What's the difference between the m477 fdw & m479 fdw

[Tazmanthe1st]

What's the difference between the m477 fdw & m479 fdw?

[Alex-TATS]

Hi Tazmanthe1st,

Basically, these two printer are almost the same. They have the same or similar hardware. The only difference is that the M479 uses the latest firmware Future Smart 4 which makes it a lot more easier to manage it, a lot more secure, less toner and less energy consumption.

I hope this may help,

Cheers!

[Repairatrooper]

While the units are similar, as Pro units they do not use FutureSmart 4, which runs on Enterprise products.  Hardware wise they are identical, biggest difference is HP added the digital fax capability that was present on older models but missing from the M477. Digital fax allows you to forward received faxes to either email or a network folder.

[RonMiller]

Can you tell me whether the m479fdw still has the hobbled ADF scan resolution of 300 dpi that the M477fdw was limited by? All I can find in the specs are the same "up to 1200 dpi", but I have learned to be highly suspicious of the "up to" phrase in HP specs.

[Repairatrooper]

The challenge with ADF devices is they are not precise paper advancing devices. A 300 dpi resolution restriction would be liked to the inability to move the paper in precise enough increments to scan. Whereas the flat glass offers much more precision. The scanners are identical on these units so likely any dpi limitation of the ADF on a 477 will be the same on a 479.

[RonMiller]

Thanks for the response. Many other manufacturers do not downgrade the ADF scan resolution for their MFPs, so I have always wondered why HP does so, and also why they conceal the fact that they do. Even though the M477 and M479 models use the same scanner, it would seem that HP could easily remove this restriction from the new model if they chose to do so. As a result, I'd like to get a definitive answer. Is there a better venue than this forum to get the definitive word on this question?

[Repairatrooper]

Not so, many small Lexmark models support only 1/2 the resolution via ADF that they support off the glass. I will see if I can confirm the resolution specs for you.

[RonMiller]

Thanks for looking into this!

I really overall would prefer to purchase an HP color laser MFP, but HP's choice to hobble their ADF scan resolution either is overly conservative or an indication that their ADF technology is inferior to that of some other other manufacturers.

I should have been more clear with my comparison to other manufacturer. While indeed at least some some other manufacturers do downgrade the max scan resolution for their ADF modes, in several cases, even the downgraded ADF resolution is far higher than that of the HP m477/479 series . For example, several Brother color laser MFPs provide published ADF scan resolutions of 600 x 600 dpi or even 600 X 1200 dpi (downgraded from 1,200 x 1,200  and 1,200 x 2,400 dpi flatbed) vs. the inadequate (for detailed graphics) HP limitations of 300 x 300 dpi for ADF vs 1,200 x 1,200 dpi for flatbed on the HP M477 (and M479?) series.

Also, at least one manufacturer is  honest about it - for the MFPs I checked, Brother lists both flatbed and ADF scan resolutions right in their standard spec sheets for their color laser MFPs, rather than taking HP's misleading approach of just writing "up to 1,200 x 1,200 dpi" for the M477, M479 and several other HP MFP series.

[Nesei]

A further question, I run several versions and need full compatibility. Are these printers Linux compatible?

Professionally I have used HP printers and plotters and Windows was never a problem, but Linux is support

I need now.