Customer Ratings & Reviews

ECONOMICS: The MFP 2604sdw is spec'd almost the same as HP's M234sdw, but clocks in $110 pricier. However, the M234 requires you to purchase HP’s microchip-enforced toner cartridges or enroll in an Instant Ink subscription plan with prices/page limits ranging from $2/50 pages to $26/1500 pages per month. Obviously, the attractiveness of the cheaper M234 depends on your projected usage & how often you would otherwise purchase new genuine HP toner cartridges. Enter the MFP 2604sdw, an almost identical model with a slightly larger paper tray, SLIGHTLY faster print speeds (maybe 1-2 ppm quicker), & a refillable toner tank that uses absurdly cheap toner pouches—about $17 for 2500 pages or $28 for 5000 pages! This feels a bit greener as it eliminates a lot of extra manufacturing/plastic parts because the user is refilling only the toner itself. The printer is prefilled & there are no extra toner pouches in the box so I cannot comment on the refill process, but HP’s how-to video makes it look like refills take about 20-30 seconds with pretty much no chance of toner spillage. This all sounds great, especially if you’re not jazzed about buying genuine toner cartridges or the Instant-Ink architecture/pricing structure. The MFP 2604 is also very fast & text reproduction is stellar. However, graphics & greyscale reproduction are only decent at best & the centralization of everything else of consequence into the HP Smart app doesn’t make the printer feel quite as powerful/flexible as it should be. Coming back to the question of economics, performance is about on par with a “budget” laser printer, but you’re paying a larger premium up front primarily for the toner-pouch refill capability. This might work to your advantage if you spend less on toner pouches than the cost of a toner cartridge or the Instant Ink subscription per year—and don’t want to be limited to a certain number of pages per month--but those strapped for cash right now might still be left wondering why they are paying so much for something that performs like it should probably cost a bit less. PROS: - The MFP 2604 is FAST; a completed page takes under 7 seconds from the start of a print job with additional pages taking about 3 seconds; the auto-duplexer is incredibly handy for 2-sided printing without having to reseat & reorient pages in the paper tray - Text quality is simply superb—lines, corners, & rounded edges are clean & crisp without any blotchiness or bleed - The auto-document feeder holds up to 40 sheets of paper with a feed/scan speed of about 4 seconds per page; the primary paper tray holds up to 250 sheets of paper which should be more than ample for student, family, & small office work - Lots of printing/connectivity options with USB, Ethernet, & dual-band WiFi; you can print via WiFi direct, AirPrint, & print from anywhere with the HP Smart App - You get 300 DPI scans from the ADF but up to 600 DPI at the flatbed glass; given that the maximum resolution of the printer output is 600 DPI, this eliminates the possibility of scanning a document at a higher resolution (therefore creating larger files than necessary) than can possibly be reproduced on paper - The fold-down control panel offers a small LCD display with functions for copying, adjusting brightness, & reductions down to 25%/enlargements up to 400%. There's also an ID Copy button allowing you to take a 2-sided ID, scan the front side, flip it over & scan the back somewhere else on the glass, then print a single page with both sides showing. Hard buttons are also available to turn wireless on/off, cancel the current print job, & resume in case the print job was interrupted/needs user intervention - The HP Smart app really IS a user-friendly hub that provides multiple utilities & options for monitoring supplies; changing scanner settings (source ADF or glass, paper size, scan resolution, color settings, image enhancements, auto-heal for marks/hole punches & orientation correction); setting up workflow shortcuts (ex: send a copy to e-mail, save a scanned document, etc.); creating “Printables" for crafts & projects; printing documents; using HP Mobile Fax (a 2-year trial is included with the printer); printing photos, extracting text for later use, & adjusting multiple printer/admin settings CONS: - Graphics & greyscale image quality was only okay—complex images suffered from clearly visible stippling & long rectangular patches of grainy greys & blacks while simple things like single-color PowerPoint graphics & backgrounds were not smooth & uniform - The ADF is single-sided even though printing output can be duplexed—for the price, a duplexing ADF would have been greatly appreciated - The MFP is nice & compact, but the paper tray juts out the front about 4.5"; it fits loosely into the enclosure & does feel not well-supported across the bottom; if you were hoping to set this printer on a very small printer stand, you probably need to figure in the additional depth to keep the whole setup secure - The limited control panel means all you can really do *at the printer itself* is make a copy—you can’t press a button to scan to your computer, copy a document & send it to email, etc.—everything has to be done through an app on your phone or computer. There isn’t even an option to select 1-sided to 2-sided copies--very frustrating given that the unit has a built-in duplexer - The small LCD display is not backlit though strangely the buttons on the panel are; a small LED beneath the display would make it much easier to see - Setup was not without hiccups (some HP support posts tell me I am not alone in this regard). During setup, the HP Smart app on my iPhone 12 kept insisting I lost Bluetooth connection and would not continue, even when I had my phone sitting directly on the printer itself. My PC (2 feet away) ran into similar problems not being able to fully configure the printer from its factory-default setup state. However, I did get far enough along that the printer authenticated to my network before supposedly losing connection with the host apps. I *was* able to go back into HP Smart & complete setup by configuring an existing printer already on the network--once I did, everything worked as expected, but that was far more effort than it should have been - HP’s support pages for this MFP can be confusing. Most features are accessible through HP Smart; but additional configuration settings, monitors, & troubleshooters are also available using the HP Easy Start installation package from HP.com. PLUS, you need to install HP Universal Scan if you also want to save your scans as Editable Text (OCR). BUT, doing so will leave you with two copies of HP Scan, HP TWAIN manager, & two different scanner entries in the HP Scan app. You do get one license of Readiris Pro 16 with your printer if you install those other packages—this provides more OCR capabilities to create editable Word documents, PDFs, & XLXS files from scanner results—but you can only license it for a single computer (according to the installer). It is probably best to stick with the simpler HP Smart app and call it good - None of my Windows programs with TWAIN support recognized the MFP 2604 as an active scanner; if there is a way to seamlessly integrate the MFP into another program’s workflow, I was not able to crack the code--all scanning/saving scanned images appear to need the HP Smart or HP Scan apps - To make any advanced changes (default print quality, network settings, fuser & cartridge cleaning, alignment, default copy settings, etc.), you must head into HP Smart’s "Advanced Settings" submenu. These pages can be quite detailed/intimidating; however, if you are setting this MFP up in a professional/networked environment, you will probably need to spelunk through these deeper submenus. To get into these settings, you must enter a PIN code printed on a label inside the printer (marked by the arrow in one of my review photos). If you fully open the printer’s top so it stays open--like when you would refill the toner reservoir--the lid snaps into place. It then takes an alarming amount of force to snap the retention arm out from the catch under the lid. I was actually concerned I might break the hinge arm trying to close the printer--a friction-stop rather than a snap-stop would have been less concerning BOTTOM LINE: This one is a bit of a hard sell because I felt like there was a lot of room for improvement in print quality & usability. But if your needs are primarily text-heavy, AND you don’t think using HP Smart for other activities beyond printing from within a host program will get the in the way, AND you think you will probably burn through a lot of toner during the year, the economics & performance of this printer at the current price point probably make a bit more sense.

I’ve purchased three HP Laserjet Tank MFP 2604sdw printers in the past 2 weeks. The first installation was easy with no problems and the printer works great. I am really impressed with the automatic paper feed for 2-sided printing. That setup was so easy and the printer worked so well that I ordered two more for another location. The installation was a horrible experience for the later two. I was unable to get those printers installed due to the error code 79 issue reported by many other reviews. I attempted to get HP phone support to help, but they ran out of ideas that I could perform and I didn’t want to allow them remote access via my laptop. It wasn’t until I turned OFF the default Iv6 network option as a few other reviewers have suggested. I don’t know if or why Iv6 may be needed. It would be good for someone with more knowledge on Iv6 would add comments. It would also be good for HP to mention this information in their instructions or online troubleshooting tools. One other thing to note. The installation that went smoothly was on an internet provider other than Xfinity and the two that wouldn’t install correctly were connecting to an Xfinity router. Is it possible that there is a compatibility issue with Xfinity rather than a difference between the printers that didn’t work??

Setup was easy both for ethernet and Wi-Fi. Print and scan as advertised. However, not really an all-in-one printer since it does not have fax capability. Need mobile fax (a subscription service) if you want this feature. Thankfully I have other options for faxing.

Easy to setup. Price could be better. Paper expensive.

When I wanted to use the WIFI, I was not able to because the printer was only accepting 2.4g it was not able to recognize 5g.