Product Reviews

Moving to an all-in-one has become very popular for small businesses upgrading from separate scanner, fax, printer and copier. HP's new Officejet 7410 is such a device. The specification is impressive; wireless capability at 802.11g speeds and an Ethernet port support five users at a time, and 250-sheet and 150-sheet paper trays take almost a ream between them. For convenient copying, an automatic document feeder takes 50 sheets at once.

The built-in fax runs at 33.6Kbits/sec and can store 130 speed-dial numbers and 150 pages in its memory. The fax functions can be operated by the front panel rather than software on your Mac. The front control panel looks a little daunting at first, but the options become clearer with time.

If you don't have a Mac or just need some quick prints, there's a media card slot for the most popular formats. This slot can be used as a card reader. The printer supports PictBridge-compatible digital cameras too.

The 7410 can print a contact sheet from memory cards.

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Mark the pictures you want and scan the contact sheet to print your selected images. There are six print size options, though paper options are restricted to 6 x 4in or A4.

Getting the Officejet up and running is simple. Wireless connectivity is handled by an easy workthrough operated from the printer - you can be printing in a minute.

There are four ink tanks - Black, Grey, Photo and Tri-colour - but it only takes two cartridges at a time. HP claims 800 pages from the 21ml black cartridge at 5% coverage, and 135 colour 6 x 4in prints can be output from the colour Photo cartridge.

With all of these features it's easy to assume that the Officejet is a sure-fire winner, but print quality is a mixed bag. A single sheet of plain text in draft mode is produced in an impressive, albeit noisy four seconds. The text quality was very good for a draft mode and is more than acceptable for internal work. In best mode the same test takes 40 seconds, but what you lose in time you gain in quality. Text is a deep black with razor-sharp edges.

Colour printing poses more problems. The 7410 disappoints, as it produced an A4 full page in just over four minutes, but detail is underwhelming, and though colours are balanced they're not vibrant. Colour copies from the scanner were again dull. For a printer that costs £449 we didn't expect it to produce colour prints this bad.

You might never need colour prints, in which case the Officejet is a space-saving solution that will chug out high-quality text quickly. But if you need colour prints, you'd be better steering clear of the 7410.