Best HP printer buying guide

Now today we will show you Best HP printer (Hewlett-Packard (HP) is one of the most important printer manufacturing companies in the world. In his catalog there are products for all needs: from economical inkjet printers to laser printers for professional users. Without forgetting the multi-function devices indicated for the home, photo printers and portable printers to be used in the most disparate areas.

This wide range of choices, it must be said, does not make it easy to buy the “right” printer from those who are not very accustomed to the computer world, and this is why today I have decided to offer you a list with some of the best HP printers currently in stores, with prices, features and links for online purchases.

Carefully examine the technical specifications and functions of each of them and choose the one that seems best suited to your needs. You will certainly find something valid for the budget you have available and for your printing needs. Good reading and good “hunt” for the printer!

How to choose an HP printer

HP produces printers that are suitable for all types of users, from home to professional users. To untangle yourself in his immense catalog and find the right printer for you, you must learn to evaluate some technical features . Which? The ones you find listed below.

Printing Technology

HP printers can be based on inkjet technology , on laser or on sublimation heat . If you don’t know what I’m talking about and want to discover the major differences between all these technologies, read on.

Inkjet – this is the technology on which most printers for home use are based. Inkjet printers have the advantage of being very cheap, they are almost always in color and print excellent graphic content (provided they have a sufficient print resolution). On the other hand they are quite slow in the printing process and require a fairly frequent replacement of the cartridges.
Lasers – laser printers are generally more expensive than inkjet printers (although entry-level ones now cost very little) but they print incredibly faster. Monochromatic ones are still widespread, printing only in b / w. They are perfect for text documents, while they are backward in the reproduction of graphic contents compared to inkjet ones. Their toners require less frequent replacement than inkjet printer cartridges.
LED – LED printers are nothing more than laser printers that, having no moving parts to keep aligned (focusing lenses, lasers and moving mirrors), are more efficient and robust than traditional laser printers.
Sublimation – thermal sublimation printers are mainly used for printing photographs. They use heat to transfer color to plastic sheets or films made specifically for these purposes.

Monochrome or color printing

As mentioned above, Best HP printer inkjet printers are almost all in color, while inkjet printers can be monochrome or color .

Now, given that the color printers, whether they are inkjet or laser, can also print black and white content, for the production of predominantly textual content, I advise you to opt for a monochrome laser printer .

If, on the other hand, you need to print many color graphics, it is preferable to use an inkjet printer . If you need to print a mix of text documents and some undemanding graphic content, you can orient yourself towards color laser printers .

For photos, instead, you can buy printers dedicated to thermal sublimation or “settle” for an inkjet multi function with support for 10 × 15 cm and photo paper.

Best HP printer Multi function and portable printers

The multi function printers are nothing but printers with scanners and sometimes even fax. Their functions are printing, copying, scanning and, if the fax is present, also sending and receiving faxes. They can be inkjet or laser and support various paper sizes. It is important to note that monochrome multi function printers can scan color documents without any problems.

Another type of printer that you can find in the HP catalog is the portable one. The portable printers are distinguished from the traditional ones by their compactness – they can easily be carried around – and for their power supply, which can be carried out by battery. They are almost always wireless for mobile use via smartphones and tablets.

Wireless connectivity

Best HP printer Now wireless connectivity is an almost essential feature in printers. It allows you to send print commands from any device connected to the local network (eg computer, smartphone or tablet) and, if there is support for cloud printing services , even remotely.

Wireless printers often also support Wi-Fi Direct and NFC technology : two solutions that allow you to connect the printer and the devices from which the print command starts (eg smartphone and tablet) by creating a wireless network with hoc, therefore without inter mediation by a router.

Printers that do not offer Wi-Fi support can be used on the network by direct connection to the router (if equipped with a network port or USB port ) or through cloud printing services, such as Google Cloud Print , and the physical connection to a computer connected to the Internet.

Other wireless technologies that can be supported by printers are those owned by the various manufacturers of electronic devices, such as Apple’s Air Print that allows printing from iPad, iPhone and other devices made in Recuperation.

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Print speed and resolution

When you buy a Best HP printer, be it inkjet or laser, you have to look at its performance, then at the speed with which documents are printed and at the resolution of the prints it can produce.

The print speed can be expressed in ppm (pages per minute) or ipm (images per minute) and very often has a different value for pages made in b / w and those made in color.

The print resolution, instead, is expressed in DPI (dots per inch, dots per inch) and can have two different values: a basic one that represents the true resolution of the printer and a higher one that is obtained thanks to technologies for image enhancement. As easy to understand, the higher the print resolution and the sharper the documents printed on paper.

In addition to printing resolution, in multi function printers it is important to know the resolution of the scanner , which is also expressed in DPI and can also have two values: a basic one and a higher one, called “interpolated”, which is obtained thanks to image enhancement technologies.

On the performance of a printer – you need to know – the processor (CPU) and the RAM memory installed in the latter have a decisive influence . The processor, just like in computers or smartphones, is the one that processes all the operations to be performed, can have one or more calculation units (the so-called cores) and sees its operating frequency measured in MHz (consequently more cores and MHz there are and more powerful is the processor). The RAM , however, is measured in MB and in some printers can be expanded so as to increase the printing speed.

Supported paper formats

Most laser and inkjet printers support the classic A4 sheets and more compact sheets (eg A5 or A6 ), while support for larger sheet sizes (eg A3 ) is not always obvious. The same goes for photographic paper . If you have special needs regarding the paper sizes to be printed, make sure that the printer you are going to buy is able to meet them.

Other characteristics to take into consideration concern the capacity of the paper loading drawer , which can support a precise number of sheets at a time and a maximum weight , that is a maximum consistency of the paper, which is measured in g / m² .

Some printers also have a multi-purpose tray , which allows you to choose the paper format to be used for printing between various formats of sheets pre-loaded in the printer, and the ADF (automatic document feeder) , a component of multi function printers that allows to load the paper automatically into the scanner without having to manually change the sheets.

Other characteristics

Other features that you need to consider before buying an Best HP printer (or any other brand) printer are automatic front / back support , that is, the ability to print two sides of a sheet without having to manually turn the pages; the noise level of the printer; its energy consumption (a fundamental value if you intend to use the printer intensely and therefore keep it on for many hours a day); the monthly print cycle , which would be the maximum number of prints that can be made in a month without the printer technically “in trouble”; printer size and weight(taking into account the fact that inkjet printers are on average compact, while laser printers can be very bulky and heavy); the presence of a display , through which it is often possible to adjust all the printing parameters and order prints without going through the PC and the cost of replacement cartridges or toner , which can be really important for some printer models.

About cartridges and costs: I point out that HP has launched a program, called HP Instant Ink , through which, in exchange for a monthly fee of 2.99 euros, new cartridges are automatically obtained when those in use run out. . The service requires the printer to remotely communicate the ink levels of the cartridges to HP, so it is not available for all printer models.