HP OfficeJet Pro L7780 – Compelling All-In-One

Pros

The HP OfficeJet Pro L7780 is an all-in-One printer offering plethora of decent office-oriented features like an en suite ADF, Digital Filing, media card slots; a duplexer; fast-enough print speeds for small workgroups; superb print quality and low print costs.

Cons

The HP OfficeJet Pro L7780’s photo menu could easily have been a tad more spontaneous and the grayscale scan of the printer can use a little bit of improvement.

Introduction

The HP OfficeJet Pro L7780 belongs to the all new office-oriented inkjet series from HP including printer models like L7500/L7600/L7700. Like all the other all-in-one printers of its class, this printer also comes with plethora of office oriented features such as high-quality prints, lots of features and fast print speeds. The OfficeJet Pro L7780 we are reviewing here is a step up from the base L7580 base model, but the print quality and print speed of the printer is similar to all the other printers of its class, as it also uses the same print engine. Most of the all-in-one office printers we’ve reviewed are intended towards small offices or home, but the OfficeJet Pro L7780 is targets the medium work groups or businesses, with its scan-to-network functionality, monthly suggested volume of 7,500 pages and built-in networking.

Design

The HP OfficeJet Pro L7780 all-in-one printer is a large printer covered mainly in black, unlike the other white and putty colored home printers we’ve seen from HP. The printer measures 25.4 inches deep by 20.9 inches wide by 14 inches tall and weighs around 35 pounds. The dimensions for the other printers of its class might vary, because of its extra paper trays. The printer comes with a 50 page automatic document feeder (ADF) mounted on its top to let you copy, fax multipage documents or scan, without having to take care of the job. The ADF for the printer is positioned on the scanner lid, opening which reveals a legal-size flatbed scanner.  For PC free printing the printer from USB storage devices, PictBridge-enabled cameras or media cards, the printer comes with a PictBridge-enabled USB port and Built-in media card readers.

The paper options here are really limited as the printer comes with a single paper tray with the storage capacity of 250 sheets, but you can buy an optional second tray, which comes with the paper capacity of 350 sheets. The output prints are collected in the output tray positioned on top of the output tray which is positioned on top of the input tray. The output tray for the printer easily flips to facilitate easy paper loading.

Like the other printers of this series the control panel for L7780 is also huge, but organized, the buttons on the printer are paired by task. Some of the general tasks like copy enlarge or reduce and fax redial also has dedicated buttons to provide you quick access to those functions. The centerpiece on the control panel is a 2.4-inch color display on which you can edit and preview peruses several menus and at the same time can also edit photos. There also is an alphanumeric keypad which lets you dial number of copies you intend to make and to dial the fax numbers.

The OfficeJet Pro L7780 comes with plenty of office features, which makes it a handy office printer. The OfficeJet Pro L7780 is a network ready printer, but you can also connect it straight through USB. HP also offers a Bluetooth adapter to facilitate wireless printing and an optional wireless print server. The printer also can scans, prints, faxes and copies. There also is an en suite duplexer offering automatic double-sided prints, which will help you save a lot of money and paper.

System Configuration

Price: $395.00 – $470.98
Manufacturer: HP
Part Number: C8192A
Printer Type: All-in-one printer
Inkjet Technology: HP Thermal Inkjet
Operating System Supported: Microsoft Windows XP, Linux, Microsoft Windows 2000, Apple Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Editions and Microsoft Windows Vista
Dimensions (W x D x H): 20.9 x 19.1x 17.5 in

System weight: 40.8 lbs
Microsoft Certifications: Works with Windows Vista
Included Accessories: Ethernet cable & Phone cable
PC Connection: IEEE 802.11b, Hi-Speed USB, Ethernet 10 Base-T/100 Base-TX and IEEE 802.11g
Supported Media Type: Banner, Cards, Envelopes, Labels, Plain paper, Photo paper, Transparencies and Greeting cards
Software Included: Drivers & utilities
Supported Flash Memory: Memory Stick, CompactFlash, SD Memory Card, MultiMediaCard and xD-Picture Card
Service & Support Details: One year Limited warranty

Performance

The HP OfficeJet Pro L7780 delivered decently fast performance in our lab testing. The printer delivered black test at the rate of 10.22 ppm (pages per minute), while for the mixed page of color and text graphics the printer delivered prints at the speed of 5.45ppm. The printer printed a 4×6 size photo at a rate of 1.44ppm, but the print times for the printer improved while printing a lot of 10 photos and the printer delivered speed of 1.82ppm. If you need faster prints or want to print more than 7,500 pages per month, then it’s better to go for a multifunction laser printer.

The printer delivered best print quality on coated inkjet paper, even the text prints delivered by the printer had almost laser quality; the texts printed where sharp, consistent, clean, and even the black offered here was rich. The quality for the color-graphics print was also excellent, with really pleasant color saturation, smooth gradients, and outstanding color reproduction in the photo elements. We did saw some small unevenness in the curved black lined, but that was our only problem here. The print quality for the 4×6 photo prints was pleasing as well, and the prints showed decent sharp details and high-quality color reproduction.

Support

The HP OfficeJet Pro L7780 all-in-one printer gets one year standard warranty from HP. This is equal to the one-year warranty offered by its rivals, though there is an option of buying extended warranty. You get toll-free telephone support 24×7 for free, during the warranty period. Ford further support there is HP’s Web site offering downloadable software, manuals and drivers; there also is an option of online chat and e-mail to tech support; some other support includes a troubleshooting guide and FAQs.

Word from the Experts

The HP OfficeJet Pro L7780 is a compelling all-in-one printer for small work groups or businesses with plethora of office-oriented features, great print quality and fast prints. We completely recommend this printer.