Which ink/toner does the HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M281fdw use?

The Color LaserJet Pro MFP M281fdw is the print, copy, scan and fax version of the M254dw, running the same four 202 toners.

Black is the cheap part. 202A prints a page for 5.36c and 202X brings that down to 4.06c, a saving of about 24 percent for $130.00 up front. Colour is where the bills come from: a 202A cyan costs 6.15c a page and the XL only reaches 5.60c, and you are buying cyan, magenta and yellow separately. On an MFP that gets used for scanned colour copies, that adds up faster than people expect.

HP publishes its dynamic security notice for this model in the same words it uses across the range: only intended to be used with cartridges using an HP original chip, and cartridges using a non HP chip may not work, and those that work today may not work in the future. The model is on our firmware lockout tracker.

If a compatible is refused, check whether the printer updated itself recently before you blame the cartridge. HP's error text is unhelpfully generic, and the same message covers a faulty chip, a dirty contact and a firmware block. Timing separates them: weeks of clean printing followed by a sudden refusal points at the firmware, while a cartridge that never worked from the first page usually has a hardware problem. Our guide to an HP cartridge that is not recognized runs the checks in order.