I tested out HP's hardworking laser printer - and the speed of prints left me seriously impressed

Oftentimes, a simple mono laser printer is the best and most economical way to serve the print demands of a busy shared office and the HP LaserJet Pro 4001dn (known as the 4002dn outside the US) is designed for just that. It’s a compact desktop unit with two paper inputs, strong security features and a very fast auto-duplex print speed.

The HP LaserJet Pro 4000 series includes eight near-identical variants, which all lack a touchscreen, NFC and Bluetooth connectivity, while this model doesn’t even have Wi-Fi. It’s all about keeping the cost competitive. Instead of Wi-Fi, you have an Ethernet port to get online and network with up to ten users.

With their high speed and high capacity for paper and toner, the 4000 series promise to keep everyone printing efficiently. HP suggests a massive monthly duty cycle up to 80,000 pages, so let’s see if this little HP printer can really deliver.

HP LaserJet Pro 4001dn: Design and build

(Image credit: HP // Future)

(Image credit: HP // Future)

HP’s designers are the best at shrinking printers to desktop-friendly dimensions, and the HP LaserJet Pro 4001dn is a good example. Its footprint is only 14 by 15 inches, so when you load A4 paper, a rear flap opens up just enough to accommodate its length.

Despite the small size, it can hold 250 sheets of paper in the main drawer and 100 in the multipurpose tray. You can even add a paper cassette accessory for around $140 that’ll take another 550 sheets.

Being a monochrome printer, there’s only one cartridge on board, so there’s plenty of room for toner too. The supplied setup cart gives you up to 2,900 black and white pages, which isn’t bad, but high-yield carts are available that will print up to 9,500 pages.

There’s a backlit two-line display on top with basic button controls and ports at the rear for Ethernet, USB and power cables. I can also see a USB Host port, but it’s blanked off as that’s a feature reserved for more expensive variants of the 4000 series.

HP LaserJet Pro 4001dn: Features & specifications

The HP LaserJet Pro 4001dn has few features, but a strong specification sheet. There’s no touchscreen, no Bluetooth, no NFC, no working USB Host port and no Wi-Fi, for example. For wireless variants, you’ll need the HP LaserJet Pro 4001dw, or 4002dw, where that final ‘w’ stands for Wi-Fi.

The maximum print speed of 42ppm, however, makes this one of the fastest laser printers in its price category. The max toner and paper capacity is also impressive at 350 sheets and 9,500 sheets respectively. There’s an ample 256MB internal RAM and 1,200MHz processing speed.

Naturally, it can auto-duplex and the in-built Wolf Pro security is up to HP’s usual high standard. You can, for instance, protect print jobs by requiring a PIN to be entered.

HP LaserJet Pro 4001dn: Setup and operation

With no Wi-Fi to set up and the toner cartridge already installed, there’s really not much to do in order to print your first page. Simply load your paper, turn on and wait for the printer to warm up.

The FPOT (first page out time) is a prompt 6.1 seconds although I found it can take a lot longer depending on the print job. I concur with the 42ppm print rate for consecutive simplex pages. By the way, if you’re wondering why the US specification says 42ppm, while the European manual says 40ppm it's because 8.5x11-inch letter paper is slightly shorter than A4 paper.

It also prints quickly in duplex mode, with the pages being turned smoothly and quite quietly each time. The LCD screen may be small, but it’s backlit and clearly readable, making the HP LaserJet Pro 4001dn an easy printer to operate.

HP LaserJet Pro 4001dn: Performance

The HP LaserJet Pro 4001dn printed all of my test pages promptly and without a misprint or paper jams. The overall print quality is perfectly acceptable, although black text on plain paper doesn’t look quite as bold and crisp as the best laser printers. Switching from draft to best quality mode gives you darker lines that look more professional, but it’s a slightly slower and less economical way to print.

Black and white photos on plain paper are also acceptable, but too grainy and soft to impress. You can achieve slightly better results by using laser photo paper, but there’s no preset for photo paper within the printer’s settings, proving that it’s really not geared up for photos.

The front-loading multipurpose tray works just as well as the main tray, but it’s limited to 120g/m², whereas the drawer input can take thicker 200g/m² paper. It would not accept the 300 g/m² card that some printers are ok with.

For speed and consistency, the HP LaserJet Pro 4002dn is hard to fault. Churning out long double-sided text documents is its forte and every page will look good enough for most purposes. It’s only if you’re looking for that dark black professional finish that I’d recommend turning to a premium laser printer like the Xerox VersaLink B600DN.

HP LaserJet Pro 4001dn: Consumables

The HP LaserJet Pro 4001dn comes with a pre-installed black toner cartridge capable of delivering up to 2,900 letter-sized pages, which is not bad for a start-up cart. And it can be replaced with a cartridge yielding a whopping 9,500 pages. With a big HP 149X cart costing around $300 (£183), that’s a slightly lower CCP (cost per page) than the Brother HL-L2865DW.

HP LaserJet Pro 4001dn: Maintenance

Even the best laser printers require less upkeep than inkjets and the only component you’ll need to replace here are the empty cartridges. HP has the imaging drum built into the cartridge so you’re replacing that at the same time.

When your prints look faded and you receive a low toner warning from the printer, I find that it’s worth extracting and gently shaking the cartridge to get more toner out of it. And when it comes to installing the new one, don’t open the box and leave it exposed to the light for too long as that can damage it.

HP LaserJet Pro 4001dn: Final verdict

(Image credit: HP // Future)

(Image credit: HP // Future)

I found the HP LaserJet Pro 4001dn (or HP LaserJet Pro 4002dn) to be an easy printer to use, with the right features to meet a heavy print load and print quality that’s good enough for most purposes. It might not have the bold black and high detail you get with a more expensive monochrome printer, but it’s just right for general office duties.

I think the HP LaserJet Pro 4000 series, puts a strong case for buying a mid-price mono printer, as opposed to a cheaper laser or inkjet alternative, mainly because the duplex print rate is so much faster.

This is a hard-working office printer that can serve a workgroup of ten, while having the high toner and yield capacity to keep everyone printing without too much downtime. The compact design is expandable and its inbuilt security is sufficient for me to recommend it as a safe investment for any growing business.

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