HP (Hewlett-Packard) LaserJet CM1312NFI Multifunction Printer

a product to avoid

Strengths: does what it claims to, until it breaks

Weakness: not reliable. Slow printing. Poor to nonexistent customer support.

This printer worked ok for about 11 months, then got a piece of paper wrapped around one of the rollers in back. HP has cleverly made this not consumer-accessible, apparently because people were sticking their fingers into laser jet printers and getting burned. Bottom line was that I couldn't fix it. HP told me that the product was not under warranty because they sold it to Staples in November of...
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This printer worked ok for about 11 months, then got a piece of paper wrapped around one of the rollers in back. HP has cleverly made this not consumer-accessible, apparently because people were sticking their fingers into laser jet printers and getting burned. Bottom line was that I couldn't fix it.

HP told me that the product was not under warranty because they sold it to Staples in November of 2009; the fact that I had *bought it* in January of 2010 seemed not to matter. (I showed them my credit card bill; they didn't care.) They eventually pointed me at five places that could fix it in my home town. Two had gone out of business. One had moved from the address that HP had for them, as I found out when I tried to bring my printer to them. One had not done HP warranty work for years. One had never done warranty work. When I explained all this to them, they said that I could ship the printer back to them at my expense but would not provide any packaging materials. They also offered to hot swap the printer for a mere $69 fee. Such a deal! This is a $400 printer for which ink cartridges cost $200 so I'm paying $69 to swap my 11-month old printer for a refurb. In probably four hours on the phone with HP reps, I never once managed to speak to someone who could help me and was in the United States. I spent another three hours or so driving around aimlessly looking for all the places that supposedly did warranty work for HP.

Neither I nor the software company I run will ever buy another HP product.

By ginsberg - Dec 24, 2010

Works flawlessly and I'd definitely buy again

Strengths: Easy to use and set up and works reliably every time. Toner is a snap to change and not quite as expensive as others, probably because they're not high page count cartridges

Weakness: Not made for a high demand printing environment. Software install is sneaky, built for the "duh" user, but you can skip all the HP "You Are A Stupid User" stuff. It's actually rather offensive.

First I bought this MFP for my home office use. Then, I liked it so much I bought another one for my office at the school district. It even continued to function flawlessly after a very heavy Cisco router fell off the top shelf and whacked the right side of the control panel and knocked the panel cover off. It was a horrendous crash. With tears in my eyes I snapped the cover back in place and...
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First I bought this MFP for my home office use. Then, I liked it so much I bought another one for my office at the school district. It even continued to function flawlessly after a very heavy Cisco router fell off the top shelf and whacked the right side of the control panel and knocked the panel cover off. It was a horrendous crash. With tears in my eyes I snapped the cover back in place and asked it, "Are you alright?" To my great delight it was and it continues to function as flawlessly as ever with no issues, no paper feed issues but I wouldn't stack a huge pile of papers on the feeder either. A few, 5, 10, at a time it seems to have no problem with.

Front panel controls are easy to use and well placed and it's easy to understand; with a 2 3/4 x 2 1/2 inch LCD display interface that's easy to see and menu-driven so it's easy to set up the fax or make a copy or scan a document. You can do the same with the software. We just gave it an IP address and told the software where it was.
I've even scanned in documents with the included Optical Scanner Software with only the usual post-scanning corrections to make. This printer is not any slower than you'd expect for low to medium use office and the HP system updates them as necessary.

I did not expect, nor did I purchase it for, use in heavy print, high-end printing environment, but for the medium use home or office environment, I'm very pleased. I'd buy another one and I'm trying to get my principals to get one.
Toner is about $75-$80 depending on source. I use regular printer paper, nothing fancy, and the pages look great, very professional, no smears, no bad coloration or not-right colors.
This printer has been reliable. I think this printer is excellent for the price. Others must think so, too, since some vendors are now saying it's unavailable.

By K-12 Tech Dir; - Feb 18, 2010

A Great All-In-One

Strengths: Great value, lots of features, excellent print quality, good software, easy setup.

Weakness: No manual feed paper slot. Drivers seem sluggish to pop-up or change tabs. Only one paper tray.

The HP Color LaserJet CM1312nfi MFP (CC431A) is a remarkable product. HP has managed to improve the print quality with its new ColorSphere engine/toner while significantly lowering the cost. That makes it an exceptional value. The print quality is excellent. Colors are vivid. Black is very good and readable even with 6pt fonts. The print is not flat but has a slight gloss (on laser paper) that...
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The HP Color LaserJet CM1312nfi MFP (CC431A) is a remarkable product. HP has managed to improve the print quality with its new ColorSphere engine/toner while significantly lowering the cost. That makes it an exceptional value.

The print quality is excellent. Colors are vivid. Black is very good and readable even with 6pt fonts. The print is not flat but has a slight gloss (on laser paper) that looks professionally printed. Print on glossy paper has more shine as you would expect. Other than paper, the 4 toner cartridges are the only consumables. There are no image transfer belts like older color laser printers to buy. Flip open the front cover, slide out a draw and you see 4 slots to drop each cartridge in. It could not be easier. I can’t see going back to inkjet. There are no print heads to dry out or clog, and the pages are smug-proof. I poured some water on a page and wiped it off with only a little curling but the image looked great.

Easy to use. The control panel is very well designed. Its well organized, clearly labeled, with no confusing little icons. The LCD display is very readable and can be angled forward as needed. For example, for Copying there are only 3 buttons: 1 to copy color, 1 to copy b&w, and a copy menu button for greater control. Most of the time you simple put the page into the feeder and press either copy color or copy black, that’s it. You can individually adjust the volume of sounds for: Alarm, Ring, Key Press, and Phone Line. So it operates well in a noisy or quiet environment. (Sorry, no setting your own ring tones)

Easy Set Up. Lifting the device to put it in place is the hardest part. I recommend that most people to get someone to help. The setup directions are easy to follow. If the booklet seems vague, then install the software, it has a more detailed step-by-step guild. For many, the booklet will be adequate.

Network Set Up is really easy. The cool thing about this printer is an unadvertised feature when connected via the network - it contains its own web site. Using your browser enter its assigned IP address and you get total access to the printer. You can see (and edit) all the configuration information, toner levels, statistics, reports, and more. I love this feature.

NOTE: If you are using the network connection and have security software, like Norton Internet Security, be sure to add the printers IP address and software to the allowed list. That should speed up communications with the printer.

The Fax works well and is easy to set up. Transmission times appear to be fast. You can fax from your PC by simply printing to “CM1312 Series Fax” device. No need to print then scan to fax. Speed dial numbers can be added at the control panel or from your PC. I recommend doing it from your PC so you can type in names, otherwise you will feel like you are at a giant cell phone trying to add names with a number pad. You know the drill press, press 7 four times to get an “s”. Use the PC, its faster.

The Automatic Document Feeder worked well and makes Faxing and Copying multiple pages a snap. Scanning works well and you can scan directly to your PC or a front loading memory card.

Photo printing seems to work well too. Just remove your memory card from your camera and insert it into one of the four slots in the front. The printer automatically scans the card and you can page through the images on the LCD display. Select the image and print.

Paper handing appears to be the only real weakness that I can see. There is no manual feed slot, so you must pull out the tray, put the single sheet in, and push the tray in. Fortunately, the tray opens and closes easily. It handles all types and sizes (4x6 to legal) of paper but thickness is limited to about 7.5 mil. So cardstock is out and thick glossy 9 mil paper too. But the 7.5mil glossy is plenty thick for most needs, including snapshot printing. I think thickness is limited because the paper must take a couple of sharp turns.

Some reviews have stated that the print speed is slower than average but acceptable. I would agree but given the low price and the other features the speed does not bother me. I also think faster print speeds would use more energy. It uses 300 Watts when printing, 310W when copying, 8W when sleeping, and 0W when off. It takes 5 seconds to recover from ready/sleep.

Since I have only had this printer a short time I don’t know about reliability or how much the cost per page really is. HP claims the new ColorSphere technology is cheaper. Calculating the cost will be easy, this printer tracks and can report EVERYTHING! Number of pages, what type, and colors used.

So far, I’m very happy with this printer.

By Chicago; - Jun 7, 2008

OK for light duty

Strengths: Easy set up; good scanner / copier functions

Weakness: frequent cool down cycle, inconsistent color

This printer works OK for small print quantities and simple documents. However I use it to print occasional labels and color catalogs. These are not large scale print jobs - usually 100-200 pages. After printing a few pages, the printer goes into "cool down" mode for a while. Then it prints a few more pages and runs a cleaning process. It ends up taking a long time to print. I also find the print...
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This printer works OK for small print quantities and simple documents. However I use it to print occasional labels and color catalogs. These are not large scale print jobs - usually 100-200 pages. After printing a few pages, the printer goes into "cool down" mode for a while. Then it prints a few more pages and runs a cleaning process. It ends up taking a long time to print. I also find the print alignment and color is inconsistent. Most of the time it is OK, but about 10-20% of the time I get red or yellow tinged colors on top of black, or I get fuzzy edges to black printing.

I got by with this one for a while, but am now replacing it. Overall, for the price, I don't recommend it.

By anonymous; - Jan 11, 2011

Best Quality/Ease of Use

I've had my laser all in one for 3 months and I could not be happier with it. The print quality is so good, even for pictures on plain paper. I bought it for personal use in my home office and recently used it to print many pages for my class reunion. It never gave me a problem. Even the set up on Vista was easy and I'm not that well versed in all the computer lingo. I would recommend HP products...
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I've had my laser all in one for 3 months and I could not be happier with it. The print quality is so good, even for pictures on plain paper. I bought it for personal use in my home office and recently used it to print many pages for my class reunion. It never gave me a problem. Even the set up on Vista was easy and I'm not that well versed in all the computer lingo. I would recommend HP products (I also have an HP laptop and ink jet printer) and especially this laser jet printer to anyone.

By DebT on HPBazaarVoice - Sep 7, 2010