HP Photosmart Premium Fax All-in-One review

HP's latest multifunction peripheral is more compact than Epson's PX800FW, and it's much better-looking, too.

It may be expensive, but it can print on both sides of paper, has a 50-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF) that can scan both sides of a sheet, plus USB, Ethernet, WiFi and Bluetooth interfaces, which may be unnecessary for home or home office use. There are lots of buttons, but the numeric keypad is sensible if you use the fax heavily.

The print engine is a five-tank, four-colour (CMYK and photo black) inkjet, and cartridges can be replaced both independently of each other and of the print heads. Paper feed options are equally flexible, with separate paper trays for A4 and up to 7x5in photo paper, plus a separate slot for printable CDs. When printing from memory cards, print functions are accessed using the 2.4in colour screen and four-way control pad. Like HP's Photosmart A636, the Premium Fax All-in-One detects the paper quality and adjusts print quality automatically.

Unfortunately, there were problems when it came to printing. Ordinary photocopier paper fed without any problems, but the feeding mechanism struggled with both postcard-size and A4 Advanced Photo Paper. The printer often damaged the leading edge of these papers and was unable to feed the paper though straight, resulting in misaligned prints.

These problems make the Premium Fax All-in-One little use as a high-quality photo printer, which is a shame since its print quality is great. Colours are vibrant, details are crisp and grain was all but invisible. Text output on photocopier paper was crisp, too. Our only complaint was that the printer struggled with areas of subtle shading on certain images.

If you're looking purely for a photo printer, Canon's iP4600 is considerably cheaper to buy, and produces slightly better-quality photos.