If you’re in the market for an inexpensive multifunction printer (MFP) that can handle tabloid (11- by 17-inch) or even supertabloid (13- by 19-inch) paper, add the HP Officejet 7610 Wide Format e-All-in-One Printer( at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) to your list of possibilities. It can handle tabloid size not just for printing, but for scanning too. It’s also affordable enough for a micro or home office, and a potentially good fit if you need the tabloid-size capability.

Like some other printers in its category, including the Brother MFC-J6510DW, the 7610 offers only a single paper tray, which means you can’t load letter and tabloid-size paper at the same time. That makes it best suited as a second printer, to supplement a letter-size model you already own.

If you don’t already have a letter-size printer, it will probably be cheaper to get a tabloid-size printer like the Editors’ Choice Brother MFC-J6710DW with two paper trays. If you’ve already invested in a letter-size printer, however, getting a single-tray tabloid-size printer like the 7610 can be the less expensive alternative.

Basics
Basic MFP features for 7610 include printing and faxing from, as well as scanning to, a PC, including over a network, and working as a standalone copier, fax machine, and direct email sender. (Oddly, HP doesn’t officially claim that the printer supports faxing over a network, but it worked in my tests.) The printer can also print from and scan to a USB key, and it offers a variety of mobile print features, including the ability to print through the cloud, print through a Wi-Fi connection using a Wi-Fi access point on your network, and print directly to the printer using HP’s equivalent of Wi-Fi Direct.

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4.0

Excellent

Brother MFC-J4710DW

$1,090.00

See It

at Amazon

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Read Our Brother MFC-J4710DW Review

Paper handling for printing is a bit of a mixed bag. The single tray, with no upgrade options, is an obvious limitation, but if you don’t have to swap the paper out very often, the 250-sheet capacity is easily enough for most small or home offices. The lack of a duplexer (for two-sided printing) may also be an issue. But if you need a duplexer, you have the option to add one ($49.95 direct). For scanning, the 35-sheet ADF is limited to simplex (single-sided) scans only, and to a maximum of legal-size paper. However, the flatbed can handle paper up to 11.7 by 17.0 inches.

Setup, Speed, and Output Quality
Setting up the printer is absolutely standard. For my tests, I connected it to a wired network and installed the drivers on a Windows Vista system.

The 7610’s Print speed is best described as acceptable, but no more than that. I timed it on our business applications suite (using QualityLogic’s(Opens in a new window) hardware and software for timing) at only 3.5 pages per minute (ppm). That makes a bit slower than the Brother MFC-J6510DW and MFC-J6710DW, which both came in at 4.1 ppm. It’s also a lot slower than the Editors’ Choice Brother MFC-J4710DW($1,090.00 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window), at 5.7 ppm.

The good news for the 7610 is that it scores a lot better on output quality than on speed. Text quality in my tests was just short of the best available from an inkjet MFP, making it easily good enough for almost any use. Graphics output was at the low end of par for an inkjet, making it good enough for any internal business need. Depending on how critical an eye you have, you may also consider it suitable for PowerPoint handouts or the like. Photo output was as good as you would expect from typical drugstore prints, making it true photo quality by definition.

As I’ve already pointed out, if you’re looking for a single printer for both legal- and letter-size printing, you’ll probably be better off with a model like the Brother MFC-J6710DW or the Brother MFC-J4710DW, both of which offer two paper trays. However, the MFC-J6710DW is more expensive than the 7610, and the MFC-J4710DW limits its scanning to a maximum of letter-size paper.

If you need to both print and scan at up to tabloid size, and even up to supertabloid size for printing, the HP Officejet 7610 Wide Format e-All-in-One Printer can be a more than reasonable pick. It can also be a cost-effective option, as a second printer for tabloid-size printing and scanning. However, one last issue that demands mention is that phone and email tech support is limited to one year. If you need support beyond that, you have pay for it. You’ll want to factor that into your decision as well.