The E78228dn is the faster of HP's two E782 colour models, and the way HP builds them is worth understanding. Both start as the same base unit, product number 8GS50A, with a speed license applied: 8GS15A produces this 28 ppm E78228dn, 8GS14A produces the 22 ppm E78223dn. The hardware, control panel, paper handling, media range, security and supplies are the same.

The gap is 28 ppm against 22 in A4, 15 against 12 in A3, and in duplex 20 ipm black and 21 ipm colour against 17 ipm for both. Unusually, colour duplex is a shade faster than black on this model.

Because the difference is licensed rather than mechanical, the decision is purely commercial: work out whether six extra pages a minute saves enough waiting to justify the price gap in your office. For most moderate-volume sites it will not, and the E78223dn is the better value. For a busy shared floor it will.

A point worth raising before purchase: HP describes this as a dynamic security enabled printer, which means it is intended for use with cartridges carrying an original HP chip or electronic circuitry. Cartridges using non-HP chips may not work, now or after a firmware update. If your office has been buying compatible cartridges for other machines, factor that in, and talk to us about how supplies will be sourced.

A note on the Managed range: HP's Color LaserJet Managed devices are built for contract and managed print environments, and their cartridges carry Managed part codes supplied through that channel rather than off the retail shelf. Confirm with us how consumables will be supplied before ordering, because it changes the running-cost picture.

The E78228dn fits busier shared floors producing colour regularly through the day: marketing and communications teams, larger professional services offices, colleges printing course material, and corporate departments where one colour machine serves 30 or more people.

Choose it over the E78223dn when people actually queue at the machine, because that is the only thing the extra speed buys. Neither model is a production device: if you need SRA3, heavy glossy stock or capacity beyond 2,180 sheets, the E877 series is the correct answer and we will quote it alongside rather than stretch this machine past what it is built for.