CF501X cyan · XL

CF501X is the high yield cyan for the Color LaserJet Pro M254dw and the MFP M281fdw, rated at 2500 pages against 1300 on the standard CF501A.

The saving here is small, which the packaging does not advertise. The X cyan works out at 5.60c a page against 6.15c on the standard size, about 9 percent less, and it costs $60.00 more to buy. That is nothing like the gap on the black cartridge in the same family, where the X version takes about 24 percent off. Buy this one because you are tired of changing cartridges, or because you print enough colour that the interval matters, not because it is going to save you much.

Colour toner also has a habit of aging out rather than running out. On a printer that prints colour occasionally, a high yield cyan can sit in the machine for years, and the cost of the cartridge is spread over pages you may never print. Standard size colour on a low volume machine is a defensible choice for exactly that reason.

The printer's dynamic security notice applies to this cartridge as to the rest: it is intended to work only with cartridges carrying a new or reused HP chip, and an update can block a compatible that had been working. Level reporting is the first thing to go strange on third party colour toner, so treat a compatible cyan showing full for a suspiciously long time as a chip quirk rather than a bonus, and keep a spare before the page starts going pale.