Printer marketing has a language all its own, and we don't mean PCL or PostScript. Take MFP, for example; it usually stands for "multifunction printer" or "multifunction peripheral," although HP's spec sheet for the Color LaserJet CM1017 modestly translates the acronym as "multifunction product."

Fair enough, but what's the difference between an MFP and an AIO (all-in-one)? At our last HP press briefing, a product manager explained that the former is a printer/scanner/copier built for heavy duty in a busy business, while the latter term implies a more affordable small-office or home device -- usually one based on color inkjet instead of color laser printing technology.

Fair enough, but what's the difference between a regular color laser and an MFP? In the case of the CM1017, it's around $300 -- and while the HP is a handsome product, we think that's a bit much.

Whoa, Déjà vu

Priced at $624, the Color LaserJet CM1017 resembles the Color LaserJet 2600N that we praised in a July 2005 review and that's currently selling for $299 ($399 with a $100 discount through May 12, 2007). Both are rated at 8 pages per minute for both black and white and color printing, with 600 by 600 dpi resolution optimized by HP's ImageREt 2400 resolution enhancement technology.

Both have a 250-sheet, slide-out paper drawer plus an adjustable-width slot for feeding single sheets or envelopes, with a second 250-sheet tray as a $149 option. Both use the same black, yellow, cyan, and magenta toner cartridges, which slide easily into a rack of slots behind the front panel. Both have USB 2.0 and Ethernet ports for solo and team players, respectively, though the CM1017 can also serve as a 10/100Mbps Ethernet print server.

The main difference, of course, is that the MFP has a head on its shoulders -- a letter- and A4-size flatbed scanner with pushbutton controls that let the CM1017 serve as a monochrome or color copier, in addition to scanning documents or photos into PDF or assorted other types of files and e-mail attachments, or importing pictures or editable OCR text into your image editor, word processor, or other application.

And while no color laser can match the sharp, vivid photos produced by a higher-resolution inkjet -- for one thing, the classic CMYK quartet can't compete with the six or more colors used by photo printers -- the CM1017 has handy flash-memory card slots and a 2.4-inch color LCD screen. The latter helps handle jobs such as previewing the images on a card and selecting one or more to print in a variety of sizes and page layouts. (The device does not, however, join many photo printers in supplying a USB port for flash drives and PictBridge cameras in addition to card slots.)

Sounds good, right? It is, but we've been spoiled by other MFPs. Office-productivity-wise, the HP is a three- rather than four-in-one, with no fax functionality to save the desk space taken by a fax machine. And when it comes to one key convenience, the $624 CM1017 is no better than HP's $80 Deskjet F380: We hate to see any AIO without an automatic document feeder (ADF) to handle multipage copying or scanning jobs, but CM1017 users must perform the chore of placing and replacing pages on the scanner glass one at a time.

Sorry, but we can't help thinking about those two omissions while thinking that the premium you pay for a multifunction model instead of a plain printer in the inkjet world is closer to $100 or $150 than $300. (And yes, it's totally out of the CM1017's class but we can't help remembering the six-color inkjet AIO priced at $100 with fax and ADF that we reviewed a couple of weeks ago.)