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Jewish World Review Jan. 4, 2013 / 22 Teves, 5773 Compact, functional HP printer impresses By Mark Kellner
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Once upon a time, or so it seemed, a printer was utterly vital to the operation of a home computer: you could hardly have a PC without an "output device."
Now, however, it seems printing can be something of a rarity. At home, I've gone a good six months without printing anything. Not that this was a perfect situation, but, to be honest, I didn't miss not having a printer around all that much.
But a New Year demands new thinking, and for me it meant installing an HP OfficeJet 6700 Premium, an "all-in-one" printer that scans and sends and receives faxes, the latter when connected to a phone line. (I guess there are still people sending faxes, right?)
For many users, I'd suspect, an "all-in-one" is sufficiently comprehensive if it'll do printing and scanning. On those fronts -- sorry, I didn't test faxing -- the HP OfficeJet 6700 Premium is certainly a highly capable device which I can recommend for almost every need. The list price is $169, not at all bad for what it delivers, but for what I'd presume is a limited time, you can score one for $139 via HP's website, http://bit.ly/VZ5MvX. (As this column is filed, Amazon.com is listing the printer for $143.08 with free shipping. Again, I don't know how long that price will last.)
The OfficeJet 6700's size was the first thing to impress me. It's compact without being ridiculously small or difficult to manage. There's a built-in "duplex" device for dual-sided printing, which juts out of the back side of the printer, while the paper feed/output tray juts out slightly from the front of the unit. Not having measured, I'll guess it's about two-thirds the size of the OfficeJet 8600 I'd used previously -- a significant improvement in my view.
Like the larger OfficeJet, the 6700 has a tilt-out control panel which displays various functions, each selectable with a touch on the screen. It also has built-in WiFi, which lets you share access to the printer over a wireless network. The paper input tray is rated to hold 250 sheets or 30 envelopes, while the output tray holds 75 sheets, according to HP's statistics.
In something that is becoming more common in the industry, the OfficeJet 6700 uses separate ink cartridges for color (cyan, magenta and yellow) and black ink. The standard black ink cartridge is said to produce 400 pages; an "XL" version will deliver 1,000 pages, HP says. For the color inks, standard cartridges yield 330 pages, while the "XL" versions kick that up to 825 pages, again, according to HP. As with all "consumable" supplied, your mileage probably will vary, depending on the type of printing you do and your use of typestyles and colors. Lots of dense printing in a solid (or mixed) color, or in black ink for that matter, will deplete an ink cartridge faster than less-demanding print applications.
Print speeds are fine for a home or small office application, I'd suspect: from the time I clicked "print" in an application, 20 seconds elapsed before my first page appeared, and an entire two-page document was complete in a total of 24 seconds from that click. These speeds were obtained using a Wi-Fi connection, which apparently is HP's preferred way of linking computers and devices these days. Built-in USB and Ethernet connections are also standard, however.
Setting up the printer was a breeze, although there was one anomaly: installation worked best when I first connected the printer via a USB, and then, as noted, I was encouraged to print wirelessly, which is fine by me. Connecting the printer to my (secure) home wireless network was exceptionally easy, since HP's computer-based installer not only found my network, but allowed me to enter the encrypted password via my computer keyboard, instead of the printer's touchscreen. That's a very nice feature, in my opinion.
Scanning worked superbly: the HP, wirelessly, successfully scanned a two-page document. Software supplied with the printer (a basic version of ReadIRIS from I.R.I.S. software) did a near-perfect job of recognizing the scanned text. I was thrilled.
The only non-thrilling part is that of "duplex," or two-sided printing. One page's top was at the bottom of the reverse side's page, and this persisted through two different word processors. If such printing is your mainstay, you might want to look at something else. Me? I'm going to try and find a solution.
Overall, the HP OfficeJet 6700 Premium is a highly useful printer at a very good cost. It's worth checking out, even if you won't be using it often.
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JWR contributor Mark Kellner has reported on technology for industry newspapers and magazines since 1983, and has been the computer columnist for The Washington Times since 1991.Comment by clicking here. © 2012, News World Communications, Inc. Reprinted with permission of The Washington Times. Visit the paper at http://www.washingtontimes.com |
Arnold Ahlert | |||||||||||
