HP OfficeJet Pro 7720 review

Given the low value level and its desk-friendly design, this multifunction printer’s potential to prove A3-sized prints comes as a pleasing shock. It’s actually a cause to decide on the HP OfficeJet Pro 7720 over the myriad A4 inkjet all-in-ones on the market, particularly because it contains all the key options we’ve come to anticipate.

Being a four-in-one, it could possibly print, copy, scan and fax, but it surely additionally presents wi-fi printing through your Wi-Fi community, or by Wi-fi Direct and boasts a 35-page computerized doc feed (ADF) and 250-page paper tray. HP’s companion app makes operation from a cell machine simple and you’ll print onto nearly any kind of paper from envelopes, to shiny photograph paper and tabloid pages. It may additionally print on either side of the web page, though it could possibly’t do that with A3 paper, sadly. 

Essentially the most fascinating specification although, is the value. At $99 (£105, AU$137), HP’s on-line retailer expenses much less for the printer than it does for a set of alternative ink, which is $139.92 (£107) for XL cartridges. The HP OfficeJet Professional 7720 prices half the value of the equally specified Brother MFC-J5330DW and even lower than the Epson WorkForce WF-7210DTW, which is a print solely machine.

On paper, not less than, it seems to be like an unbeatable deal, however we determined to search out out for ourselves if any corners had been reduce. 

Design

The HP OfficeJet Professional 7720 is fairly bigger than your common A4 MPF, but it surely hides its bulk behind panels of inoffensive off white and patterned gray plastic. This can be a machine aimed on the residence workplace the place seems to be are a consideration and HP’s designers have achieved nicely to provide it a level of symmetry and elegance.

Nevertheless, it’s significantly wider than the Brother MFC-J5330DW, which additionally takes A3 paper, though it’s a kilo and half lighter, and it grows significantly while you prolong the drawer so as to load A3 paper. It’s troublesome to see why it even must be so broad when the paper is loaded from the entrance, narrow-side first. In different phrases, this printer takes up a complete desk, whereas the extra sensibly designed Brother will share it with a PC.  

Carry the hinged lid and the US Letter-sized scanner mattress seems to be fairly small and you’ll’t assist questioning why HP didn’t go the entire hog and make it A3-sized. And while you open the flap beneath, the empty house the place the inkjets manoeuvre and the cartridges are loaded, seems to be bigger than it must be. 

Beneath that is the one paper tray, which might take maintain 250 sheets of paper, or 50 playing cards, or 30 envelopes. Given the general bulk, it’s a pity there isn’t room for a second paper tray, or not less than, the next capability. 

Along with Wi-Fi connectivity, there are ports on the rear for an Ethernet cable and a USB cable, however frustratingly, there are not any ports on the entrance in any respect. Many photograph printers supply an SD card slot, or not less than someplace to stay a USB flash drive. 

There may be not less than a color touchscreen mounted on a tilting panel on the entrance that offers you fairly fast and responsive management of the printer. It’s fairly small although at lower than Three-inches and typing your password into its tiny keyboard is a fiddly enterprise. 

Options

Along with printing, scanning, copying and faxing, the HP OfficeJet Professional 7720 has few options. At this value, its no shock that there’s no NFC connectivity, or an SD card slot, or duplex scanning. Some will little doubt discover the shortage of a entrance USB port irritating and by right now’s requirements, the touchscreen interface is small. 

Crucially, the HP OfficeJet Professional 7720 is ready to print on either side of the web page, albeit with A4-sized paper solely. It may additionally print onto envelopes, playing cards, photograph paper and so forth and printing onto A3 sheets is not any imply feat. There’s additionally a great app by HP that makes it simple to print and scan out of your cell machine.

By way of specs, the HP OfficeJet Professional 7720 is spectacular for the cash. It prints and scans at a decent 1,200 x 1,200 DPI and the quoted print pace is quicker than most at 22ppm. 

Ease of setup

The touchscreen show could also be lower than three inches in dimension, however it’s fairly responsive, which makes establishing the HP OfficeJet Professional 7720 a painless course of. It’s a case of following the directions and pushing the cartridges into place when prompted. The one fiddly bit is typing within the Wi-Fi password utilizing the tiny onscreen keyboard. 

Efficiency

In use, the HP OfficeJet Professional 7720 printed shortly and in lots of instances very nicely, but it surely additionally proved considerably irritating to make use of and produced very combined outcomes. 

Mono textual content paperwork are pushed out promptly, and noisily, and normally the sort is darkish and crisp. Nevertheless, the quantity of black ink utilized is inconsistent, particularly when printing after an extended break when the primary web page seems noticeably lighter than the following. 

Combined color paperwork and pictures look extra spectacular, particularly when printing onto shiny A3 photograph paper. Set all of the parameters to optimum high quality and the color in pictures seem vibrant and even-handed, with out being lurid. Element is satisfactory too, however distinction is extra disappointing. Darkish areas of a photograph are likely to look much less nicely outlined than different inkjet printers can handle.

Our essential difficulty, nevertheless, was with reliability, which is probably a very powerful level for the small enterprise. Our pattern repeatedly known as for 2 of the ink cartridges to be reloaded at random intervals all through the take a look at. It’s clearly a minor glitch, however the identical machine additionally had issues pulling A3 paper from the paper tray. We needed to push the paper by way of with our fingers till the rollers might get a grip and pull it into the printer. Once more, this might be a one-in-a-million glitch, however taken collectively, it smacks of poor construct high quality.  

Print price

With HP Instantaneous Ink, alternative cartridges are despatched to your door earlier than you run out, however HP doesn’t supply the service with this mannequin, so that you’ll want to purchase new cartridges when the bundled setup cartridges run out. They need to provide you with 625 color pages, or 1,000 mono.

To maintain your print prices down, it is smart to decide on the high-yield XL cartridges, supplying you with a per web page price of round $.03 (2p) for mono and $.09 (7p) for color, which is OK, however not nice. A set of alternative XL cartridges for HP will price $139.92 (£107), which as you may need seen, is greater than the price of the printer itself. Welcome to the previous razor and blades enterprise mannequin.

Closing verdict

The HP OfficeJet Professional 7720 seems to be fairly good, wearing its sculpted and patterned plastic panels, and with the capability to print onto A3 paper it appears a steal on the value. HP is clearly a number one model within the subject, so after gross sales consideration just isn’t a problem.

The companion app and a responsive touchscreen additionally make it nice to make use of, however we nonetheless couldn’t actually advocate it for enterprise use. By way of fidelity and reliability, that are crucial in a busy workplace, the HP OfficeJet Professional 7720 carried out poorly. It is perhaps low cost, but when a product wastes workplace hours, then it’s not a great funding.