Mr Viral
Canon Color imageCLASS LBP633Cdw
MSRP $379.99
“Canon’s Color imageClass LBP633Cdw is an attractive laser printer, but photos are a bit muted and the controls are unintuitive.”
Pros
Fast print speed
Great color document quality
Compact size
Duplex printing
Media slot for envelopes and labels
Cons
Too expensive
Color prints are costly
Awkward user interface
Photo prints have muted colors
Canon’s Color imageClass LBP633Cdw is a high-quality color laser printer designed for small offices. It looks attractive, and the midrange price promises good quality at reasonably quick speeds.
When you’re shopping for the best color laser printer, specifications are important but sometimes unexpected details can make a big difference in deciding which model offers the most value. I checked print quality, speed, ease of use, and long-term costs to help you make a good choice.
Specs
Canon Color imageClass LBP633Cdw
Dimensions
17 x 16.5 x 11.3 inches
Weight
35.3 pounds
Print speed
22 ppm (black), 22 ppm (color)
Print resolution
1200 x 1200 dpi
Ports
Hi-speed USB, 10/100/1000Base‐T/TX Ethernet
Paper capacity
250 sheets (main tray), 1 sheet (media slot)
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi 802.11/b/g/n
Design
Canon’s Color imageClass LBP633Cdw looks aerodynamic for a sturdy laser printer. Alan Truly / Digital Trends
Canon gave the Color imageClass LBP633Cdw an aerodynamic look with an angled profile that’s lower at the front, making the top more accessible. The body is off white with a black upper panel. It’s lighter than an all-in-one printer but still hefty at a little over 35 pounds. The footprint is 17 by 16.5 inches and it stands 11.3 inches tall, a good height for standing or seated use.
The most eye-catching feature is the control panel that’s at the top left. It looks like an old desktop calculator or adding machine. The display matches that aesthetic, a small 2.75-inch black-and-white LCD screen at a 55-degree angle that shows five lines of pixelated text. Below the display, there’s a keypad that looks like it belongs on an old phone.
I’m not opposed to unusual controls. I really enjoyed the dial-based interface HP used on its Color LaserJet Pro 4201dw. The question is whether Canon made the Color imageClass LBP633Cdw’s design as functional as it is quirky.
A flip-up panel on the top left of the Color imageClass LBP633Cdw hides a USB-A port that allows walk-up printing. The main paper tray holds 250 sheets in an easy-access removable drawer. One-off prints on a label or envelope are simple thanks to a single-sheet media slot.
Printing performance
Canon’s Color imageClass LBP633Cdw is relatively quick with the first page out in about 10 seconds. Photo by Tracey Truly / Digital Trends
The Color imageClass LBP633Cdw is relatively fast rolling out the first page in a little over 10 seconds. For longer documents, it outputs 22 pages per minute in monochrome and color.
Document quality is excellent. Canon’s Color imageClass LBP633Cdw prints with good color accuracy, nice gradations, and line-free color blocks. Black-and-white documents have crisp graphics, and fine print is easily readable. Reports and charts look great.
Inkjet printers have an advantage over laser printers when it comes to pictures. Still, the Color imageClass LBP633Cdw handles photos well. Colors are a bit muted but true to the original.
For photographic quality borderless prints, a high-quality inkjet photo printer like Epson’s EcoTank ET-8500 will handle vivid colors better.
Special features
The Color imageClass LBP633Cdw’s thumb drive port design is convenient but the file selector is unintuitive. Photo by Tracey Truly / Digital Trends
Canon’s top-mounted thumb drive panel is easy to access. One press on the back of a panel pops up the front to reveal the USB-A port. Unfortunately, operation is a little confusing.
The Color imageClass LBP633Cdw shows a list of files on the thumb drive, but after selecting one, nothing happens. I exited and tried again. After a few tries, I noticed an “Apply” option at the top of the list.
After selecting documents, I had to scroll to the top and select apply before I could choose print settings and start printing. I only had about a dozen files on my thumb drive. I had to press the up arrow repeatedly to return to the top and apply my file selection. It was easier after the first try, but the controls would become annoying with a longer list.
Software and compatibility
The Color imageClass LBP633Cdw has an awkward interface that uses Multi-tap entry like a late 1990s cellphone. Photo by Tracey Truly / Digital Trends
Canon didn’t leverage its mobile app to assist in setting up the Color imageClass LBP633Cdw, making it an awkward introduction to the printer. After powering on, I selected language, location, and time, then skipped the remote management option since I’m not sharing this printer with a workgroup. That’s all fairly standard.
The on-screen instructions ended, but the printer wasn’t visible in the Canon Print mobile app. Some printers show a Wi-Fi wizard as part of setup, but I had to dig a bit to find the Color imageClass LBP633Cdw’s wireless LAN settings. The printer found my Wi-Fi network and asked for the password. This is where I had trouble.
Canon gave the Color imageClass LBP633Cdw a user interface (UI) I’d expect from a cellphone from the late 1990s. There are four directional arrows, “OK” and back buttons, and a grid of telephone keypad buttons labeled with numbers and letter groups. Known as Multi-tap, pressing the same number repeatedly cycles through three or four letters. Pressing the “2” enters an “A” and pressing it twice enters a “B.” I don’t really need my modern printer to have a nostalgic feel.
After entering my Wi-Fi password, the Color imageClass LBP633Cdw couldn’t connect. Each letter is quickly replaced with an asterisk “*” so I assumed I made an error. I repeated this process several times. Assuming it was a Wi-Fi issue, I made a phone hotspot and tried again without success.
The Color imageClass LBP633Cdw requires several steps for each character of a Wi-Fi password. Photo by Tracey Truly / Digital Trends
After spending half an hour trying seemingly useless things and searching the internet, I came across the solution. I was entering uppercase letters. The UI is horribly unintuitive. Step one is selecting an entry mode: letter and number or symbol. Step two is choosing uppercase, lowercase, or number mode. Step three is multi-tapping one character or choosing symbol with the arrow keys. Those three steps are repeated for each character in my Wi-Fi password.
I was relieved to finally see I was connected. With Wi-Fi set up complete, it was quick and easy to access the Color imageClass LBP633Cdw from my computers and mobile devices. It supports Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and even ChromeOS.
The Color imageClass LBP633Cdw also supports a wired connection with a USB or Ethernet cable to a computer. I usually prefer Wi-Fi, but plugging in a cable would have been much faster.
Price
Canon’s Color imageClass LBP633Cdw has good document quality but color toner is expensive. Alan Truly / Digital Trends
At $380, Canon’s Color imageClass LBP633Cdw is expensive for a color laser printer with a disappointing UI and mediocre photo quality. Canon’s excellent all-in-one imageClass MF654cdw is about the same price and includes a scanner and automatic document feeder.
Still, it has good color document quality, and the Color imageClass LBP633Cdw worked well with my computers and phones. Another critical detail is toner costs, which can add up in a hurry in a busy office.
The Color imageClass LBP633Cdw comes with starter cartridges that supply up to 910 black-and-white pages and 680 color pages. That’s about two-thirds full for black and a little over halfway for each color cartridge.
Canon kept monochrome printing affordable. Each $72 standard cartridge yielding 1,350 pages and a $109 high-capacity cartridge providing 3,130 pages. That works out to a cost of 3 to 5 cents per page. Of course, there are fast and inexpensive monochrome laser printers like Canon’s imageCLASS MF275dw if you don’t need color.
The Color imageClass LBP633Cdw isn’t the best choice for low-cost color documents. Each color cartridges costs $86 for 1,250 pages or $112 for a high-capacity cartridge that can print up to 2,350 pages. Since you need three cartridges to print in color, the cost per page skyrockets. You’ll spend 14 cents to 21 cents for each color page.
Is this the printer for you?
Canon’s Color imageClass LBP633Cdw has good monochrome and color document quality, and it prints photos with good color fidelity. The speed is good but not great. As a home office printer, it might be all you need, and there are some nice features like walk-up printing and a media tray for hassle-free printing on a label or envelope.
Unfortunately, setup is awkward with the odd Multi-tap phone keypad. The UI also makes thumb drive navigation slow. At the list price of $380, I’d recommend shopping around to find a good deal on a better printer. For a direct match to the Color imageClass LBP633Cdw, I’d recommend Brother’s HL-L3295CDW, a faster printer with low-cost toner and a color touchscreen that’s much easier to use.
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