HP Officejet 6700 Premium review

HP’s Officejet 6700 Premium can’t match the Epson WorkForce WF-3530DTWF for king-sized ruggedness, but this office-friendly all-in-one still has plenty to offer.

There’s a 30-sheet ADF up top, a 250-sheet input tray, automatic duplexing, fax support and a choice of USB 2, Ethernet and Wi-Fi connections. A 6.7cm touchscreen gives quick access to the option screens and scanning and copying functions, too.

For printing tasks, the Officejet 6700 Premium quickly become one of the fastest inkjet machines we’ve seen. Draft output emerged at a laser-like 21.4ppm, and while text was pale and spidery, it was slightly cleaner than the other office-focused models. It didn’t keep hold of its lead for long, however: when we bumped up the quality to standard, speeds slumped to 10.9ppm (mono) and 5.4ppm (colour).

Scan quality was just behind that of the Canon Pixma MG5450, with the HP sacrificing clarity for a subtly superior colour balance. Although colour A4 scans appeared only seconds behind those of its rivals, we had to wait 1min 20secs for our 6 x 4in photo to appear in Photoshop.

Mono A4 copies took their time, too, arriving 10 seconds behind the Epson. Again, though, the quality was superb.The HP raced through our photo tests, printing out a 6 x 4in image in only 1min 9secs, and an A4 photo in 2mins 42secs. Sadly, quality was average. Despite vivid colours, the HP’s output was much grainier than its rivals’.

Running costs are this printer’s biggest strength. Although Epson’s all-in-one produces cheaper A4 mono prints, the HP is one of the cheapest for both colour A4 and photo prints, which cost only 6.2p and 14.3p each.

Which you choose is a question of priorities. The Epson’s dual paper trays and more consistent speeds make it the superior office workhorse, but, with the HP’s low running costs and better all-round quality, it’s a close-run thing.