HP OfficeJet Pro Premier Review

The HP OfficeJet Pro Premier is a feature-rich entry-level inkjet printer with just the right amount of speed, output quality to make an excellent value for small and home-based offices with light to medium-duty copy and print volume requirements. It provides exceptional value for its price and is a suitable replacement for one of our last year’s favorite, the HP Officejet 8710 printer.

Pros

• Simple yet appealing design
• Doesn’t easily run out of ink thanks to the instant ink sub
• Can print documents attached to email messages sent to the device
• Sleek touchscreen interface
• Front SD card and flash ports
• Self-Healing Wi-Fi
• Saves up space
• 250-page tray capacity
• Apps work efficiently

Cons

• Only one cartridge for all colored inks
• Pricey replacement ink
• Reduced Duplex speed

HP has for a while now been at the top of the printer industry, with printers for all types of use. The HP OfficeJet Pro 8710 was one of our favorites featuring competitive price, exceptional print quality, 2-sided ADF capability, efficient print speed, and NFC technology for wireless printing on PC and mobile phones.

The HP OfficeJet Pro Premier builds on that on literally every angle. From improved build quality to faster printing, scanning, built-in security, larger feeder trays, and general performance.

Right off the box, the HP OfficeJet Pro Premier offers faster printing at 22 pages per minute, automatic 2-sided copy and scan, a 35-page automatic document feeder. All these are similar to what the OfficeJet Pro 8710 has in its feature set. The major difference between the two though is HP improves the build quality on the Pro Premier.

Also, consistent users can subscribe to HP Instant ink monthly subscription program, which the printer is eligible for, to bring down the printing costs per page. Granted, the HP OfficeJet Pro Premier is a great printer with plenty to offer at an affordable price point. But at this price, there are other competing printers the Pro Premier has to swim upstream. Is it worth the price surge from the OfficeJet 8710, and how does it stack against other printers in its price range?

HP OfficeJet Pro Premier Specs

Print speed (Pages per minute)	22 ppm Black 18 ppm Color
Scan Speed	8 ipm black, 8 ipm color
Functions	Print, Scan, Copy, Fax
Cartridge	962, 962XL, 966XL
Input /output capacity	250 sheets, 60 sheets
Dimensions	17.28 x 13.46 x 10.94
Paper Storage Capacity	500 sheets
Auto Document Feeder	Single-Pass Dual-Sided
Maximum Recommended Monthly volume	2,000
Maximum Print Resolution	4800 x 1200 DPI
Special Features	Self-Healing WIFI, HP Instant Ink, HP Smart Tasks, and HP Smart App Compatibility.

Design and Features

HP has a reputation for making not only ingenious AIO desktops but also modern blend of printers. The HP OfficeJet Pro Premier is among the line of printers. NO one wants an unsightly printer mucking up their décor, so HP went all in for this one. The Pro Premier sports a two-tone blend of white and gun-metal gray chassis with almost 90-degree angled curves that give the look of class and professional use.

The HP OfficeJet Pro Premier follows the design of most HP printers which is what most consumers are accustomed to. This design has been proven and feels durable. However, expect the HP OfficeJet Pro Premier taking up a chunk of office space (if that’s the case).

Physically, it is identical to the OfficeJet 9025 printer with a few differences here and there. At 10.9 by 17.3 by 13.5 inches (HWD) and weighing 20 pounds, the Pro Premier is lighter than the 9025. The Brother’s MFC-L3770CDW and Canon’s ImageClass MF634Cdw (both great performers with competitive prices) are significantly more abundant in comparison.

The front face of the Pro Premier is highlighted by a 2.7-inch touchscreen that is the control panel of the printer. The panel has no supporting buttons or navigation keys. The panel allows you to control everything that you might want to configure or monitor from here. You can also access the control panel by going through HP’s Embedded Web Server which is loaded in the firmware on most company’s printers.

Same input and smaller output tray

Speaking of trays, HP revised this printer’s tray capacity such that it handles the same amount of papers, virtually half a rim (250 sheets input, 60 sheets). In practice, that is more than what the Officejet 6968 and 6978 offer at 225-sheets input and 60 sheets output. It is an improvement for HP in light of past printers; it is a downgrading compared to the OfficeJet 8710’s 150 sheets of output.

In comparison to the OfficeJet 9025 (500 sheets, 100 sheets), our unit falls behind in both input and output capacity.

Ports and Security

As with the 9025, there aren’t enough ports on printers compared to laptops and desktops. It’s not a surprise since printers only have 1 task to do. The Pro Premier contains a single USB port located at the lower left front for printing from a thumb drive. Also, the back part contains another USB and Ethernet port with wireless capability.

One of the modern features of this printer is it can connect to various cloud and social media sites via web apps on the control panel or the printer’s built-in HTTP server. Other features include server login and security update.

To top it off, The OfficeJet Pro Premier has an even more complex mobile connectivity section. It’s slightly above other office-centric AIO printers. Case in point, the Bluetooth 5 LE (low energy) is capable of more than a few simultaneous connections such as Wi-Fi Direct, Apple AirPrint, and Mopria. This Bluetooth allows all of these connections to print straight to the printer or through the internet through HP Smart App.

In short, you can use your iPhone or Android phone to print various documents via the HP Smart App.

Security

When it comes to safety, HP completely exceeded expectations. Instead of the old PINs and other convectional configurations, the printer has its own firewall. From the firewall, you can control access to various features, by IP address, or you can set-up a universal password to keep the printer for exclusive use and restrict access to outsiders.

All these are great features to have and a careful approach to security, which is impressive. However, I’m not convinced whether they’ll be suitable for the home-office setting. It’s more catered for a medium-sized company or small workgroup.

Fast and Reliable Performance

Print Speed

HP rates the HP OfficeJet Pro Premier at 22 ppm for a 2-sided copy and scan, which is 2 ppm slower than its successor 9025. That is 22ppm for black and 18 ppm for color copies. Ideally, that is just the same figure the HP OfficeJet Pro 8710 offered we honestly hope HP had improved the speed here as well. That also applies to the scan speed. Both printers offer a similar scan speed of 8 ipm in black and 8 ipm on a colored copy.

	HP OfficeJet Pro 8710	OfficeJet Pro 9015	HP OfficeJet Pro 9025
Functions	Scan, Print, Copy, Fax	Print, Scan, Copy, Fax	Fax, Print, Scan, Copy
Print Speed	22 ppm black, 18 ppm color	22 ppm black, 18 ppm color	24 ppm black, 20 ppm color
Scan Speed	8 ipm black, 8 ipm color	8 ipm black, 8 ipm color	15 ipm black, 8 ipm color
Input/output	250 sheets, 150 sheets	250 sheets, 150 sheets	250 sheets, 150 sheets

The OfficeJet also has a paper handling capacity of two 250-sheet trays and a single 60-sheet output tray which is pretty rich for an AIO printer at this price point. We noted that the output tray does, however, release less output capacity at 60 sheets compared to the predecessor’s 150 sheets. Also, one of the reasons print speed is at par with the premium InkJet printers, in this price range is thanks to the two-sided Automatic Document Feeder (ADF).

Print and scan Quality

The print quality of the OfficeJet Pro Premier is just as good as it is on the OfficeJet 9025. The text quality is impressive, almost as good as a color laser printer. The text output is well-shaped, very legible even on small fonts. You won’t see any excessive ink messing up the text even on reduced fonts. That in itself makes the printer a go-to-printer acceptable even for the most complicated business applications.

Most inkjets excel at printing photos that are at least at par with the quality you’d expect from your local drugstore. The OfficeJet Pro Premier does a decent job here as an in-house printer for printing a range of documents and as a photo printer.

However, while that is true, it’s not the perfect recommended photo printer for professional photographers. It just doesn’t have the essential photo-centric features for producing higher quality crisp photos. Higher-end models offer a wealth of features that make them excel at high-quality printing pictures.

Ink cost and Yield

These days, all four of the major inkjet printer makers offer discount solutions on many of their printers. If you have a regular print schedule and print enough, such discounts will save you money. For HP, those discount solutions come in the form of HP’s Instant Ink subscription.

The OfficeJet Pro Premier has one of the most highly-rated ink cartridges in the market. Using the high yield cartridge, for example, running costs for monochrome printing are 1.8 cents and 8.3 cents on coloring pages. Which gives the OfficeJet Pro Premier an edge over entry-level color laser printers.

Cartridge	MSRP	Page Yield	Cost Per Page
962 Black	$32.89	1,000	$0.03
962 Color	$22.89 for each color	700	$0.10
962 XL Black	$44.89	2,000	$0.02
962 XL Color	$34.89 for each color	1,600	$0.07
966 XL Black	$60.99	3,000	$0.02

The HP OfficeJet Pro Premier is also Instant Ink eligible which gives you the option to subscribe to the Ink Serve whenever. With a 700-page cartridge subscription, it will cost you $19.95, which translates to 2.9 cents. That’s very cheap compared to other ink solutions. However, after the 700 pages, it will cost you 5 cents for each page.

To sum it up, if most of your printing is done in monochrome, then it’s a poor option. However, if you rarely print monochrome and instead only use colored print, then that is a great deal. Printing out a color-rich and sophisticated Acrobat, Excel, and PowerPoint document with charts, graphs, and other business graphs is an excellent example of what might benefit from multi-color printing.

Conclusion

The most significant strife the HP OfficeJet Pro Premier comes with is that it has just a single input source. Other negligible reasons could be the lower output capacity level (60 sheets), which fortunately is no reason not to buy. Otherwise, if you’re looking for a fast, affordable printer, prints quality output and has low running costs, then the OfficeJet Pro Premier fits perfectly.

If you need more paper capacity, the OfficeJet Pro 9025 comes with 500-sheet capacity (two 250-sheet paper trays), but you will have to shell out a few more dollars. Otherwise, if your printing needs are more low-toned and in-house, the OfficeJet Pro Premier is an affordable option with enough muscle to pull through.