CF502X yellow · XL

The yellow in a 202X set is the CF502X, for the Color LaserJet Pro M254dw and the MFP M281fdw. Rated at 2500 pages against 1300 on the CF502A, it prints at 5.60c a page rather than 6.15c.

Yellow is normally the last colour anyone needs in quantity, which makes this a cartridge to buy for a specific reason rather than by default. If the printer produces marketing pages, maps or anything with large light backgrounds, yellow goes faster than the pattern most offices see and the larger size pays. For invoices with a coloured logo it does not.

Mixing sizes across the four cartridges is fine. The printer neither knows nor cares whether the yellow beside a standard cyan is an X, and nothing in the firmware treats a mixed set differently. Buy by colour and by how fast that colour actually empties in your machine, which the supply status page reports after a few months.

HP's dynamic security notice applies to this printer, so compatible toner carrying a non HP chip can be blocked by a firmware update that installs on its own. So turn automatic updates off before committing to third party toner, and prefer remanufactured cartridges built on reused original HP chips, which HP's notice allows on its own terms. If a new yellow prints streaky from the first page, take it out, tilt it back and forth a few times and refit it before deciding it is faulty.