HP LaserJet Enterprise MFP 5601dn: Specs, Price, Pros & Cons
The LaserJet Enterprise MFP 5601dn is the kind of printer that gets bought by a purchasing department rather than a person, and it helps to read it that way. It is a mono laser multifunction for a workgroup: 52 pages a minute, a 50-sheet document feeder that scans both sides of a page in one pass, automatic duplex printing, and the security firmware HP sells to IT departments under the Wolf name.
The number that defines it is the speed. Fifty-two pages a minute in black, with a first page in a few seconds from ready, is the pace of a shared office machine, and the paper path is built for it: a 100-sheet multipurpose tray plus a 550-sheet drawer as standard, a 250-sheet output tray, and optional 550-sheet drawers that take the input to 2,300 sheets. Toner comes in three yields up to a 26,000-page cartridge.
The scanning side is where the MFP earns the letters. The feeder handles fifty sheets, scans two-sided originals automatically, and drives copying, scan-to-email and scan-to-folder from a 4.3-inch colour touchscreen. There is no fax on this model; HP puts fax on the fdn variant.
Connectivity is Gigabit Ethernet and USB. Wi-Fi is not built in – it needs HP's Jetdirect 3200w accessory – which is normal for enterprise hardware and a surprise for anyone shopping it like a home printer. The Amazon listing behind this page is labelled "5601n/dn", but everything it describes is the MFP 5601dn that HP actually sells, and this page follows HP.
It suits an office of ten to thirty people that prints and copies text all day, has an IT person who cares about firmware and fleet management, and does not need colour or fax. It is overkill for a home office, and its price – HP lists it at over a thousand dollars – only makes sense at that scale.
Category strengths
Where the HP LaserJet Enterprise MFP 5601dn beats the average
- A much higher print speed (black) ?52 ppm vs 15.5 ppm (avg)
- A much higher input tray capacity ?650 sheets vs 150 sheets (avg)
- A much higher output tray capacity ?250 sheets vs 60 sheets (avg)
- Has duplex scanning ?
- Has touchscreen display ?
- A higher ADF capacity ?50 sheets vs 35 sheets (avg)
Where the HP LaserJet Enterprise MFP 5601dn trails the average
- No color printing ?
- No Wi-Fi ?
- A much lower print resolution ?1,200 dpi vs 4,800 dpi (avg)
- A much heavier build ?17.2 kg vs 7.94 kg (avg)
- No Wi-Fi Direct ?
How this VS Score was computed
Score 65: each known spec is measured against the median of all printers (64 products, medians winsorised to the 10th–90th percentile), then weighted. 73% of the scoreable weight could be used; unknown values, features not applicable to this class and proxies (battery capacity where a rated life exists) add or remove nothing.
| Specification | This product | Cohort median | Score weight | Points moved |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Print speed (black) | 52 | 15.5 | 2 | +100.0 |
| Color printing | 0 | 1 | 1.5 | −72.0 |
| Automatic duplex printing | 1 | 1 | 1 | +50.0 |
| Automatic document feeder | 1 | 1 | 1 | +50.0 |
| Wi-Fi | 0 | 1 | 1 | −48.0 |
| Input tray capacity | 650 | 150 | 1 | +33.0 |
| Duplex scanning | 1 | 0 | 0.5 | +25.0 |
| Ethernet | 1 | 1 | 0.5 | +25.0 |
| Touchscreen display | 1 | 0 | 0.5 | +25.0 |
| Print resolution | 1,200 | 4,800 | 0.5 | −18.5 |
| Output tray capacity | 250 | 60 | 0.3 | +15.0 |
| Wi-Fi Direct | 0 | 1 | 0.3 | −14.4 |
| ADF capacity | 50 | 35 | 0.5 | +10.5 |
| Fax | 0 | 0 | 0.2 | −9.6 |
| Weight | 17.2 | 7.94 | 0.3 | −8.1 |
Not scored: Print speed (color) (unknown: not scored); Supertank / refillable ink (unknown: not scored); Monthly duty cycle (unknown: not scored); All-in-one (standard for the class (84% have it)); USB (standard for the class (100% have it)); Apple AirPrint (standard for the class (97% have it)); Mobile app printing (standard for the class (100% have it)).
Editor’s note
My view of the MFP 5601dn is that it is a very good office machine wearing the wrong price tag on Amazon, and the price tag is the story a buyer should hear first. HP's own store lists it at 1,299 dollars. The only marketplace offer attached to this page for a while was nearly six thousand, which is a reseller inflating an enterprise SKU, and it has been excluded. Buy it from HP, an authorised reseller or a business supplier, not from whoever appears first on a marketplace.
At HP's price it is straightforward value for a small-to-mid office. The combination that matters is 52 pages a minute, single-pass duplex scanning and a proper two-tray paper supply, because those are the three things that stop a shared printer becoming a queue. The Wolf security stack and the fleet-management hooks are real for anyone who manages more than one printer and irrelevant for anyone who does not.
What would make me hesitate is buying it as a home-office printer. There is no Wi-Fi without an accessory, no fax at all on this variant, no colour, and the TerraJet toner is HP-chipped, so third-party cartridges are a gamble. For a home office a Brother mono MFP does the job at a third of the price.
The listing confusion is worth a sentence too. HP names these machines by suffix – dn for duplex, fdn for fax – and the marketplace title mashes two together. If the box you receive says fdn, it has a fax modem this page does not credit.
I would buy it for a workgroup of ten to thirty on a wired network with an IT owner, and at HP's price. I would not pay a marketplace premium for it, and I would send a solo home office to a smaller, cheaper mono MFP.
Specifications
Quality bars are generated automatically against 63 other printers.
Printing
Scanning & copying
Paper handling
Connectivity
Design
Sources and verification
Where the specifications come from
- Official product pagehp.com
Verification
- First published
- Specifications last checked
- Sheet completeness
- 21 of 24 specifications verified; the rest show as Unknown and are never estimated or scored
- Page type
- Product specification page — Compiled from the manufacturer’s published specifications and the cited sources; this is not a hands-on test.
- Basis
- Research-based: specifications and editorial text were compiled from the documents listed here and the manufacturer’s published data. We have not tested this unit ourselves; where independent measurements are mentioned they belong to the linked publication.
Where to buy
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Price history
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The bottom line
The HP LaserJet Enterprise MFP 5601dn earns a VS Score of 65, comfortably above average among the 64 printers we compare here.
- Who it’s for
- An office of roughly ten to thirty people on a wired network that prints and copies text all day, has someone managing printers, and wants 52 ppm, one-pass duplex scanning and a two-tray paper supply without colour or fax.
- Who should look elsewhere
- Home offices and solo users – no built-in Wi-Fi, no fax on this variant, no colour, chipped toner – and anyone tempted by a marketplace listing priced far above HP's own 1,299 dollars.
- The trade-off that matters
- You get enterprise speed, security and paper handling in exchange for enterprise assumptions: a wired network, an IT owner, HP-only toner and a purchase price that is only reasonable through HP or a business reseller.
- The main alternative
- Brother MFC-L6915DW – a 52 ppm mono laser MFP with duplex scanning, built-in Wi-Fi and fax at a lower price, for offices that want the speed without HP's enterprise stack or its accessory-only wireless.
The VS Score is calculated from the weighted specifications above, compared with every other printer we track — a shortlisting guide, not a substitute for your own priorities. See how we score.
