Slow, Poor Memory Capacity, Tendency To Act Like A Sulking Child
Recommend to potential buyers:
no
Full review
So, to review this effectively, I have used this for the best part of a year now and have hammered it with just about everything I could throw at it. From word documents to PDFs and Visio diagrams, this thing has had it all. It's just a real shame it doesn't really stand up to any of it...
Start with the printing aspect, since, despite being a multi-function unit, it's primary role is still to print.
Printing
HP ship this printer with 32MB of RAM built in, and upgraded to 64MB and alledgedly boasts a print speed of 28ppm, this is sadly lacking. On simple word documents this is almost true. I haven't actually been geeky enough to try this, but I reckon that it *might* just about manage 18ppm. On PDFs and Visio documents it manages a paltry 0ppm. Yes, incredibly, it took this printer 9 minutes to print out a 3 page PDF... Now, I work in IT and 90% of the documents I poduce are PDF's, so this really isn't a viable solution.
The print quality itself isn't too bad, pretty standard for an MFP and the toners do have about 2500 pages in them. There are two options of toner, 2500 pages and 4000 pages at 5% toner coverage.
It only has a 250 sheet feeder tray, but that is stuffing it full. I can only get about 100 pages in and still expect it to print properly without throwing a hissy fit and chewing up a couple of pieces of paper.
Changing the toner is also quite laborious since you have to lift the scanner unit up, unclip both sides and then unclip and remove the toner, then reverse the process to install the new one. Don't even try to fix a paper jam without the aid of a screwdriver, quantum physics manual and mystery vortex.
Scanning & Copying
The simple scanner gives a 2400x2400 dpi image, which can be printed or sent directly to the computer. I will be honest; the major use that the scanner gets is when I scan the Times 2 Su Doku puzzles for a colleague in the office who has a weird phobia about getting newsprint on their hands...
It is incredibly easy to use. You press the green button that says scan. It takes a good while for the scanner bulb to warm up, but it does tell you on the display that it is doing this.
There is also a automatic document feed on the unit, which can handle about 5 sheets before getting a bit confused and dragging through 2 sheets at once.
The print quality isn't bad from the scanner, but no where near the quality of a purpose built copier.
The footprint of the unit is excellent compared with all 3 component units, but then you would expect that for an all in one unit. It sits proudly on the desk by the fax machine and is actually pretty tall thinking about it, I don't think that I would recommend it in a home office since it is quite heavy and could do some damage if it fell.
So, overall, the printer isn't actually cut out to handle the workload that I threw at it. And I'm only 1 person. This is supposedly a workgroup printer.
God help anyone who tries to put this in a busy 10 person office...
More details
Reliability
Average
Design
Satisfactory
Range of extra features / functions
Poor
Instruction manual
Satisfactory
Manufacturer Support
Good
Evaluate this review
How helpful would this review be to someone making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
