HP OfficeJet H470 review

OfficeJet is normally the brand that HP uses for its business all-in-one printers, but in this case, it refers to a diminutive, mobile inkjet machine.

The H470 is a neat device, decked out in black, with silver highlights. The top cover folds up to become a paper feed tray, and the front cover drops down to allow paper out, onto the desktop. There's no output tray, but on a printer that is unlikely to be used for high volume print runs and is more likely to print one or twopage jobs, this isn't an issue.

A simple control panel has buttons to feed paper, cancel a print job, and switch the printer on and off, while there are indicators for low ink and paper jams. The printer has USB and PictBridge sockets at the back, and there's also a memory card slot for SD cards.

The OfficeJet H470 range comprises three different models, and we're looking at the entry-level device here. The other printers in the range include a lithium-ion battery, a Bluetooth adaptor, and carry case. There's a wifi adaptor available as well, though that's an optional extra with any of the models. Both wireless adaptors plug into a USB socket on the side of the machine.

There are two top covers, the second of which is really a feed tray, and when this is folded up, you can get at the head carrier and clip in the two print cartridges, one black and the other tricolour. These are not as easy to insert as some we've seen, and you need to get the angle just right. A CD with the Mac driver, suitable for Mac OS X 10.3.9 or higher, is provided in the box and once installed works without problem.

From our speed tests, the printer can reach 5ppm for black text print, and 2.7ppm for text and colour graphics. Neither of these speeds is bad for a mobile printer, though faster desktop machines are available for a lot less money. A 15 x 10cm photo print took just under one minute 30 seconds.

Print quality of both black text and colour is very reasonable, with little feathering of text characters and good, vivid colours for both business graphics and photos. Photo quality is as good as that found on dedicated machines, though the extra black cartridge in the OfficeJet H470 isn't used when printing photos.

Two different capacities of ink cartridge are available and, as you would expect, you get better economy from the higher capacity, more expensive cartridges, which give you a cost per page of 3p for black pages and 5.9p for colour. The black page cost is a little high, but the colour is average when compared to desktop inkjets.

The OfficeJet H470 is a versatile, portable inkjet printer, with the added flexibility of printing from a digital camera using PictBridge or from an SD card, and options for battery power and two different wireless connections. You pay a premium for the small size and extra convenience, but you don't lose much in print quality or running costs.