HP TopShot LaserJet Pro M275 review

It can scan documents too, but they go through the same photo process as 3D objects, and the results are underwhelming. A text document wasn’t too bad, capturing all the necessary information with reasonable sharpness, but the camera struggled with glossy photographs. Darker areas blended together and lighter areas were bleached out; the multiple exposures clearly confused it.

As for the printing element of the job, the TopShot is a fairly ponderous but good-quality colour laser. It fits its four toner cartridges into its small chassis by putting them on a carousel that rotates before each print, so each colour can apply its toner to the drum before the paper is finally passed through.

This means it isn’t the fastest printer out of the blocks. We measured the TopShot at only 4ppm printing a colour newsletter (right on the claimed speed), and only 3.75ppm with a 12-page Excel workbook, while a single A4 colour photo montage took 17 seconds to roll out. It’s quicker without the colour, averaging 15ppm with a mono A4 letter, slightly below the claimed 17ppm. Quality is perfectly good, with sharp text, solid areas of speckle-free colour and a decent stab at a neutral greyscale print. Our test photo showed colours were a little murky, but that’s a minor complaint.

The rest of the device is standard all-in-one fare, with a 150-sheet input tray at the base and 50 finished sheets feeding out beneath the scanning tray. It has USB 2, Ethernet and Wi-Fi connections, and connecting it directly to a network gives access to HP’s range of on-device apps; we found little to get excited about. On the subject of apps, the TopShot is one of a fast-growing number of HP devices to print from mobile devices via Apple’s AirPrint, as well as HP’s own ePrint services.

We don’t yet have final retail pricing (we expect it to be above £250), but even without that, the big question is who the TopShot is actually for. Its standard document-scanning routine takes every bit as long as a 3D object, so it isn’t a good choice for a busy office, and the print speed is low for a laser these days. It also doesn’t capably shoot objects above a certain size, which effectively limits its appeal to those looking for cheap, fast product shots of palm-size objects. If you run a small eBay shop this may be exactly what you’ve been dreaming of, but there’s no getting away from the fact that HP’s commendable innovation has resulted in what looks to be an incredibly niche product.