The Officejet 6700 Premium is an all-in-one that hails straight from HP's latest line of inkjet printers. Designed for small businesses, it features duplex, colour printing and Ethernet, and promises professional-quality prints and apps that allow you to print straight from the machine without using a computer.
Design and Build
The Officejet 6700 Premium's small size (46 x 46 x 24 cm) and weight (8 kg) allow it to fit easily on the edge of a desk. It has all the common all-in-one features: printing, scanning, copying and faxing with double-sided printing, a touchscreen, Ethernet and a USB port in front. Like all the models in HP's new range, this printer includes apps for printing directly from the touchscreen, as long as it's connected via Ethernet (no Wi-Fi on this model), as well as dozens of other apps, some for households, some for professionals. With AirPrint and ePrint you can print straight from your mobile device (smartphone or tablet).
The interface is so simple a child could use it. The design is minimalist and commands are made on the touchscreen.
6 cm touchscreen
The 250-sheet paper tray is easy to use. An extension can be pulled out (as in the image below) to stop the paper from falling, or pushed back in (as in the image at the top of this page) to save space.
Paper tray
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Scanner/copier document table
This soberly designed printer's touchscreen is on the right-hand side of the front panel and the USB port is found on the bottom-left.
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USB port in the bottom-left corner of the front panel
The drivers are quick and easy to install. The print settings windows are basic and, again, easy enough for anyone to figure out.
The print quality can be set in function of the type of document you're printing. All you have to do is select the location (when there's more than one tray), the paper size (A4, A5, A6, B5, envelope, Bristol board...) and the paper type (regular, glossy, photo...).
If you can't find what you're looking for in the presets, you can use the advanced options to customise the settings (colour/B&W, layout, quality...).
Speed
The 6700 Premium is fast. Logically, it's faster than the low-end model, which prints 12 pages per minute (ppm) in colour and B&W. It's also faster than the Pixma MX515, Canon's all-in-one that prints 8 ppm in colour and 6 ppm in B&W. The 6700 Premium gets similar speeds to the Lexmark OfficeEdge Pro 5500, which produces 14 ppm in colour and 22 ppm in B&W.
With double-sided printing the speeds drop threefold, largely due to the time it takes for the ink to dry in B&W.
The Lexmark OfficeEdge Pro 5500 beats the Officejet 6700 Premium hands-down when it comes to photographs, at 1 minute and 11 seconds for A4 prints and a mere 23 seconds for 10 x 15 cm prints.
Print quality
This is a great printer for basic text documents. And while you can easily see the ink droplets in solidly coloured areas, our test graph below comes out clear and precise with good shading. Not to mention that it passed our difficult "thin line" test with flying colours (very thin lines are touch to reproduce). The lines show up fine and thin, in all of their complexity. The colours, however, look a bit faded and washed-out.
According to our measurements the colours could be much more accurate than they are, particularly the blues, reds and greys.
Average Delta E 94 (colour difference): 10.
You can also see the ink droplets on photos printed on the 6700 Premium. And the colours have the same issues as cited above: the accuracy is middling. But the less scrutinising won't likely notice these problems on photo prints. The picture below has been enlarged to three times its real size, which is why the boy's face looks so red and the ink droplets are so clearly visible. B&W photographs come out with a strong tendency towards blue.
Compare printers in the Face-Off
Average Delta E 94 (colour difference): 6
Scanner & Copier
Copy mode is just brimming with options. As with many HP products, in addition to the advanced features users can also easily select the standard "colour copy" and "black & white copy" functions.
The other options include sharpness, quality, resizing, double-sided, paper size, paper type, crop, preview and enhancements based on whether it's straight text or if it includes images. All these options are practical, but they don't all positively affect the overall quality of the copies. For example, certain features for enhancing text systematically deteriorate the quality of pictures and graphs.
But the average colour difference in copy mode is low, meaning that colours are very accurately produced. Most printer-copiers we test range between 4 and 8 for the copy mode, with lower being better.
Average Delta E 94 (colour difference): 4.1
Power Use
The Officejet 6700 Premium consumes 1 watt in sleep mode and 18 W when at work. These are some of the lowest figures for any inkjet printer. HP also hits it on the money with 48 dB of noise, making this officially a quiet printer.
Cost Per Page
For the 6700 Premium, HP has released new pigment inks: HP 932 and 933. The 932 and 933 are designed to withstand discoloration, water and highlighting, and last about a hundred pages longer than the older models.
At 6.5 pence, the cost per page on the 6700 Premium is more competitive than the entry-level Officejet 4620 (9.5 pence per page, which was already one of the better costs per page on the market).
ISO lifespan - XL cartridges
Design and Build
The Officejet 6700 Premium's small size (46 x 46 x 24 cm) and weight (8 kg) allow it to fit easily on the edge of a desk. It has all the common all-in-one features: printing, scanning, copying and faxing with double-sided printing, a touchscreen, Ethernet and a USB port in front. Like all the models in HP's new range, this printer includes apps for printing directly from the touchscreen, as long as it's connected via Ethernet (no Wi-Fi on this model), as well as dozens of other apps, some for households, some for professionals. With AirPrint and ePrint you can print straight from your mobile device (smartphone or tablet).
The interface is so simple a child could use it. The design is minimalist and commands are made on the touchscreen.
6 cm touchscreen
The 250-sheet paper tray is easy to use. An extension can be pulled out (as in the image below) to stop the paper from falling, or pushed back in (as in the image at the top of this page) to save space.
Paper tray
Scanner/copier document table
This soberly designed printer's touchscreen is on the right-hand side of the front panel and the USB port is found on the bottom-left.
USB port in the bottom-left corner of the front panel
The drivers are quick and easy to install. The print settings windows are basic and, again, easy enough for anyone to figure out.
The print quality can be set in function of the type of document you're printing. All you have to do is select the location (when there's more than one tray), the paper size (A4, A5, A6, B5, envelope, Bristol board...) and the paper type (regular, glossy, photo...).
If you can't find what you're looking for in the presets, you can use the advanced options to customise the settings (colour/B&W, layout, quality...).
Speed
The 6700 Premium is fast. Logically, it's faster than the low-end model, which prints 12 pages per minute (ppm) in colour and B&W. It's also faster than the Pixma MX515, Canon's all-in-one that prints 8 ppm in colour and 6 ppm in B&W. The 6700 Premium gets similar speeds to the Lexmark OfficeEdge Pro 5500, which produces 14 ppm in colour and 22 ppm in B&W.
With double-sided printing the speeds drop threefold, largely due to the time it takes for the ink to dry in B&W.
The Lexmark OfficeEdge Pro 5500 beats the Officejet 6700 Premium hands-down when it comes to photographs, at 1 minute and 11 seconds for A4 prints and a mere 23 seconds for 10 x 15 cm prints.
Print quality
This is a great printer for basic text documents. And while you can easily see the ink droplets in solidly coloured areas, our test graph below comes out clear and precise with good shading. Not to mention that it passed our difficult "thin line" test with flying colours (very thin lines are touch to reproduce). The lines show up fine and thin, in all of their complexity. The colours, however, look a bit faded and washed-out.
According to our measurements the colours could be much more accurate than they are, particularly the blues, reds and greys.
Average Delta E 94 (colour difference): 10.
The higher the bar, the less accurate the colour.
The average for printers we've tested is 7.
The average for printers we've tested is 7.
You can also see the ink droplets on photos printed on the 6700 Premium. And the colours have the same issues as cited above: the accuracy is middling. But the less scrutinising won't likely notice these problems on photo prints. The picture below has been enlarged to three times its real size, which is why the boy's face looks so red and the ink droplets are so clearly visible. B&W photographs come out with a strong tendency towards blue.
Compare printers in the Face-Off
Average Delta E 94 (colour difference): 6
Scanner & Copier
Copy mode is just brimming with options. As with many HP products, in addition to the advanced features users can also easily select the standard "colour copy" and "black & white copy" functions.
The other options include sharpness, quality, resizing, double-sided, paper size, paper type, crop, preview and enhancements based on whether it's straight text or if it includes images. All these options are practical, but they don't all positively affect the overall quality of the copies. For example, certain features for enhancing text systematically deteriorate the quality of pictures and graphs.
But the average colour difference in copy mode is low, meaning that colours are very accurately produced. Most printer-copiers we test range between 4 and 8 for the copy mode, with lower being better.
Average Delta E 94 (colour difference): 4.1
Power Use
The Officejet 6700 Premium consumes 1 watt in sleep mode and 18 W when at work. These are some of the lowest figures for any inkjet printer. HP also hits it on the money with 48 dB of noise, making this officially a quiet printer.
Cost Per Page
For the 6700 Premium, HP has released new pigment inks: HP 932 and 933. The 932 and 933 are designed to withstand discoloration, water and highlighting, and last about a hundred pages longer than the older models.
At 6.5 pence, the cost per page on the 6700 Premium is more competitive than the entry-level Officejet 4620 (9.5 pence per page, which was already one of the better costs per page on the market).
ISO lifespan - XL cartridges
| Cartridge | Price (recommended) | ISO lifespan | Cost per page |
| 932XL (black) | £20 | 1000 | 2 pence |
| 933XL (cyan) | £12 | 825 | 1.5 pence |
| 933XL (magenta) | £12 | 825 | 1.5 pence |
| 933XL (yellow) | £12 | 825 | 1.5 pence |
Pros
- Cost per page: 6.5 p with XL cartridges
- Touchscreen
- User-friendly, intuitive
- AirPrint & ePrint
- Low power consumption
- Quiet
Cons
- Print quality (colours could be more accurate)
Conclusion
The average user will appreciate how easy and enjoyable this all-in-one printer is to use. It would be a 5-star device, if it weren't for the low colour accuracy in the print function.
OUR SCORE
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