The HP Color LaserJet Pro M479fdw is a great option for any office that needs a wireless printer. This model has all the things you need for a fast, high-quality printing experience, including awesome built-in features like a 250-sheet input tray, a 2-side scanning system, and a 50-sheet auto document feeder.
There are several premium features included with a premium price tag for sure. To make this model stand out, HP has included very fast and powerful technology to print more than 25 color and black pages per minute and also promises to save up to 18% energy.
Specially designed for big offices with a good number of employees who love to print from their devices using wireless features. The HP M479fdw comes with a variety of networking options like Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and Wi-Fi Direct. By using those features you can use your smartphone, tablet, or laptop, and you can even print to other devices, using this printer.
There are two reasons you should consider buying this M479fdw printer. One is this one does not have a very strong alternative and the second is faster color and black printing technology. There is only one printer (imageCLASS MF445dw) that is offering the same features at a lesser price but that one cannot print in color even though all the features are the same.
Pros
- Strong integration with the HP Smart App.
- Robust built-in security.
- Fast printing speed.
- The black and color page yield is extraordinary.
Cons
- Running cost is high.
- It’s not possible to print Microsoft Office files on the mobile app.
- Can’t use glossy paper to print.
- No Bluetooth feature.
HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M479FDW Specification
Type | All-in-one |
Print Output | Color |
Connection | Ethernet, USB, Wireless |
Paper Size | Legal |
Ink Colors | 4 |
Ink Cartridges/Tanks | 4 |
Printing From Media Cards | No |
Printing From USB Thumb Drives | Yes |
Speed (Color) | 28 ppm |
Speed (Monochrome) | 28 ppm |
Monthly Duty Cycle | 4,000 |
Monthly Duty Cycle (Maxi | 50,000 pages per month |
LCD Screen | Yes |
Input Capacity | 300 |
Cost Per Page (B&W) | 2.2 cents |
Cost Per Page (Color) | 13.9 cents |
Duplex | Yes |
Automatic Document Feeder | Yes |
Scanner | Flatbed with ADF (Standard or Optional) |
Duplex Scan | Yes |
Scan Area | Letter |
Scanner Resolution | 1,200 by 1,200 pixels per inch |
Copier and Fax | Yes |
- HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M479FDW Specification
- Build Quality
- Cartridge
- Scanner features
- Printing Speed
- Cost per print
- How it performs in case of Family/Office/Student
- Comparison
- Most Commonly Asked Questions
- When Was HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M479FDW Released?
- Does this (HP Color Laserjet Pro M479fdw) Printer have Two Trays for Paper Input?
- Can i print on coated stock what about the output quality?
- Is the M479fdw printer compatible with 5ghz or only 2.4ghz? Also is the printer compatible with Linux?
- How to scan a slide or transparency? Do you need a special attachment?
- What Ink/Toner does HP color laserjet pro MFP M479FDW use?
- How to Reset HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP-M479FDW?
- How to Enable Scan on HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP-M479FDW?
- How To Enable Scanning to a Windows Running Computer
Build Quality

The HP LaserJet Pro M479fdw is built excellent. Even though the frame is made of thick plastic it’s quite strong, to be honest. You can easily replace the power cable if you accidentally break it, and it’s also easy to remove the tray to get to the toner. The bottom input tray can hold papers up to standard legal size and the input trays can be adjusted to the paper’s size.
Well, the bad part is the display console comes in the way of the output tray and the scanner lid doesn’t have extendable hinges to hold thicker documents. Rest assured that you can raise the bed for gaining better access.
Cartridge

HP M479fdw’s cartridge system is very good in case you want to print a large number of copies. You can use both black and color if you like. If you’re thinking of getting a printer with a higher black page yield than this HP Color LaserJet Pro M479fdw, you can try the Canon imageCLASS MF743Cdw or the HP Color LaserJet Enterprise M554dn, which both offer more color pages.
If you’re curious about the yield version, you can use both black and color cartridges. The HP 414A Black cartridge can yield 2,400+ pages. The color cartridge (HP 414A C/M/Y) can yield 2,100+ pages. I was a bit surprised to see there are no photo cartridges even though there is a total of 3 color cartridges.
Scanner features

A maximum resolution of 1200dpi can be achieved by the HP LaserJet Pro M479fdw. By the way, it can drop up to 300 dpi if you use the HP Smart mobile app or use the automatic document feeder feature. When you will scan legal-size documents, you’ll see that the flatbed scanner is only big enough for letter-size documents, making it very comfortable for duplex scanning in a single pass.
Now, coming to the best part, you can scan 25 pages per minute, and the OCR feature turns scanned pages into RTF files to find them later. The OCR feature is getting more and more advanced day by day and saving a lot of valuable time.
Printing Speed

The printing speed of the HP M479fdw is very acceptable for any kind of user. It takes less time to print out black-only documents. It can also do printing in color as well as high-quality photos.
The HP Color LaserJet Pro M479fdw can perform very fast at printing black pages. HP claims that the black page printing speed is 27 PPM, and 25 colored documents in under a minute. This is what you get from a premium printer, but as fast as a printer can print the cost of printing goes up. Below I’ve explained how much it cost to print black, color, and photos in HP Color LaserJet Pro M479fdw.
Cost per print
The cost-per-print for the HP OfficeJet Pro is very low compared to its other alternatives. The low page yields mean you’ll be replacing the cartridges often. If you print mostly in color it will add up quickly.
However, black-only printing will cost 0.035$/print, color printing is nearly 0.152$/print and photo printing will cost as much as 0.404$/print. One Black cartridge will cost 84.99$ and one color cartridge will take 329.97$ from your wallet.
How it performs in case of Family/Office/Student
Family use
The HP LaserJet Pro M479fdw is a family printer. It is not recommended to print photos on a daily basis as the quality is not that good. If you want to use this printer for black only or color documents, this printer can print quickly and at a low cost.
Plus an automatic document feeder and duplex scanning are just two of the great features of the scanner along with the OCR feature to find and convert all the scanned documents.
Small Business/Home Office
The HP LaserJet Pro M479fdw is a great printer to use at home or in small offices. The cost-per-print is still low even if you print a lot of copies (2000+ pages) because the black and color toner can yield a lot of pages before they need to be replaced.
The printing speed is excellent, whether it’s in black only or color, and the scanner has an automatic document feeder that every office or small business operator needs. It can perform duplex scanning, which is a huge time-saver for a business as they frequently have to scan long documents.
Student
The HP LaserJet Pro M479fdw is very expensive for students. On the one side it’s very expensive and another side it offers top-notch features. I’d suggest buying this printer not alone but to buy it with 5 more friends to reduce the overall cost.
Its high yield allows you to print a good amount of black and color documents before you need to replace the cartridges, which is great for students who need to print lots of documents for their homework and important assignments.
It can take some time to print out the first page, but subsequent pages are much quicker, so you won’t have to stress about having to hand in your assignments and papers at the last minute.
Comparison
Here we are gonna compare this HP LaserJet Pro M479fdw with its closest rivals. The first one is Brother MFC L3770CDW which is a digital color all-in-one printer, loaded with plenty of facilities. On the other hand, Canon imageCLASS MF743Cdw comes with the kinda same spec as HP LaserJet Pro M479fdw but also included some major flaws in terms of performance and prints. Let’s break down both of them and see how HP LaserJet Pro M479fdw outperformed their competitors.

Brother MFC L3770CDW
Overall, the Brother MFC-L3770CDW Laser is slightly better than the HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M479fdw. The HP yields more black and color pages, prints faster, and produces a superior image.
The Brother’s cost per print is less, but the HP does include the drum and cartridge, which makes the printer cheaper.
The Brother L3770CDW is an AIO. It’s fast for its class and the output quality is good enough to represent your organization’s products and services. It surpasses the Canon model in a few key areas, such as speed, capacity, and running costs.
Canon imageCLASS MF743Cdw
The HP Color LaserJet Pro M479fdw is a better printer than the Canon imageCLASS M743Cdw. While the canon offers higher page yield and a lower cost the HP’s scanner resolution is much higher and it’s much quicker.
The Canon imageCLASS MF743Cdw’s cost-per-print is very good. The printer is ideal for printing in black and white since the costs are low as volume increases.
There is a rate of 28 pages per minute in simplex. Since the printer does not publish a duplex rating, we test and record how fast it prints two-sided prints. We have no duplex print speeds for the Brother MFC-L3770CD because the other printers do not duplex. The standard Intel Core i5 testbed was used for the test.
Most Commonly Asked Questions
When Was HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M479FDW Released?
As per amazon’s first date available, the HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M479FDW printer was released on September June 5, 2019, and it’s ranked 4,633 in Office Products no 11 in Laser Computer Printers. HP still produce this printer and it’s not discontinued by them.
Does this (HP Color Laserjet Pro M479fdw) Printer have Two Trays for Paper Input?
There are two, but one is a paper tray. The sheet feeders hold half a ream of paper at the bottom. If you want to attach 500 sheets to the bottom of a third tray, there is a feeder that you can buy separately.
Can i print on coated stock what about the output quality?
On the output side, the printer is very reliable. I believe it would print on any stock of paper that can be fed through the system. It could lead to a jam if it is too thick.
Is the M479fdw printer compatible with 5ghz or only 2.4ghz? Also is the printer compatible with Linux?
Yes, this HP Laserjet Pro m479fdw printer is compatible with the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz WiFi bands. It is also compatible with Linux.
You can print from a computer if you connect the Ethernet port of this printer with your Printer. It is also compatible with macOS (Mac OS X) also with Google Chrome browser.
How to scan a slide or transparency? Do you need a special attachment?
This HP LaserJet Pro M477fdw printer doesn’t have the capability to scan a slide or transparency.
But you can connect a scanner directly to the computer by using a USB cable, but that requires a software driver to be installed on your computer to operate the scanner.
What Ink/Toner does HP color laserjet pro MFP M479FDW use?
The HP color laserjet pro MFP M479FDW uses HP 414x toner cartridges. These are the only compatible toner cartridges that you can use with this printer. When you run out of toner, just replace it with new ones, and you can print it.
There are three main types of toners. The first is the HP ProLaser cartridge. It is specifically designed to work with an HP Pro Laser printer. Another type of toner is the HP Toner cartridges. These are designed to work with HP inkjet printers.
How to Reset HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP-M479FDW?
To completely reset the M479FDW, try this process suggested by a genuine user.
- From the Home screen on the printer control panel, touch the tab at the top of the screen downward to open the dashboard, and then touch the setup icon.
- Scroll to and open the following menus:
- Printer Maintenance
- Restore
- Restore Factory Defaults
After doing everything as shown, the printer automatically restarts and it will completely reset itself to start fresh.
How to Enable Scan on HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP-M479FDW?
To enable the scanning function on the HP Color Laserjet Pro M479FDW, follow these steps:
1) First, open the HP Color Laserjet Pro MFP M479FDW software, then select “Scan” from the menu bar.
2) Select “Scan” from the menu bar and select “Yes” to confirm.
3) To disable the scan function, select “No”.
How To Enable Scanning to a Windows Running Computer
- Open the HP Printer Assistant in your Windows 10
- From the Start menu, click All Apps, click HP, and then select the printer name.
- Go to the Scan section.
- Select Manage Scan to Computer.
- Click Enable.