News Article

HP Replaces its Category-Defining LaserJet M4345 MFP

By Marlene Orr, Senior Analyst, Printers/A4 MFPs, May 3, 2011

Nearly five years after its groundbreaking announcement, HP today replaced the HP LaserJet M4345 MFP series with a faster, more secure and smarter model. The new 55-ppm LaserJet M4555 MFP series includes cutting-edge features such as ePrint, allowing users to “print from anywhere,” and is built on the OXPd platform to allow seamless integration with HP and third-party software solutions. FutureSmart firmware provides consistent firmware code across HP’s current line of devices and provides for simpler upgradeability (to extend product life and upgrade functionality). Security features include 802.1X authentication), Kerberos Authentication, support for WJA-10 IPsec configuration (via plug-in), hard drive encryption (via secure HDD option), hard drive overwrite and encrypted scanning.

Why Now? Why Should You Care?

While some might question why HP waited so long to replace the M4345 (when the average lifecycle for a printer is about 18 to 24 months), it’s likely due to the great success it has enjoyed over the past four and a half years. The HP LaserJet M4345 was certainly one of HP’s most successful products, loved by customers and envied by other manufacturers who wanted a piece of the customer base that quickly grew for the  legal-size monochrome device, because it was a more compact, easy-to-use replacement for copier users that didn’t need 11”-by-17” output. Designed to give users core MFP functionality, without all the bells and whistles of traditional A3 copiers (which go largely unused, according to HP), the M4345 was an affordable option that enjoyed success for many years, but the time for change has surely come.

Why this announcement is significant should be obvious. HP, in essence, created the high-end A4 MFP market in late 2004 with the introduction of the LaserJet 4345 and the copier world took notice. (Note that there were other A4 MFPs available at that time from Lexmark, but that company never proclaimed that they would turn the copier world on its head.) Many other players (Sharp, Samsung and Xerox, to name a few) have entered this market with newer and sometimes faster products, while HP stood firm with the aging, but still viable M4345 series. So, now, with this announcement of its newer and faster MFP, HP stands to gain even more placements with customers, because, even though color use is increasing, businesses still need a robust and reliable monochrome option.

How Does it Stack Up?

While we’re expecting the M4555 to be sent to our lab soon for testing, we can take a quick look at the specs to see how the new model stacks up against the predecessor model. In addition to the faster rated speed, some of the key enhancements of the M4555 include a faster print processor (800 MHz compared to 480 MHz for the M4345), more standard memory, a higher capacity finisher and scan preview (plus the ability to add, delete or reorder pages) at the control panel. Stay tuned in the coming months for updates on our early lab test findings and our full lab test report this summer.

Specifications Comparison

*Improvements highlighted in red; data taken from bliQ side-by-side comparison.