HP Officejet Pro X576dw: Printing at Blazing Fast Speed

HP's latest Officejet Pro X576dw MFP is based on inkjet technology. The print quality is really good and the cost of printing has also been kept fairly low, making it a very attractive proposition for small and midsized enterprises. Larger organizations could also consider it for workgroups within their organization thanks to the MFP's great performance and robustness.

Design & Features: The X576dw is a workhorse that can print, copy, scan and fax, and is assisted by features like wireless & USB direct printing, e-print, mobile apps, Airprint, digital send, etc. It is able to work in both modes --simplex and duplex (automatic). Graced with a beautiful design and looks, the MFP also has great build quality that is sturdy enough to meet your expectations.

The MFP's control panel includes a 4.3 inch color & intuitive touchscreen that allows you to use every component of MFP in standalone mode. There are numerous videos available to help you if you get stuck somewhere, which I think is a great support to have, especially for novice users. Continuing HP's trend of smart install, the X576dw is very easy to install and doesn't require a separate driver CD.

The OfficeJet MFP is powered by 768 MB memory and a 792 MHz processor for fast job processing. Its input tray has an ample 500 pages holding capacity, while the output tray supports up to 300 pages. The 50 pages automatic document feeder (ADF) has been built-in for speeding up the job. For  connectivity, the X576 is well equipped with all options - USB, Ethernet, wireless, flash drive, smartphone, tablets and cloud.

Performance: We used a PC with 4GB RAM and Intel Core i3 processor to test the MFP, and we must say that it was one of the best performers we've ever seen. We used a standard A4 ISO page (ISO_IEC_24712 &  ISO_IEC_19752) for testing its capabilities. The performance results for both color and B/W pages was exactly the same. The ISO file sends 60 pages to the printing device. This MFP took 10 secs to print the first page, and clocked an overall print speed of 42 pages per minute! That's one of the best speeds we've experienced in an inkjet based MFP. Quality was also really good with crisp and clear text and rich and vibrant color graphics. The ink used in printing is pretty good quality.

In fact, we poured a glass of water over a print out and nothing happened to the colors. If we compare its performance against a color laser based MFP, like HP Laserjet Pro 300 M375nw (PCQ, JUNE 2013 issue), then the color quality might not be superior but it's much cheaper and the print speed is also much higher.

Other color laser MFPs, like Lexmark OfficeEdge Pro5500 & HP 6988 Deskjet Printer can print up to 40 ppm for monochrome prints, but their speed drops drastically to 25-26 ppm in color part. The cost of print per page is as low as Rs 1/page for this product.

The MFP's copying performance was exactly identical to its print  performance. It allows up to 99 copies and image scaling of 25% - 400% of its original size, which is a norm in every MFPs these days. Scanning was no different. It took 12 secs to scan an A4 page and about 19 secs to scan both sides of that page at 300dpi. Possible output formats available are .bmp, .jpg, .pdf, .png, .rtf, .txt and .tif with the input modes of scan to email, network folder, USB and PC. There's also an app available in HP apps for scanning the file to various locations.