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HP Officejet 7000 review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £185
inc VAT

With low running costs, a fast draft speed and dependable print quality, this is a great choice for small offices that need A3 colour output.

Specifications

thermal inkjet, 8ppm print speed, USB Hi-Speed, 10/100 Ethernet, 402x574x181mm

http://www.oyyy.co.uk

A3 printers have lots of uses in work environments, from promotional brochures to A4 documents with room for annotations in the margins.

It’s less likely that they’ll be called upon to produce traditional glossy photo prints, though, except perhaps for surreptitious private use.

This is the rationale behind HP’s Officejet 7000, one of the least expensive A3 inkjets we’ve seen. Based on a similar four-ink print engine to the A4 Officejet 6000, photo printing isn’t its forte. However, costing much less than A3 laser printers – particularly colour ones – it’s an attractive prospect for small offices with limited IT budgets. Print costs also compare well at just 4.7p per mixed-colour A4 page.

You can connect it directly to your PC via USB, or use Ethernet to share it on a network. The sole input tray holds just 150 sheets and leaves them exposed to dust, and the plastic case doesn’t look like it’s designed to cope with careless use in a busy office. Still, the 7,000 pages-per-month duty cycle is reassuring, although this is a one-time maximum rather than suggested regular use.

Mono text prints on cheap 80gsm photocopier paper were dark, crisp and essentially faultless except under the closest scrutiny. Business graphics looked excellent, too, with bright, smooth block colours and no visible banding. Photo prints made a respectable first impression but, with blacks produced from a composite of cyan, magenta and yellow, dark areas were a little pasty and had a blue tint.

We also tried the printer with HP’s expensive 180gsm Superior Inkjet Paper, which is designed to match photo paper but has a finish that’s better suited to business graphics such as brochures. This produced vivid colours and sharp text. White text on a coloured background was particularly impressive, with none of the bleeding exhibited on plain paper. Laser printers can produce a similar effect on plain paper, but inkjets have more subtle shading, which gives smoother results in graduated fills and full-colour graphics.

Performance was excellent, churning out mono text pages at 9.6ppm for A4 and 5.7ppm for A3. Draft print speeds were even better, at 17.6ppm for A4 and 9.6ppm for A3. Quality in Fast Draft mode was barely distinguishable from Normal mode, and was certainly up to the demands of everyday use. For text prints at least, the Officejet 7000 can keep up with laser printers. A4 colour graphics output was slower, though, at 3.8ppm; around a third of the speed we’d expect from a colour laser.

As a low-cost alternative to an A3 colour laser, the Officejet 7000 is almost impossible to fault. It’s fast for text prints, running costs are incredibly low and, when used with specialist paper for critical jobs, quality is at least as good as from a colour laser, and often better.

Basic Specifications

Rating *****
Maximum native print resolution 1,200×1,200dpi

Quoted Speeds

Quoted speed, mono A4 8ppm
Quoted speed, colour A4 7ppm

Tested Speeds

Time for two 10x8in photos 1.0 5m 50s
Time for six 6x4in photos 1.0 6m 11s

Print Quality

Number of ink colours 4
Number of ink cartridges 4
Maximum number of ink colours 4
Maximum number of cartridges 4

Physical and Environmental

Standard printer interfaces USB Hi-Speed, 10/100 Ethernet
Optional printer interfaces none
Size 402x574x181mm
Weight 7.0kg
Noise (in normal use) 7dB(A)
Duty cycle 7,000
Power consumption standby 1W
Power consumption idle 2W
Power consumption active 10W

Paper Handling

Maximum paper size A3+
Maximum paper weight 280gsm
Standard paper inputs 1
Standard paper input capacity 150
Maximum paper inputs 1
Maximum paper input capacity 150
Duplex (code, cost if option) No

Photo Features

PictBridge support No
Borderless printing A3+
Direct (PC-less) printing No
Supported memory cards none
CD printing No

General

Printer technology thermal inkjet
Supported operating systems Windows 2000/XP/Vista, Mac OS X v10.4/10.5
Other inkjet features none
Other inkjet options N/A

Buying Information

Price £185
Consumable parts and prices 920XL Black £17.32, 920XL Cyan £7.65, 920XL Magenta £7.65, 920XL Yellow £7.65
Quoted life of supplied black cartridge 1200
Quoted life of supplied colour cartridge(s) 700
Quoted life of supplied photo cartridge(s) N/A
Price per colour A4 page 3.3p
Price per mono A4 page 1.4p
Warranty one year RTB
Supplier http://www.oyyy.co.uk
Details www.hp.co.uk

Tested Print Speeds

Time for two 10x8in photos 1.0 5m 50s
Time for six 6x4in photos 1.0 6m 11s