Highlights
The A3 size HP OfficeJet 7510 delivers great print quality in color at improved speeds. But its running cost proposition isn’t any finer.
Pros
- Improved speed
- Sharp text
- Crisp Glossy/matte photo prints
- Wi-Fi direct and cloud printing
Cons
- High per page cost
- Cannot Scan/copy A3
- No auto two-side printing
Introduction
When was the last time you needed to scan an A3 size sheet or send a design deliverable twice the size of an A4? Mostly the answer would be a casual NO. But if handling paper sizes above A4 is going to be your regular tussle, an A3 capable printer is what you will need. And finding a nice one for your office? Tough!
There aren’t many A3 printers released every year. The market is drier than both bigger and smaller size segments. So there aren’t many options available to choose from.
The HP OfficeJet 7510 is one of such kind, capable of printing up to A3+ sizes in matte or glossy brochure, photo paper, plain or Inkjet Hagaki pages. It uses 4-ink system to create high quality Inkjet level graphics, but is faster than most of them. Priced at Rs 23,500 the printer is armed with a Scanner bed at the top with an Automatic Document Feeder above it to perform scanning, copy and Fax function all of which can involve up to legal size of sheets. It also supports HP cloud printing service HP e-Print using its capability to connect to the Internet.
The printer can also print directly from (only) FAT formatted pen drives via the USB port at its front. Its interface includes options to crop, rotate and brighten them before printing. Printing from and scanning to a pen drive option is also available on the HP OfficeJet 7510.
Design
HP OfficeJet 7510 looks like a toned down version of the OfficeJet 7612 we reviewed earlier this year. It looks stout and curvy in comparison to the muscular looking OfficeJet 7612, which has sharp edges and a slightly broader front. The OfficeJet 7510 obviously looks better, exuding a more advanced look in its rebellious matte black and piano black color combination.
And since weight does matter too, let me tell you it’s equally heavy.
The design cues are a mix, taken from the HP OfficeJet 7500A and Officejet 7612. The display-cum-control panel is fixed on the body and doesn’t rotate to change angle. Maybe HP figured out if this is the way to increase longevity of the screen. The empty space to keep things beside the tray is now gone too, and the buttons and the USB port shifted up for convenience.
Its trays are still not easy to deal with. The outlet tray is a platform that needs to be lifted, reluctantly, to add pages and there is no fixed track or a spring helping the motion out. Outer part of the inlet tray (it has two parts, the fixed one with the scale and marking and area for pages to rest on and the moving one that, well, err moves in and out below the fixed portion to make the whole arrangement look like a “tray” that has a closed front) too is not easy to pull out. And with the option to add pages as small as a 4.33inch wide DL envelope or as big as the 19 inch long A3+ does ring a rational bell that the tray should be quite easy to access.
On the OfficeJet 7612, the scanner lid has no extended “lips”. The ADF tray above it is a strong structure and the rear part of it is the leverage HP wants you to use to lift the lid up. All for a prettier design that works no harm since the printer is made with thick and heavy A-grade plastic. But the ADF tray does make the lid so heavy that not ramming the lid (with a “bamm”) on the scanner bed is a caution you will have to follow every time.
The bad news is that the size cut comes at a compromise. The scanner bed isn’t wide enough to take an A3 sheet which bars the printer from handling A3 size documents, other than for printing off course. The duplexing function is also found missing on the printer. It’s a tough decision to choose 7612 over this, especially when the print quality comes out to be better.
Wireless printing
OfficeJet 7510 has wireless connectivity capability mated to Internet access built into the software. This enables the printer to communicate with smart devices connected to the HP e-print server via any other network in the world. A host of applications can also be downloaded over the web to print format specific pages.
Wireless direct printing is also available on the 7510 that eliminates the need for a router to wirelessly form a connection. The printer broadcasts an SSID and any laptop setup with the required driver can connect directly to it and issue a print command.
Alternatively, it has conventional connection options too – LAN, USB 2.0 input, Line In for fax and a USB port for printing directly from pen drive.
Print quality
If I talk about photograph printing, the OfficeJet 7510 has got the four-ink (CMYB) system to get it covered. Four-ink systems, if you don’t know already, are the way to go for color printers now-a-days. Compared to a two-ink system where one cartridge carries all three colors – cyan, magenta and yellow; one separate cartridge is deployed here for every color, to create more precise shades on paper. All of the photo printers use these many, or even a higher number of cartages.
It is, off course, a costlier proposition, but the quality of printing is improved because of better native color accuracy. With a 1200dpi input graphic, the printer can print in 4800x1200dpi resolution which is great for a non-photo color inkjet printer.
OfficeJet 7510 uses a fade resistant, long lasting pigment based ink system that tend to stick around for years. It isn’t as shiny as the dye based inks, but stay for long. Many dye based inks in the market that are improving upon this quality by using additives. Still, the thermal inkjet printing technology used by OfficeJet 7510 is one of the oldest and best for getting quality prints.
Ink efficiency
The only thing that bothers me about the OfficeJet 7510 is the amount of pages one can print from the set of cartridges. From a home-office perspective I see tinny cartridges housed in an elephantine body. A printer capable to print borderless A3+ graphic sheets will have a deep appetite for ink and, practically we saw it eating away around 25 percent of the setup cartridge ink level in printing just one borderless A3+ photo.
Agreed that the convenience and low initial cost of owning an A3 printer is alluring, especially for organizations wanting to safeguard their intellectual property. But bearing high cost of printing and managing cartridges every now and then would push people into looking for alternatives like the Brother J3520 which are available in a similar price segment but have better ink efficiency.
High yield cartridges are a way out. At a premium, HP offers high yield cartridges that could delay the changing, in case you exhaust them to frequently, but cost per page remains almost the same. The four cartridges made for A3 capable series of printers is available for individually, totaling to around Rs 6000.
Officially, each XL cartridge has a yield of around thousand pages. Combined, the cost per page comes out to be Rs 1.72 per page for prints based on ISO/IEC metrics. But the cost can go as high as Rs 180 (for a borderless print) per page.
It is still a practical option if frequency and volume of printing isn’t higher than a few pages per month (color, ink intensive). You are saved from the high initial costs (about 5 times as much, in the least).
HP OfficeJet 7510 will be available in the market starting mid-October this year, retailing at a price of Rs 23,500.
Final Verdict
OfficeJet 7510 is a mixed proposition and serves a niche category of users indeed. It’s toned down body leaves no space for scanning or copying of A3 size documents and a high cost per page drives one to look for options. If you could overlook these two things for a better print quality, the printer is sure to surprise with the fastest printing speed in compact A3 inkjet category; topped up with wireless connectivity and web based features.
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