HP Officejet 150 Mobile Review
HP Officejet 150 Mobile
This portable all-in-one makes a valiant effort but ultimately comes up short.
Sections
- Page 1 HP Officejet 150 Mobile Review
- Page 2 Performance and Verdict Review
- Page 3 Feature Table Review
- Page 4 Speeds and Costs Review
Verdict
Pros
- High-quality prints for portable
- Fair speed for mobile printer
- Good copy quality
Cons
- Wireless links not supported
- Messy Bluetooth setup
- Noisy for portable device
Key Specifications
- Review Price: £243.00
- Portable printer with supplied battery
- Print, scan and copy functions
- Touchscreen LCD controls
- Prints from cards and Pictbridge
- Bluetooth connection provided
Introduction
While mobile inkjet printers have been around for a while and mobile scanners are, surprisingly, still a growth area, portable all-in-ones remain very rare. The HP’s Officejet 150 Mobile is one such device and can print, scan and copy using either mains or battery power. It’s quite a bit smaller and lighter than a desktop multifunction machine, although it’s still a bit of a leap to call it ‘mobile’.
HP Officejet 150 Mobile – Design
The Officejet 150 is approximately the size of a six-pack bag of burger buns, but at 3.1kg with its clip-on, external battery quite a bit heavier. Since it comes with no carrying case and won’t fit many conventional shoulder bags, it could prove awkward to carry. You could certainly take it with you in a flight bag, but it’s not like slipping a tablet or notebook in a briefcase.
The machine itself, in silver and black plastic, unfolds to its working position by lifting the cover (which then acts as the paper feed), flipping down the front cover, and lifting the combined scanner head and 60mm LCD display. Pages are scanned front to back and end up sitting on top of the paper feed stack, which seems a little odd, but works well enough.
HP Officejet 150 Mobile – Features
It’s unusual for a mobile device to have a colour LCD display, and even more so for this to offer touchscreen functionality. HP’s implementation works well enough, though touches have to be quite heavy in order to get a reaction.
The Officejet 150 Mobile has a conventional inkjet print mechanism, using two clip-in cartridges for black and tri-colour. At the bottom, back of the left-hand side is a single slot for SD and MemoryStick cards while at the back are separate sockets for USB connection and for PictBridge cameras.
What is oddly missing is a wireless connection. Since this all-in-one is designed for use with mobile devices, this lack of wireless prevents use with many phones and tablets. Although the printer supports Bluetooth, this is really only for Windows devices and the setup is annoyingly convoluted – you have to download the HP drivers from its website, load the correct Bluetooth services on your device, pair the device and printer together and enter the connection password. It’s not nearly as quick and neat a process as using direct wireless would be.