Reprinted from Canada.com

Speed and cost effectiveness are its hallmarks

I don’t often test out printers that are larger than the typical desktop printer you’d stick on the end of your desk at home, so HPs OfficeJet Pro X576dw marks a departure for me.

The HP OfficeJet Pro X576dw is a printer much more appropriate for a small office or a workgroup than a home user, and the price tag of around $900 CAD reinforces that.

Frankly, it was comments from readers that made me want to have a look at the X576dw. It prints at speeds up to a screaming 70 pages per minute (ppm) in “General Office Mode”, which prompted several of you to question an earlier review of another printer that boasted 60 ppm.

The OfficeJet X576dw is built tough

With a duty cycle of about 75,000 pages per month – and a recommended page volume of from 1,000 – 4200 pages per month. The difference between a duty cycle and recommended volume is that it can take up to 75,000 pages per month as an absolute maximum, but for the best quality and performance the recommended volume is the sweet spot.

This printer is a behemoth by desktop standards – it weighs in at 24kg, is 678mm W x 670mm D x 517mm H, so you can see that it’d take a whacking big desk to have this on it along with your other gear. Best put it on a table or counter somewhere.

The OfficeJet Pro X576dw is also a scanner, copier and fax, and I have to say that I rarely test out fax functions on multifunctions because of all the hassles with my home phone. I used this device a lot during my test period and found it to be extremely reliable and the quality of both scanned and copied documents was perfect for business use.

HP Officejet Pro X576 – top

The scanner is a 24-bit scanner that’ll scan up to 8.5”x 14” documents at a resolution of up to 1200 dpi. It offers the usual features of scanning to Email, a network folder, and so on, and it has an auto capacity of up to 50 sheets which is nice.

As a copier, it will copy up to a maximum of 90 copies at 600 dpi resolution in black and white or colour. It’ll fire copies through at up to 70 copies per minute, so you better not start copying something and then change your mind because it’ll probably already be done by the time you do!

It’s a colour fax that has a resolution of 300 x 300 dpi and faxes at a rate of 4 seconds per page. You can store up to 99 numbers in the speed dial and it’ll store p to 100 black and white and 8 colour pages into memory.

The OfficeJet X576dw has an available 500-sheet tray and comes standard with a 500-sheet tray and a 300-sheet output tray, so it’s perfect for a small business environment. It’ll duplex, which is a must have for business use and it’ll print on a wide variety of stock and sizes. It comes preloaded with 768MB of memory – and that’s all that can be put into the machine, which is too bad.

The X576dw works with Windows from Windows XP to the newest version, Mac OSX 10.6 and up and Linux. The best thing, in my view, is that it has a Wi-Fi capability, and setup was an absolute snap on this printer.

It’ll work with Apple’s AirPrint, Google’s Cloud Print and with HP’s own Mobile Apps. A feature I really like is HP ePrint, which, after you set up an account with HP and if you have an Internet connection, lets you print directly from the Internet wherever you are – that’s a very useful feature and one I had a lot of fun with and used a lot during my test period.

The 4.3” LCD display offers easy access to all the functions of the OfficeJet Pro X576dw, and the 4 high yield ink cartridges are good for about 6600 pages. The cartridges use HP’s PageWide inkjet technology. PageWide employs a stationary print head that utilizes thousands of nozzles all across the page width.

This offers much faster printing speeds and drying time because the print heads themselves don’t move across the page. The technology utilizes the ink better than regular printing technologies, which, for a small office means savings in supplies. The cost per page of running this device is supposed to be considerably cheaper than pretty well any colour laser printer and with print speeds equal to or faster than comparable laser printers, the X576dw is the kind of multifunction device the Accountants love.

PROS: Screaming fast; cheap to use; great duty cycle; touch panel is easy to use; automatic duplexing.

CONS: No memory card slots, which I find curious; expensive; way too big to sit on a desk.

TO SUM IT UP: Small businesses should love the HP OfficeJet Pro X576dw multifunction. It’s solid, very fast, durable, inexpensive to run _ and did I say it’s fast – because it is. If you’re on the lookout for a multifunction for your small office or workgroup that offers a solid bang for your buck, then you should check the HP OfficeJet Pro X576dw out.

Original article: http://o.canada.com/2013/08/25/hps-officejet-pro-x576dw-speed-and-cost-effectiveness-are-its-hallmarks/

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