HP Officejet 6700 Premium Review

Verdict

Pros

• USB socket for scan and print
• Fax with speed dials
• Bright, pigment-based inks

Cons

• Lot of ink system housekeeping
• Slow duplex print
• Quite noisy

What is the HP Officejet 6700 Premium?

All-in-one printers intended for the home and small office (SOHO) market tend to be quite expensive beasts, due partly to the need for automatic document feed, fax facilities and duplex printing. HP, however, has managed to include all these facilities in the Officejet 6700 Premium, while still pricing it at under £90 in its own online store.

HP Officejet 6700 Premium – Design and Features

It certainly looks the part, with its large, textured black case and curves to its Automatic Document Feeder (ADF). The scanner lid lifts easily for placing single sheets but doesn’t have extending hinges, which help when scanning from books and magazines.

Controls are on a small, flip-up panel which has a 67mm touchscreen at its centre with columns of dedicated touch buttons down either side. The panel is plastic-fronted, which means it gives a little more than the glass on a phone or tablet, but it’s quite sensitive and easy to navigate. It’s not gestural, but is straightforward enough to use with single presses.

The main paper tray protrudes quite a way from the front of the printer
and paper feeds to the top of the tray cover, which has an extension
coming out still further – not a small footprint device.

HP Officejet 6700 Premium – Installation and Connections

Flip down the front cover and the print head carrier slides into view, so you can plug-in the four ink cartridges. They click into place in their holder extremely easily.

The print head itself is a permanent fitting, which is a mixed blessing. Although it helps keep printing costs down, it also means the head isn’t directly integrated with the cartridge and the printer has to do a lot more squeezing and pumping to keep its system primed. This is annoyingly noisy and can slow the start of print jobs.

The Officejet 6700 Premium comes with USB and Ethernet support as standard and there’s a front panel USB socket which can be used with a USB drive to print documents and photos from, and to scan them to. Scans can be made straight to PDF file or to JPG image.

HP pioneered wireless printing with its various ePrint technologies and they include AirPrint support for Apple devices, and Wireless Direct print for PC and Android. Connecting to the online ePrint Center enables downloading of specialist printing apps, directly to the printer.