HP Officejet 4500
The cheapest all-in-one in this survey, this little machine offers a lot for a small outlay. A simple but effective 20-sheet ADF sits on top of a wide, but shallow machine with a basic control panel centred on a single-line LCD display. The 100-sheet paper tray has no dust cover and USB and Ethernet connections are standard, with a wireless version available for an extra £15. Speeds of 6.0ppm and 4.0ppm are claimed and I saw 6.1ppm and 2.6ppm in black and colour. Print quality is very good for an entry-level printer on documents and photos and page costs of 2.8p and 6.5p are a little better than average.
Reg Rating 85%
Price £54
More info HP
HP Officejet 8500A
This is a big, sleek all-in-one for somebody who expects to get a good day’s work out of a printer. From the rakishly styled ADF to the touchscreen controls in a panel hinged at the right-hand end of its front, it's trying to do chic. There's a 250-sheet paper tray, though no special-purpose feed, and memory card and PictBridge slots support photo print. Under test, it reached 12.4ppm in black and 5.6ppm in colour, though it only manages 3.7 sides per minute, duplex. Black text print is sharp, colours are bright and photos are very good, too. The high yield ink cartridges give very low page costs of 1.1p for black and 4.0p for colour.
Reg Rating 85%
Price £169
More info HP
Next page: Kodak Office Hero 6.1
COMMENTS
So... can these devices print the entire surface of a sheet of paper (i.e. without non-printing margins)? The (photoshopped) imagery for most of them appears to imply that they can.
summery?
For something like this, remember, it's spread over 5 pages.
Would it be so much to have a little data table at the end, where we can see the facts again, but in a format that allows comparison?
Also, the cost average, is that average for this batch of 10, for all printers, or just printers of this rough class-range?
Would have liked a "does it scan without ink cartridges" option
As I had a HP which was PURELY purchased just for ADF and sure enough, one cartridge went "dry", the printer failed to do anything demanding I purchase another cartridge (rinse and repeat).
@Audrey S. Thackeray. Re: Disappointing review
I think that with a 10 product round-up it is fairly clear that unless the author were to write a humungous review (after spending a couple of months trialling all of them) it was always going to be 3 - 4 paragraphs or so per product. Surely the use of such "portmanteau" reviews is to enable the reader to pick out one or two products for consideration followed by a bit of googling to see if there are any more extensive reviews of the individual product available out there?
Disappointing review
I can't imagine using this review in any purchasing decision, there's just not enough info - it would be good as a minimum to include the dimensions of the device and some samples of the printing / scanning. Also would want to know if the print cost figures have been calculated from actual use or (as I suspect) quoted from manufacturer's specs.
I quite like this quick round-up style for reviews of toys and gadgets but it needs more depth for things like this.
