HP's Laserjet Pro 400 M425dn is HP's latest B&W All-in-One

At a whopping 33 pounds, the Laserjet Pro 400 M425dn is certainly nothing compared to the massive printers you'd see in major offices or computer labs, but comes packed with everything you'd need for your small business or home office. While the printer strangely focuses black & white printing only, it comes backed with a wide variety of other features, including HP's brand new web printing, App system (preloaded with tons of gimmicky goodies,) and of course your usual scanner and fax machine. The M425dn seems to be a lot like a step-up, slightly bigger, 65 lbs cousin, the M475dn, which includes almost all the same gear except with a color laser, plus an extra $200 stuck onto the price. This seems to be the step-down model for those looking for only black & wite printing, but the same crazy features the M475 has, and a good excuse to keep selling new printer models that have changed little since the 90s.

At the heart of the M425dn is its redesigned OS specifically made for printing and included with most of HP's latest and greatest Home, Home Office, and SMB (Small and Medium Business) printers. The OS is strikingly based off of Palm's WebOS, which is included with the enterprise models as a built-in tablet, and features some of the same kinds of applications from its simple, yet robust touch screen. For those searching for a mostly simple experience with their printers, the M425dn is far from it, including a complicated internet registration process to allow you access to HP's ePrint service, which gives your printer a unique e-mail address, allowing you to print from anywhere you have an internet connection to your device, much like faxing. While this is a much easier way to handle content, it's useless unless you're always out of the office needing to print back home. However, the ePrint also comes with other great features such as printing from USB, and saving scanned images to a network-enabled PC (which you configure with your drivers.) These features though are all realistically efficient and can make your job much easier. The apps, however, are far from office-friendly. We're not sure how often you need to print a power of attorney template at the office, yet can't be bothered to print it from a PDF on the computer - but should the case arise the M425dn has your back, capable of printing anything from legal documents to recipes, and brain teasers (presumable to keep employee morale up) all from the flick of a finger at the printer. This kind of gives the printer the feeling it's in a bit of an identity crisis, trying to decide if it's better for the home, or for the office.

In the end, the 425dn comes with a robust set of features, but the attempts to cut down the price are apparent, and holds very few striking differences aside from size and color printing compared to its more efficient cousin, the 475dn. It's apparent this printer really fits more in a home or home office than a small business, unless the $200 difference is big enough, and you don't see yourself needing an expensive laser color printer. However, it's got a speedy, easy to use interface (For those who are used to touch screens,) and certainly can get the basics done without a hitch - scanning, faxing, and printing included. Gimmicks, ePrint, and Black & White only aside, the 425dn is an excellent printer for those offices looking for an affordable printer upgrade.