HP OfficejetPro 8730 & HP OfficejetPro 8740 Review

THE RIGHT HP OFFICEJET FOR THE SOHO

There are two HP Officejet Pro All-In-One printers for the small office, the HP OfficejetPro 8730 and the HP OfficejetPro 8740. For the Home Office, there are also two models in the HP Officejet Pro 6000 All-In-One Printer Series, the HP Officejet 6956 All-In-One Printer and the HP Officejet Pro 6970 All-In-One Printer. All are low in price but high in features, so let’s take a look.

OVERVIEW - PRINTERS FOR THE HOME OFFICE

For the Home Office, both devices offer a full range of functions like printing, copying, scanning and fax, and both offer very high-quality colour and B&W prints at a price comparable to a laser printer when HP XL high yield printer cartridges are installed. Both offer a top-mounted Automatic Document Feeder (ADF), with a capacity of 35 sheets, as well as flatbed access for the scanning and copying functions. 

PAPER HANDLING

Paper handling for both MFPs is identical with a single input tray of up to 225 paper sheets ranging in size from A4 to A5, as well as a wide range of sizes and weights in cardstock and photo paper. The output tray has a capacity of up to 60 sheets. 

To further reduce printing costs, both models offer automatic double-sided printing. This can reduce paper costs by up to 50%. Although some specifications are shared, there is also a divergence in most areas to give the user the ability to choose the features that are important to them.

CONNECTIVITY

FUNCTION SPEED

HOW MUCH SPACE AND RUNNING COSTS

OVERVIEW - PRINTERS FOR THE SMALL OFFICE

Just because an office is small, it still needs to be big on productivity. To meet this demand, HP has recently released two Officejet Pro MFPs that print, copy, scan and fax - the HP Officejet Pro 8730 and 8740. The difference between the two is in the area of paper handling.

Both MFPs feature single-pass double-sided printing. Whilst most duplex printers print one side of the sheet first and then turns the sheet over and prints the second side, these models can use single-pass double-sided printing both sides of the sheet at the same time. This means that a double-sided print job is completed 4 times faster with single-sided duplexing than automatic duplexing.

Both MFPs have been designed to reduce the footprint of the unit, as well as the overall height to give the best performance in the smallest space.

The scan and copy functions can both be accessed by a flatbed or an ADF with a capacity of up to 50 sheets. Originals of up to 215 x 356mm can be copied or scanned from both the flatbed and the ADF. Originals to be scanned or copied can be reduced or enlarged by +- 25% to 400% and up to 99 copies made from one original. 

PAPER HANDLING

This is one area where the differences between the two models occur. The Officejet Pro 8730  has one 250 sheet paper tray as standard with a second tray as an option, whilst the Officejet Pro 8740 has two 250 sheet paper trays as standard.

The MFPs can print on a variety of paper sizes ranging from A6 up to A4 as well as a range of envelope sizes and cards. Media weights range from 60 to m105 gsm for paper, 220 to 280 gsm for photo paper, and from 163 to 200 gsm for cardstock.

The tray is adjustable to fit sizes ranging between 76 x 127 to 216 x 356 mm.

CONNECTIVITY

FUNCTION SPEED

HOW MUCH SPACE AND RUNNING COSTS