need to manually flip sheets when prompted.
The HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M479fdw and the HP LaserJet M209dwe are laser printers. The M209dwe can only print in black, while the M479fdw can also print in color. Also, the M479fdw is a much larger model with a display screen, a flatbed scanner, an automatic document feeder, and support for a USB thumb drive, all of which the M209dwe lacks. The M479fdw also yields significantly more pages and prints faster; however, the M209dwe has a lower cost-per-print since its toner cartridge costs much less.
Test Results
The HP LaserJet M209dwe printer feels very well-built and sturdy. It has a removable power cord, which makes it very easy to replace if necessary. You can easily access paper jams by pulling down the cover at the rear and the toner cartridge by lifting the output tray. The printer has adjustable width sliders that are a part of the body below the paper tray. The input tray cover is removable, and it can fold upwards to provide easier access to the input tray and width sliders. Unlike the similar HP LaserJet MFP M234sdwe, this model doesn't have handles on the side to grip when moving it.
Since the HP LaserJet M209dwe is a laser printer, you don't need to worry about the printheads clogging or ink drying up. There are some maintenance tasks you can run to keep your machine working well, like cleaning the fuser and cartridge, adjusting alignment, and solving paper curl issues. It doesn't yield as many pages as some other models do, but it can still print over a thousand pages before you need to worry about changing the cartridges. You can easily replace the toner by simply lifting the printer's top panel and pulling out the cartridge. Speaking of things to replace, the paper input tray holds 150 pages, so you'll have to refill the paper every few days if you print hundreds of pages a week. The sheet rollers are easy to access as well, like by opening the rear panel, removing the toner cartridge, or turning the printer on its side and removing the bottom panel.
There's no display screen. Instead, it has icons that light up when the paper is low, the Wi-Fi is connected, and when the toner is low. It has five physical buttons for Wi-Fi, Info, Resume, Cancel, and Power.
It has a remarkable black page yield. There's also a high-yield version of the toner cartridge available that will last you longer. While there are third-party cartridges available, they have a chip in them that isn't recognized by the printer, so you may need to swap the chips to trick the printer and see if that lets you use them. For a monochrome supertank printer with a much higher page yield, check out the Epson WorkForce ST-M1000.
If you need a monochrome laser printer with a scanner, check out the Brother MFC-L2820DW.
It supports a wide range of paper sizes and material types, including laser paper, vellum paper, envelopes, labels, light cardstock, and postcards up to 163 g/m².
It has a very low cost-per-print thanks to its high page yield and relatively low toner cartridge cost. Also, since the drum unit is included in the cartridge, you don't need to worry about replacing it separately. This is an HP+ enabled printer with a six-month subscription to the HP Instant Ink service.
It prints documents surprisingly slowly compared to other laser printers, even though the advertised speed is a lot higher. Wi-fi connection issues and spooling are likely the causes of the slower speed. If you're just printing out a single page every few hours, it's decently quick at waking up and starting to print. If you want a similar monochrome laser printer with faster printing speed, check out the Brother HL-L2325DW.
Like all monochrome laser printers, the HP LaserJet M209dwe isn't meant for photo printing. There's a lot of banding and grain present in the images.
The HP LaserJet M209dwe can't print in color. the color gamut photo above is for reference only.
The HP Smart app lets you print and copy from your mobile device. You can also access printer settings and reports, manage your Instant Ink account, and use the Private Pickup feature, which only prints your documents when you’re physically near the printer. Note that the Printer Scan option doesn't work on this printer since there's no scanner.
You need to manually install drivers to print on Windows with the HP LaserJet M209dwe printer. For macOS and Chrome, you don't need to install drivers or install the app to print. However, if you want access to maintenance tasks and some other features, you need to install the HP Smart App since there's no display screen on the printer.