HP TopShot LaserJet Pro M275

Depending on how you define MFP, the HP TopShot LaserJet Pro M275 ($399.99 direct) either isn't an MFP at all, or it's an MFP (multi-function printer) with a difference. It's built around a color laser printer, with high-quality output for text, graphics, and photos. But instead of adding a standard scanner, HP has added something it calls a TopShot scanner, which is actually a camera that copies or scans by essentially snapping a picture. The result has some serious limitations for scanning paper, but if you need to scan 3D objects?for showing products on your company Web site, say?this might be the MFP you've been waiting for.

On paper at least, the TopShot M275 seems to be a near twin of the HP LaserJet Pro 100 Color MFP M175nw ($349.99 direct, 3 stars) that I reviewed earlier this year. The only obvious difference is that the M175nw's standard scanner is swapped out for the TopShot scanner. Both printers offer the same claimed speed, at 17 pages per minute (ppm) for printing in monochrome and 4 ppm for color, and both share the same limited paper handling, which makes them a good choice for light duty printing only.

Like the M175nw, the TopShot M275's paper handling should be adequate for a personal printer or for a micro or home office with light-duty printing needs, but not much more. It holds only 150 sheets of paper, doesn't include a duplexer, and doesn't offer any paper handling upgrade options.

Other features the two printers share include support for both wired and WiFi network connections. Both support Apple AirPrint, which uses WiFi, and both let you print directly to the printer with an ad hoc WiFi connection to an Android smartphone or to an assortment of iThings. You can get the free HP ePrint Home and Biz apps from the Apple and Android app Web sites.

In addition, you can print through the cloud with HP ePrint, which lets you assign an email address to the printer and then send documents by email to print them. The two printers also both copy and scan, including over a network, with the M175nw equipped with its traditional scanner and the TopShot M275 using the TopShot scanner.

Setup, Speed, and Output Quality
Setting up the TopShot M275 is standard fare. I connected it to a wired network for my tests and installed the software and drivers on a Windows Vista system. On our business applications suite (using QualityLogic's hardware and software for timing) it came in at an effective 3.3 ppm, the same speed as the M175nw. As a point of comparison, however, both printers are notably slower than the Editors' Choice Dell 1355cnw Multifunction Color Printer ($419.99 direct, 4 stars), at 4.5 ppm.

Output quality for the TopShot M275 is easily above par for color laser MFPs, and a bit better than the already high quality that the M175nw offers. The text quality is a touch short of what I'd want for serious desktop publishing applications, but easily good enough for any standard business need, and even good enough for marketing materials like tri-fold brochures. Graphics are similarly good enough for any business use. Most people would consider them good enough for marketing materials as well.

Photos are in the top tier for color laser MFPs. Mount them in a frame behind glass, and they could pass for true photo quality, unless you looked closely. They're certainly good enough for printing your own marketing materials.

Other Issues
The TopShot scanner demands more attention than we usually give scanners on MFPs, because it's so different from what you're probably used to. The scanner consists of a white platform, plus a camera (although it doesn't look much like one) along with lights for flash photography. Both the camera and the lights are at the end of a movable arm. The platform normally sits on top of the printer over the output tray, but lifts off easily if you need it to. The scanner arm folds down so it can lie flat against the platform when you're not using it.

To scan, you rotate the arm up, so it's over the platform, much like the document camera it basically is. You then put whatever you want to scan or copy on the platform and give the appropriate command. The camera takes six shots according to HP: three with flash from different angles and three with ambient light. The MFP then integrates the images to eliminate shadows and glare. If you gave a copy command, it then prints the image. If you gave it a scan command, it treats the photo as scanned data, sending it to a file on your computer or to your computer's email program, opening a new message and adding the file as an email attachment.

I tried the scanner with both 3D objects and typical paper documents. The results with 3D objects were terrific compared with traditional scanners, but not as good as I'd expect from using a camera. In scans of a black, shiny handheld scanner, for example, some areas turned to blue, possibly from a reflection of something in the three images taken with ambient light. Even so, if you're not an accomplished photographer, and don't have an appropriate setup for taking product pictures, the results may be better than what you can get from taking a photo.

For scanning sheets of paper, the scanner is limited at best. Granted, it's easier to put each sheet down on the platform rather than position a page on a standard flatbed under a lid, but it takes a relatively long time to snap each page. Also, because there's nothing holding the page flat, any tendency for the paper to curl will get translated into a distortion in the image. One scan of a photo, for example, had curved edges, because the paper curled up from the platform.

Ultimately, the HP TopShot LaserJet Pro M275 is something of a niche product, with the TopShot scanner the most compelling argument both for and against it. If you don't need to scan 3D objects, the limitations for scanning documents leave you with no reason to consider it. If you need to scan 3D objects?to put the images in marketing materials, on your own Web site, or on eBay, say?and you don't want to deal with taking photographs, the scanner makes it a slam dunk choice, and the high-quality print output is a welcome extra.

More Multi-function Printer Reviews:
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