HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus e-All-in-One Printer

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Review:

The $299 HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus e-All-in-One printer is an updated version of the Pro 8500A Plus multifunction CNET reviewed last year. The flagship of HP's workcentric inkjet line gets a performance makeover from the inside out, with improvements to the speed of the print engine and the texture of the 4.3-inch touch-screen display, and a sleeker chassis that hides fingerprints better than the previous version. The device also takes printing to the cloud with ePrint and an accompanying iOS application that make the Officejet Pro 8600A Plus an impressively resourceful printer. I recommend it for home ... Expand full review

The $299 HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus e-All-in-One printer is an updated version of the Pro 8500A Plus multifunction CNET reviewed last year. The flagship of HP's workcentric inkjet line gets a performance makeover from the inside out, with improvements to the speed of the print engine and the texture of the 4.3-inch touch-screen display, and a sleeker chassis that hides fingerprints better than the previous version. The device also takes printing to the cloud with ePrint and an accompanying iOS application that make the Officejet Pro 8600A Plus an impressively resourceful printer. I recommend it for home offices and professional environments that need a dependable workhorse printer.

Design and features
The Officejet Pro 8600 Plus printer strips away the glossy veneer of the past and replaces it with a modern matte paint job that does its best to hide dust and fingerprints. It has a professional look that should easily fit into any office or home decor, though at 12.4 inches tall, 19.4 inches wide, and 18.9 inches, you'll need to clear a sizable amount of space to fit its large chassis. The printer's sides feature two indented handles that make it easier to carry around, although you won't want to move it on a daily basis.

A single 250-sheet input tray protrudes 4 inches out of the front of the 8600 Plus and a 50-page automatic document feeder (ADF) resides on top. You won't find a manual feed tray in the center console like you would on a laser printer, which might be irritating if you print on irregular media like heavy cardstock or nonstandard envelopes. If that's the case for you, I recommend the HP LaserJet Pro 100 Color MFP, a capable Hewlett-Packard laser printer with similar all-in-one functionality (scanner, copier, fax, and printer).

On the other hand, if paper input capacity is a hindrance, HP also sells a version of this printer called the Officejet Pro 8600 Premium that comes with an extra 250-sheet paper tray, an additional set of ink cartridges worth $60, and a 50-sheet pack of HP Premium Glossy Brochure paper, priced for $14 in HP's online retail store. By upgrading to the step-up Premium package, you'll save about $50 on your overall consumables cost, and I recommend taking advantage of these savings up front if you plan to print lots of photos or graphic documents.

The HP's ample 4.3-inch touch-sensitive color display makes navigating the print, copy, scan, and fax functions a breeze. The screen is the same size as the Officejet Pro 8500A Plus' screen and the competing Epson WorkForce 840, but the WorkForce 840 surrounds its color LCD with a larger 7.8-inch touch panel that provides additional navigation buttons. The HP's entire touch panel, on the other hand, resembles an iPhone on its side and measures 6 inches on the diagonal.

In the end, both printers do an admirable job of providing a simple and clear menu system for navigating their many functions. However, HP makes it easier than Epson to enter text thanks to a full QWERTY virtual keyboard; entering data such as a wireless password on the Epson requires scrolling through the alphabet for each letter and is akin to entering your initials for a high score in an old arcade game. This version of the display also has less mushy play between the outward-facing screen and the hard registration pad below it, so you're less likely to mistakenly press a button. The screen still isn't perfect--for some of the onscreen features I needed to repeatedly push the corresponding virtual icon until the action finally registered. With no way to recalibrate the screen in the settings page, you're in for a frustrating experience until the printer gets it right.

In addition to using a direct USB connection (like most vendors, HP does not include a USB cable with the printer), you can set up the Officejet Pro 8700 Plus on your network via Ethernet or Wi-Fi. We tested the Wi-Fi connection and the process was easy; using the printer's touch screen, we navigated through a few setup screens to find our network, quickly entered its password using the virtual QWERTY keyboard, and established a connection within a minute. Macs and PCs alike on our network were able to see the printer without the need to install any additional software.

Once you connect the printer to a wireless network, you can use HP's AirPrint feature to print from any iOS device without an additional application. Using AirPrint, you can print out a photo from your iPhoto library by simply choosing the connected printer and hitting Print. You can't adjust any print properties, however; and our Hipstamatic test photo printed with a portion missing on both letter-size paper and 4x6-inch photo paper.

In addition to AirPrint, the Officejet Pro 8500A Plus also features HP's ePrint technology, which enables you to send jobs from any connected device to the printer using the uniquely assigned e-mail address. You can find this address using the control panel (Wireless > Web Services > Display Email). It's a convenient feature, to be sure, but it comes with a few restrictions. For one, the printer must be on and also connected to your network. For another, it can't print Web pages, although you can simply copy and paste the text into a document as a workaround.

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Epson Stylus NX430 Small-in-One All-in-One Printer

Review:

Released in time for the back-to-school season, Epson squeezes a printer, scanner, and copy machine into a small device it's calling the "small-in-one." The Stylus NX430 occupies roughly the same amount of desk space as your average Blu-ray player, and it performed twice as fast as the four other competitive models, with high-scoring quality results to boot. We recommend investing in Epson's extra-large-capacity ink refill tanks if you print a large volume of full-color documents and photos, but if price and space hold top priority on your printer shopping list, the $99 Epson Stylus NX430 is worth your ... Expand full review

Released in time for the back-to-school season, Epson squeezes a printer, scanner, and copy machine into a small device it's calling the "small-in-one." The Stylus NX430 occupies roughly the same amount of desk space as your average Blu-ray player, and it performed twice as fast as the four other competitive models, with high-scoring quality results to boot. We recommend investing in Epson's extra-large-capacity ink refill tanks if you print a large volume of full-color documents and photos, but if price and space hold top priority on your printer shopping list, the $99 Epson Stylus NX430 is worth your dollar.

Design and features
The Stylus NX430's space-saving design is the printer's main focus, measuring a little more than 15 inches wide, 20 inches deep, and 11 inches tall. Relative to other printers, its size falls somewhere between a single function inkjet and a color laser printer, but at 9 pounds it's only half the weight of the average color laser printer and ideal for offices that frequently move workstations.

The center control panel sits within a console that rotates up to a suitable viewing angle. Though I'm not usually a fan of virtual-only button layouts, I like that the only buttons that light up on the NX430 are the four-way directional pad and the power on and off controls--the rest of the functions illuminate depending on the particular function you're accessing.

I did notice that the screen on this machine feels distinctly less responsive than the capacitive touch dials on the higher-end WorkForce 845 All-in-One. By contrast, NX430's plastic surrounding the screen has a tendency to flex as you press down on it, lending a mushy feeling to menu navigation. The screen itself never gave me trouble in terms of virtual button actuation, however.

I can't fault a $99 device for not including an auto-document feeder or multiple paper input trays, so all paper handling is fed through the single tray on the back and exits through the "mouth" below the controls. You'll also notice a memory card reader up front that lets you walk up and print from an expansion card without actually touching a computer. You can preview your photos on the ample 2.5-inch LCD touch panel, and even make simple adjustments to crop dimensions, resize, or perform one-button touch-ups.

Epson gives you the option to connect the printer to your computer using direct USB or Wi-Fi. I assume most of you will prefer the latter, since Epson doesn't include a USB cable in the box. Smart setup on the touch panel is a two-part process: turn on the machine and click Network Setting, then designate your wireless network and enter its password, and that's it. The entire setup from start to finish, with a connection established on our lab network, took us less than 2 minutes. The installation process also includes a step that asks if you want the system to automatically hunt and install firmware updates, and we recommend you click "yes" when prompted; the appeal of Web-connected printers like the NX430 means you don't have to wait for Epson to ship you software updates, so take advantage of it.

Connecting through Wi-Fi also means you can take advantage of Epson's host of free mobile printing apps that let you print directly from mobile devices. First, the Epson iPrint application for iOS and Android devices enables you to print Web pages, photos, documents, and anything else on a smartphone directly to the WorkForce NX430, though I noticed the printer cropped photos when I flipped orientation from portrait to landscape and vice versa, so I wouldn't recommend using the app to print important images like business presentations this way; it's more appropriate for quick outputs of snapshot photos and to-do lists.

Performance
In our speed tests, the Stylus NX430 performed at an average rate printing photos, but it sprints ahead of the competition with presentation output speed, color graphics speed, and especially text speed. To widen the margin further, the NX515 printed a staggering 14.11 pages per minute of plain text on plain white paper.

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Dell Multifunction Color Printer 1355cnw

Review:

Suitable for Mac and Windows operating systems, the Dell 1355cnw is a capable, reliable color laser printer that can output up to 30,000 pages a month and also acts as a copier and a high-resolution scanner. Its 150-sheet input tray makes it most suitable for small-to-medium businesses with moderate printing needs, but Dell offers extras to sweeten the deal, like built-in Wi-Fi along with USB and Ethernet connectivity, and a 15-sheet autodocument feeder for the scanner. The 13550's print speeds and minimal software could be improved, but small quibbles don't undermine a solid recommendation.

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Suitable for Mac and Windows operating systems, the Dell 1355cnw is a capable, reliable color laser printer that can output up to 30,000 pages a month and also acts as a copier and a high-resolution scanner. Its 150-sheet input tray makes it most suitable for small-to-medium businesses with moderate printing needs, but Dell offers extras to sweeten the deal, like built-in Wi-Fi along with USB and Ethernet connectivity, and a 15-sheet autodocument feeder for the scanner. The 13550's print speeds and minimal software could be improved, but small quibbles don't undermine a solid recommendation.

Design and features
Dell built the 1355cnw on the same lines as the smaller Dell 1350cnw I reviewed earlier this year. With the same laser print engine inside, the big upgrades on the 1355cnw are a larger four-line monochrome LCD display and more buttons on the panel that control the device's scanning and copying features.

Dell keeps the 1355cnw relatively fit and easy to move around an office, opting for a square footprint instead of a rectangular one. The printer measures 16.1 inches wide, 15 inches deep, and 13.3 inches tall, and weighs just over 34 pounds. Thankfully, you get two notched grips on either side of the machine that give you more leverage during moves.

As with many laser printers, paper feeds in through the tray on the bottom of the 1355cnw and comes out facedown on top of the printer. Since the storage bin can only hold up to 150 sheets of plain paper and doesn't allow automatic double-sided printing, make sure your office isn't printing large-volume documents every day or you'll find yourself constantly getting up to monitor and replace depleted sheets. Dell rates the printer's monthly duty cycle at a maximum 30,000 prints per month, which should be more than enough pages for a small business or a home office.

Creative professionals will appreciate the special 10-sheet bypass tray that hides behind a fold-out door on top of the standard input tray. This tray is designed for alternative forms of print media beyond typical 8.5-by-11-inch reams; you can load only one size at a time, but the tray can accommodate transparencies, labels, envelopes, postcards, card stock, and some other types of media that can't load into the paper tray.

The control panel features a four-line LCD screen that displays monochromatic characters alongside an array of buttons--34, to be exact, including four directional controls positioned around an Enter key, two buttons to access the virtual menu, and one to cancel a job in progress. Dell gives you plenty of paper-control options through the LCD as well: you can set paper size and input paper type, select advanced features, and change resolution settings.

The back of the printer reveals a flap that unfolds an output tray for media fed through the bypasser. This is also where you would look to address a paper jam, although I didn't encounter any jamming problems in my testing.

Setting up the printer should be easy for IT professionals, but others shouldn't have a problem following the included pictographic instruction manual. I'm also thankful to Dell for including a USB cable in the box, since a lot of vendors leave them out. Aside from letting you connect the printer directly to a computer, the USB cable is essential for creating an ad-hoc network for wireless access.

The Ethernet port on the back of the 1350cnw makes it possible for multiple users to connect to the printer through an interoffice network, but it's also set up for Windows and Mac users to link up to its internal Wi-Fi print server. None of these features is unique to the 1355cnw, but the combination of wireless connectivity adds utility you don't typically see in color laser printers.

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