Tue, 17 Jan 2012 Photosmart 7510 e-All-in-One review

HP’s Photosmart 7510 multifunction inkjet (MFP) is a well-rounded unit, offering good speed and print quality, and sufficient features to address both home and home-office needs.

The Photosmart 7510 is easy to set up, and the software works well. The 4.3in colour touchscreen LCD panel has a clear, icon-based menu. The printer is also fully endowed with cloud-printing capabilities, specifically HP’s own  app, HP ePrint, and Apple AirPrint.

While the Photosmart 7510 is aimed at users who print lots of photos, its paper-handling features are also adequate for a small or home office as well. The main paper tray holds 125 sheets, while a second tray holds 20 sheets of photo paper up to 5 x 7in size. The real bonus is the 25-sheet automatic document feeder. This feeder almost makes up for the fact that the lid for the A4 flatbed scanner doesn’t telescope to accommodate thicker materials. The Photosmart 7510 can also print and scan in duplex (both sides of a page).

For an inkjet, the Photosmart 7510 was fast in most of our tests. On A4 plain paper at default settings, text pages emerged at a speedy rate of 9.6 pages per minute (ppm); a 4 x 6in photo took 15 seconds (4ppm). Switching to HP Advanced Photo Paper and finer-quality settings, the same photo took 33 seconds (1.8ppm), and a full-page, high-resolution photo print took about 2.5 minutes (a middling rate of 0.4ppm). Scanning and copying speeds are a tad faster than average.

The Photosmart 7510 produces crisp, dark text and rich, if slightly solemn, colours quickly

Output from the Photosmart 7510 is generally very good – with HP’s penchant for cooler colour temperatures. Text is sharp and dark at default settings, and monochrome graphics are rich, though slightly green. Photos printed on plain paper look nice, other than orange-ish flesh tones; on HP’s Advanced Photo Paper, the quality is smooth and realistic, though in a somewhat solemn colour palette, with darker areas gradating to black quickly.

The HP Photosmart 7510’s ink costs are reasonable. The three standard colour cartridges cost £8.99 each and last for 300 pages (2.9p per page), while the standard black costs £8.95 and lasts for 250 pages. That’s just over 12p for a four-colour page. You can reduce colour ink costs with XL cartridges, which are £16.99 for 750 pages, or 2.2p per page. The XL black are £18.99 for 550 pages or 3.5p per page.