The HP Photosmart Premium is one of two multifunction devices on test to completely eschew buttons in favour of a touchscreen. The only button on the front panel is the power switch; everything else is managed and operated by a large LCD screen. Along with the print, copy and scan functions the Photosmart Premium has memory card slots for the most popular formats and a PictBridge port for direct camera printing. You can print from your iPhone too.

As touchscreen interfaces go, HP’s offering is very, very good. The screen is really responsive and the menus are easy to follow. This multifunction device really is very easy to use, which suggests that a lot of thought has gone into that interface.

The Photosmart Premium isn’t the prettiest of devices and the lack of buttons does make it look a little bare, but really it’s just a bit plain. Overall, the build quality is as you would expect from HP. We did have a little trouble with the removable paper tray, though, which was too easy to remove and a touch fiddly to put back in. A number of times we lifted the photo tray cover, only to pull the entire tray out as well.

When it comes to printing the HP device stood head and shoulders above the rest in one area: speed. The Photosmart Premium is incredibly fast. It took just three seconds to produce a draft page of text that was legible and decent enough for everyday use. Ten pages of text took just one minute seven seconds. An A4 print was fast too at just two minutes 48 seconds. Overall, the Photosmart Premium was two-and-a-half minutes faster than its nearest rival in our suite of tests.

The quality of the output was as impressive as the speed at which it was produced. Text was crisp and accurate, with a fine deep black finish. Colours were punchy without being over-saturated and detail, even in darker areas, was good too.

HP has produced an excellent all-in-one printer here that’s speedy and offers great quality prints. It’s easy to operate and has a host of extra features. There’s no fax or automatic document feeder but it’s still an excellent device.