HP Officejet 6600 e-All-in-One

Clearly meant primarily for office needs, as the name suggests, the HP Officejet 6600 e-All-in-One ($149.99 direct) inkjet MFP is hard to characterize in other ways. It uses a touch screen for its front panel controls, for example, so you can't say it's a minimalist design. However, it lacks a lot of common features like a USB type A port for PictBridge cameras or for printing from and scanning to USB keys, so you can't say its loaded with features. For the most part, however, it focuses on basics. And, no matter how you characterize it, it's a potentially good choice for micro, small, and home offices, or as a personal printer in any size office.

In some ways, the 6600 actually outperforms the slightly more expensive Editors' Choice HP Officejet 6700 Premium e-All-in-One ($169.99 direct, 4 stars). Despite HP rating it as slower than the 6700, it turned in a faster speed on our tests. It also delivered better quality text. However, it leaves out a lot of features you might want that the HP 6700 includes.

Although the 6600 offers Wi-Fi, for example, it lacks wired network support, which means you can't use it as a shared printer unless you have WiFi. And although it offers the same 250-sheet paper capacity as the HP 6700, which should be enough for most small offices, it leaves out a duplexer (for printing on both sides of a page).

Basics
Under the category of core MFP features, the 6600 can print and fax from, as well as scan to, a computer, and it can work as a standalone copier and fax machine. Among the few extras it adds is a 35-page automatic document feeder (ADF) to complement the letter-size flatbed and let you scan legal-size paper as well as stacks of pages.

Other extras, as indicated by the e in e-All-in-One, include support for Apple AirPrint and HP ePrint (HP's approach to printing through the cloud), and HP Web apps, including, for example, the Financial Times App (Free, 3.0 stars). However, you can't use any of these features if you connect the printer by its USB port rather than by WiFi. AirPrint requires a network with Wi-Fi (you can't connect directly to the printer) and ePrint as well as the Web apps require a direct Wi-Fi connection to a network that's connected to the internet.

Setup, Speed, and Output Quality
As with most inkjets in this price range, the 6600 is small enough to share a desk with comfortably. With the trays fully extended, it measures 9.9 by 18.3 by 21.9 inches (HWD), but the printer body is only about 11 inches deep.

For my tests, I connected by USB cable and installed the drivers on a system running Windows Vista. Physical setup is typical for an inkjet. Software installation is a little unusual, with the quick start guide sending you to the printer front panel. When you choose USB as the connection type, however, the front panel tells you to put the driver disc in your computer. The rest of the steps are standard fare.

I timed the printer on our business applications suite (using QualityLogic's hardware and software for timing), at an effective 3.7 pages per minute (ppm), which is a reasonable clip for an inkjet in this price range, and a touch faster than the HP 6700, at 3.4 ppm. As another point of reference, the 6600 is just a touch slower than the Editors' Choice Brother MFC-J825DW ($150 street, 4 stars) at 4.0 ppm. The 6600 also handles photos at acceptably, if not blazingly, fast speeds, averaging 1 minute 7 seconds for a 4-by-6 photo on our tests.

Along with its speed, the 6600 offers reasonably good output quality, especially for text. Some fonts in my tests qualified as highly readable even at 4 points, making it well above par for an inkjet. Unless you have an unusual need for small fonts and also demand laser quality crispness, you shouldn't have any complaints about the text output.

Graphics quality is at the bottom of a tight range where the vast majority of inkjet MFPs fall, and easily good enough for any internal business need. Depending on how much of a perfectionist you are, you may consider it good enough for handing out to important clients or customers when you need to convey a sense of professionalism. Photo quality is typical for an inkjet, which makes it roughly equivalent to what I expect to see from drug store prints.

I'd be more enthusiastic about this printer if it included at least one of three key features it lacks: wired network support, a duplexer, and a manual feed so you could print on a different paper stock more easily. If you never need to duplex, however, rarely change paper types, and either have WiFi on your network or don't need any of the features that depend on Wi-Fi, the reasonably fast speed and better than par output quality are enough to make the HP Officejet 6600 e-All-in-One a reasonable choice, and even a potentially attractive one.

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