HP Photosmart Premium Fax All-in-One review

As the name of this all-in-one device suggests, it's aimed at users who expect a bit more from their printer, scanner, fax and photocopier.

The Photosmart Premium Fax All-in-One is feature packed with everything you might expect from a high-end device. Wireless b and g connectivity, Bluetooth and wired Ethernet connectivity are all available, as is USB. It has an integrated duplex unit for double sided printing, as well as dedicated photo paper tray for up to 7 x 5in paper. There's also a CD/DVD printing tray built-in and an automatic document feeder that can hold up to 50 sheets.

In addition, there's a digital memory card reader, with an LCD screen for operation and printing options. Though HP was late to the separate inks party, it's in attendance here, with a tank each for CMYK and photo black. The all-in-one is finished in glossy white plastic, so if you're in a busy office, it might look a bit grubby after a while but it's well built nonetheless.

Getting the HP going is easy enough, and connecting to our wireless network was a simple process. Overall, it took just a few minutes to add the printer. The LCD screen is a touch small for our liking and though it's hinged, the amount of tilt is minimal making it pointless. Over the time we used the HP, we found it's menu system to be a little confusing, and though it's not exactly difficult we've seen and used much better.

We put the Photosmart through a number of tests starting with the most simple: text. We were immediately impressed by the text output from the HP. Fast draft mode chugged out 10 sheets in just 39 seconds. The quality of the text didn't suffer because of the speed it was produced either. Not quite solid black, but neither a tepid grey the text was crisp, well defined and very presentable. In normal, and best modes the Photosmart was even better though we'd be surprised if you really needed to use the top quality mode as normal is more than passable for best.

Business documents were impressive, too. We printed a 10-page document with a mixture of text styles, colours and images in both black and white and colour. The Photosmart coped well with the mix and produced a great-looking document even on pain paper. Subtle differences in colours were picked out well by the HP and the results were truly impressive.

The photo output from the HP continued to match the quality of the results from our other tests. Fantastically well detailed and with excellent colour balance, the Photosmart Premium lived up to its name. We'd have been impressed with the results if they'd been from a dedicated photo inkjet. That an all-in-one is producing such pleasing prints is very impressive. Accurate, detailed and truly impressive, we could find no fault with the photographic out put from the HP. Colour photocopies were also very good, though the mono results were a little washed out.

For the purposes of testing, we ran all of our prints over wireless and USB connections. The time differences weren't all that large, but it's clearly better to use a wired connection if speed if your main concern. It took two minutes nine seconds for a 10-page business document on USB, and three minutes five seconds for the same over the air.

We only had a few gripes about the Photosmart when testing. Firstly, there was the unexplained and unwelcome amount of time it took the printer to start photo jobs. After pressing print, you're treated to a fairly long wait, with the printer punctuating this time with odd squeaks and noises. It took 43 seconds before the HP began to actually print in one case. Secondly, the LCD screen was a tad small for our liking, and this exacerbated mistakes and missteps on the fiddly menu system.